Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative
Attendance Focus: August-October 2022
Research Summary
| Research reference (with link) |
| Healthy Minds- Education Endowment Foundation
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| Research methodology / Data Collection methods |
| The Healthy Minds course aimed to improve health related outcomes for teenagers in the UK. The course was made up of 14 modules, totalling 113 hours and delivered to pupils aged 11-15. The 14 modules were developed from elements of different evidence-based health-promoting programmes. The lessons, which were taught directly by a trained teacher or a learning support assistant, took about one hour per week, and either replaced schools’ existing PSHE lessons, or could be built into the school week at other times. It was delivered to pupils over four years, from Years 7 to 10 (covering ages 11 to 15). The trial started in schools in September 2013 and ended in July 2018. Thirty-four schools were recruited over two phases, 13 in 2013 and a second group of 21 in 2014. Five of the control schools from phase one of the trial were assigned to receive the intervention in the second phase, meaning that there was a total of 39 cohorts.
This evaluation focused on health outcomes as measured by the Child Health Questionnaire-CF87 (CHQ-CF87) (Schmidt, Garrett and Fitzpatrick, 2002). The primary outcome measure was the single scale of self-assessed general health drawn from the CHQ-CF87. Twelve other scales were evaluated as part of this study as secondary outcomes, alongside other validated scales (the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, the life satisfaction 0-10 ladder and the Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED)). Outcomes were measured after both two years and four years of the programme. A second evaluation conducted by a team at NIESR includes both an impact evaluation looking at academic outcomes and an Implementation and Process Evaluation. This was published in 2020. Overall, Healthy Minds has had some positive impact on health-related outcomes without compromising academic attainment and possibly supporting reducing absenteeism and exclusions. |
| Key relevant findings |
| Pupils in schools that received the Healthy Minds programme had higher average self-assessed general health (0.25 standard deviations i.e., above the arithmetic mean) compared to similar pupils in other schools after four years. This finding has moderate to high security.
The evaluation also measured pupils’ self-assessed general health after two years of the programme and found a similar impact (0.23 standard deviation difference). Secondary outcomes associated with physical health, behaviour and external relations were generally positive. Measures of internalised emotions (Emotional Difficulties, Self-Esteem, and Mental Health) were mainly close to zero and positive after four years of the programme, but in some cases were negative when collected after two years of the programme. Further research is ongoing to ascertain whether the optimum time for implementation is two or four years. The approximate cost of implementation was £23.50 per pupil per year. The programme requires 7 days of teacher training. It is possible to change the ‘Health Related Quality of Life’ of the treated regardless of their starting point. |
| Questions research raises |
| Are there any extractable key aspects from this intervention which were the most impactful- i.e. Can such an intervention be fragmented, or does it have to be delivered as a whole?
How would you implement this across your specific setting- what would the model of operation look like, who would staff it and what would the accommodation look like for this? How and to whom would you report impact? What would your criteria be for selecting the participants? How would you measure and demonstrate this intervention’s impact on attendance?
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| Follow up reading suggestions |
| Perry Preschool program in Heckman, Pinto, and Savelyev (2013)
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