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Social and emotional wellbeing for children and young people
Short Text
Introduction
This pathway covers recommendations to improve or ensure the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. They are for:
- vulnerable children aged under 5 years (and their parents)
- all children and young people in primary and secondary education.
Social and emotional wellbeing is important in its own right, but also because it affects physical health and can determine how well children and young people do in their early years and at school.
Good social, emotional and psychological health helps protect against emotional and behavioural problems, violence and crime, teenage pregnancy and the misuse of drugs and alcohol .
Social and emotional wellbeing is influenced by a range of factors, from individual make-up and family background to the community within which people live and society at large.
Vulnerable children aged under 5 years
Knowledge of the complex range of factors that impact on social and emotional development may help encourage investment at a population level in early interventions. This would ensure children (and families) who are most likely to experience the poorest outcomes get the help they need early on in their lives.
Knowledge of these factors, aside, practitioners' experience and expertise will be paramount in assessing the needs and risks of individual children and their families.
The recommendations for vulnerable under-5s and their parents are aimed at all those responsible for ensuring the social and emotional wellbeing of these children. This includes those planning and commissioning children's services in local authorities (including education), the NHS, and the community, voluntary and private sectors.
Children and young people in primary and secondary education
Activities in primary and secondary education can only form one element of a broader, multi-agency strategy to promote and support social and emotional wellbeing.
These recommendations put the emphasis on ensuring children and young people can participate fully in the development of relevant programmes. They are aimed at everyone with public health as part of their remit working in education, local authorities, the NHS and the wider public, independent, voluntary and community sectors.
Source guidance
The NICE guidance that was used to create the pathway.
Social and emotional wellbeing: early years. NICE public health guidance 40 (2012)
Social and emotional wellbeing in secondary education. NICE public health guidance 20 (2008)
Social and emotional wellbeing in primary education. NICE public health guidance 12 (2008)
Quality standards
Quality statements
Effective interventions library
Successful effective interventions library details
Implementation
Costing support
Costing support includes national cost impact reports that summarise the national costs and savings and discuss the assumptions used; costing templates to assess the impact on local budgets; and costing statements when the impact is not significant or impossible to quantify at a national level.
Information resources and templates
These include key points for scrutiny or compliance assessment, signposting to resources, checklists and case studies. They are designed to offer practical help in putting NICE guidance into practice and the format depends on the specific topic.
Slide sets
Slide sets provide a framework for discussion and assist in local dissemination of the guidance. The slides contain the key messages from NICE guidance and can be tailored for local presentations.
Pathway information
National initiatives
The recommendations complement existing national initiatives to promote social and emotional wellbeing within: Healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health in England; No health without mental health; and the schools white paper.
The recommendations for secondary education establishments also help them to meet their statutory responsibilities to promote social and emotional wellbeing and to provide personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.
Home visiting, early education and childcare
The recommendations on home visiting, early education and childcare for vulnerable children:
- Adopt a 'life course perspective', recognising that disadvantage before birth and in a child's early years can have life-long, negative effects on their health and wellbeing.
- Focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of vulnerable children as the foundation for their healthy development and to offset the risks relating to disadvantage. This is in line with the overarching goal of children's services, that is, to ensure all children have the best start in life.
- Aim to ensure universal services, as well as more targeted services, provide the additional support all vulnerable children need to ensure their mental and physical health and wellbeing. (Key services include maternity, child health, social care, early education and family welfare.)
- Should be used in conjunction with local child safeguarding policies.
The term 'vulnerable' is used to describe children who are at risk of, or who are already experiencing, social and emotional problems and who need additional support.
Vulnerable children under 5
A number of factors may contribute, to varying degrees, to making a child vulnerable to poor social and emotional wellbeing. In addition, a child's circumstances may vary with time. However, in this pathway vulnerable children include those who are exposed to:
- parental drug and alcohol problems
- parental mental health problems
- family relationship problems, including domestic violence
- criminality.
They may also include those who:
- are in a single parent family
- were born to parents aged under 18 years
- were born to parents who have a low educational attainment
- were born to parents who are (or were as children) looked after (that is, they have been in the care system)
- have physical disabilities
- have speech, language and communication difficulties.
These indicators can be used to identify groups of children under 5 who are likely to be vulnerable. However, not all of these children will in fact be vulnerable – and others, who do not fall within these groups, could have social and emotional problems.
Updates to this pathway
24 October 2012 Social and emotional wellbeing: early years (NICE public health guidance 40) added to social and emotional wellbeing for children and young people: strategy, policy and commissioning and social and emotional wellbeing among vulnerable children aged under-5: home visiting, early education and childcare.
