Adela Kay, Assistant Headteacher at Aspire Virtual School, has conducted in-depth research on a variety of pressing issues affecting children and young people within our community.
For June’s research, Adela explores key topics including child sexual exploitation, the impact of creative interventions for vulnerable pupils, experiences of looked after children, adolescent mental health and mobile phone use, early years development, and community-based safeguarding models. Below, you’ll find summaries and links to research and resources intended to support professionals working with children and young people.
Child Sexual Exploitation
The Home office has published an audit of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse and the government has already responded, accepted the recommendations and stated how they will adapt the law to meet them. The full audit can be found here:
📌 Find out more here:
📌 National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – GOV.UK
📌 Summary of the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – NSPCC
📌 Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – GOV.UK
Creative Interventions
Creative Interventions for children and young people with care experience or those experiencing broader disadvantage. I have put this report from Coram Institute for Children in here particularly in light of the recent work at Eastbury Manor and My Space thinking about how our most tricky benefit so much from creative opportunities and maybe sometimes don’t get access to those opportunities. This report includes practice, policy and research recommendations, although some of them have cost implications which in the current financial climate may be tricky to find.
📌 Find out more here: The efficacy of creative interventions with children and young people experiencing disadvantage – Coram
Looked After Children
These videos are good reminders of some of the issues our young people face before they come through the school gates. They cover all sorts of aspects of care experience and whilst some of them are aimed to be used with young people in teaching I think from a professional’s point of view they are really helpful focussing points for thinking about this cohort and in fact the wider social care cohort.
📌 Find out more here:
📌 The impact of going into foster care. Supporting care-experienced children: Tai’s Story – BBC Teach
📌 Being moved around the care system. Supporting care-experienced children: Elliot’s Story – BBC Teach
📌 How can we do more to support care-experienced children? – BBC Teach
Mobile Phone Use in Adolescence
Many people will be aware that the secondary headteachers have sent a letter banning smart phones from the next cohort of year 7s. In light of that but also in light of growing research I wanted to highlight both the news article and the research behind it to you linking increased suicidal ideation and poor mental health with mobile phone addiction.
This also comes off the back of research for recent televised studies which showed the impact of phone removal on young people and this research from last August in the UK by the National Institute for Health and Care Research linking phone use to anxiety.
📌 Read here:
📌 Teenagers who report addictive use of screens at greater risk of suicidal behaviour, study shows – The Guardian
📌 Teenagers with problematic smartphone use are twice as likely to have anxiety – NIHR
Together for Childhood
There has been an evaluation of the Together for Childhood. I was particularly interested in the work in Grimsby and Glasgow where the focus was on prevention of child abuse and neglect but the two other pilots in Plymouth and Stoke were focussed on the prevention of child abuse.
I particularly liked the Grimsby model which was place based and encompasses community context and the relationships across communities. I liked this particularly when I was thinking about the work of the family hubs but also some of the social pedagogy ideas we used in the context of the Inclusion Pledge too.
📌 Read the report: Case studies from the developmental evaluation of Together for Childhood | NSPCC Learning
Early Years Personal Social and Emotional Development
The EEF have published a review of PSED techniques to support transitions in Early Year’s settings, The key findings are:
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Evidence consistently shows that educators can implement approaches that benefit young children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED).
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Using multiple approaches together is likely to aid the development of young children’s PSED.
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There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that individual approaches, such as teaching and modelling managing emotions and maintaining positive relationships can also have a positive impact. However, more research is needed.
In the context of the vulnerable cohort, these techniques are even more important particularly if relationships at home are more erratic and less regulated than one would hope for, modelling and supporting more regulated ones is essential.
📌 Find out more here: EEF | Personal Social and Emotional Development
Best wishes,
Adela
