Challenges and opportunities for social work practice in mental health and wellbeing support for care-experienced children and young people in schools and colleges in Wales

Description

This presentation will include findings from ‘Wellbeing in Schools and Colleges (WiSC)’, an empirical research study in Wales, where the objective was to understand stakeholder experiences of delivering and receiving mental health and wellbeing provision for care-experienced children and young people (CYP) in secondary schools and FE Colleges, in order to develop recommendations to enhance service quality and ensure equitable access. In particular, it explored the relationships between social workers, school and college staff, mental health professionals, and care-experienced CYP and how they impacted on delivery and receipt of wellbeing provision. The focus of the presentation will be on the qualitative findings from this mixed methods study including case studies with secondary schools, FE colleges, social care teams, and mental health teams. Firstly, study themes relating to care-experienced CYP’s mental health and wellbeing needs and how schools and colleges try to meet these needs will be explored. Then themes relating to the role of cross-professional boundary working between social care and education staff will be discussed, including the challenges and opportunities of working in this way and how they differ according to age and care experience, e.g. foster care and kinship care. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for practice and policy in relation to care-experienced CYP’s mental health and wellbeing in educational settings and as they transition between them.

Presenter: Dr. Sarah MacDonald, Research Associate, DECIPHer Research Centre, Cardiff University.