Supporting information
Glossary
Children who are exposed to difficult situations such as bullying or racism, or who are coping with socially disadvantaged circumstances, are at higher risk of anxiety, emotional distress and behavioural problems. They may include: looked-after children (including those who have subsequently been adopted), those living in families where there is conflict or instability, those who persistently refuse to go to school, those who have experienced adverse life events (such as bereavement or parental separation), and those who have been exposed to abuse or violence.
Baby massage techniques are interventions to promote infant massage. Benefits are reported to include improvements in parent and/or child sleep patterns, their interaction and relationship.
Safeguarding policies and activities aim to ensure children receive safe and effective care, are protected from maltreatment and have their health and development needs met. Legislation and related policies describe how individuals and agencies should work together to safeguard children.
The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is the UK name for the US-developed Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). The partnership provides an intensive, structured home-visiting programme for young, first-time mothers from a disadvantaged background and their partners. The emphasis is on building a strong relationship between a specially trained (family) nurse and the parents. Support is available from early pregnancy until the child is aged 2 years. The aim is to improve pregnancy outcomes, the child's health and development and the parents' economic self-sufficiency.
A joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) provides a profile of the health and social care needs of a local population. JSNAs are used as the basis for developing joint health and wellbeing strategies.
In the context of this guidance, 'readiness for school' refers to a child's cognitive, social and emotional development. Development during the child's early years may be achieved through interaction with their parents or through the processes of play and learning.
Secondary education refers to all education establishments for young people aged 11–19 years including further education colleges, technology colleges, academies and private sector establishments.
A targeted service may be distinct from, or an adaptation of, a universal service. For example, a tailored home visiting programme by a nurse, midwife or health visitor may be provided for young parents from a disadvantaged background. This would be separate from the universal home visiting service provided for all new families and might, for example, include longer sessions, goal setting and a range of specific interventions.
Primary care services including those offered by GPs, paediatricians, health visitors, school nurses, social workers, teachers, juvenile justice workers, voluntary agencies and social services.
Child and adolescent mental health services relating to workers in primary care. It includes: clinical child psychologists, paediatricians with specialist training in mental health, educational psychologists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, child and adolescent psychotherapists, counsellors, community nurses/nurse specialists and family therapists.
Universal approaches are curriculum-based programmes and other activities aimed at developing the social and emotional competence of all students.
Universal interventions are curriculum-based programmes and other activities aimed at developing the social and emotional competence of all students.
Universal services, such as general education and healthcare services, are available to everyone. For all children aged up to 5 years, universal provision includes: maternal healthcare, midwife home visits soon after birth and routine health visitor checks..
Interactions between a parent or carer and a child are recorded using audio visual equipment. This is later viewed and discussed, typically with a health or social care professional. Parents and carers are given a chance to reflect on their behaviour, with the focus on elements that are successful. The aim is to improve their communications and relationship with their child.
A number of factors may contribute, to varying degrees, to making a child aged under 5 vulnerable to poor social and emotional wellbeing. In addition, a child's circumstances may vary with time. However, in this pathway vulnerable children include those who are exposed to:
- parental drug and alcohol problems
- parental mental health problems
- family relationship problems, including domestic violence
- criminality.
They may also include those who:
- are in a single parent family
- were born to parents aged under 18 years
- were born to parents who have a low educational attainment
- were born to parents who are (or were as children) looked after (that is, they have been in the care system)
- have physical disabilities
- have speech, language and communication difficulties.
These indicators can be used to identify groups of children under 5 who are likely to be vulnerable. However, not all of these children will in fact be vulnerable – and others, who do not fall within these groups, could have social and emotional problems.
The term whole-school is commonly used to refer to organisation-wide approaches in schools.
Recommendations on strategy, policy and commissioning for those involved in promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people
Vulnerable children under 5
Commissioning universal and targeted services
Assessing social and emotional wellbeing
Reviewing plans and programmes to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of vulnerable under-5s
Children in primary education
Adopting a whole-school approach
Supporting a stepped care approach
Accessing specialist skills and advice
Children in secondary education
Adopting an organisation-wide approach
Developing leadership skills and access to specialist support
Paths in this pathway
- Social and emotional wellbeing for children and young people: strategy, policy and commissioning
- Social and emotional wellbeing of vulnerable children aged under 5: home visiting, early education and childcare
- Social and emotional wellbeing in primary education
- Social and emotional wellbeing in secondary education
Pathway created: December 2011 Last updated: October 2012
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