Mental Health and Wellbeing: HeadStart Cohort, 2017-2021

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This study contains data from a national evaluation of the HeadStart programme. HeadStart was a 6-year, £67.4 million programme set up by TNCLF, which started in 2016 and aimed to explore and test new ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people aged 10–16 and prevent serious mental health issues from developing. The six HeadStart partnerships were based in Blackpool, Cornwall, Hull, Kent, Newham and Wolverhampton. As a test and learn programme, the HeadStart programme ended in July 2022, with many of the approaches having been sustained and embedded locally. The national evaluation of HeadStart was completed in May 2023.

During each year of HeadStart, young people from schools involved in the HeadStart programme completed survey questionnaires. The survey contained the following measures: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale; Student Resilience Survey; Self-regulation subscale of TEIQue-ASF; and a 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale. Young carer status was measured using the following question: "Young carers are children and young people under 18 who provide regular or ongoing care to a family member who has an illness, disability, mental health condition or drug/alcohol dependency."

The survey collection in 2021 also included questions about gender and sexual identity (only completed by Year 11s), as well as information on adolescents' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (completed by Year 9s and 11s).

Data were collected from two samples. Sample 1 comprised all children and young people in HeadStart settings who were in the Year 7 age group in 2016/17. These children were followed up annually in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11. This allowed longitudinal analysis based on the same children over time to examine whether there are any changes in outcomes for this group over time. Sample 2 comprised repeated snapshot measurements year-on-year of pupils in Year 9. These data allow examination of change in the same age group over time, which can provide information on co-occurring developmental changes.

Further information can be found in the documentation and on the TNLCF HeadStart webpages.