Why invest in supporting the students’ SEMH using the ELSA programme?

Why invest in training of Learning Support Assistants/Teaching Assistants?

TAs are indispensable in our schools. Schools in England employ 380,000+ TAs with the average school spend on TAs being about £200,00 per year. This makes sense given how TAs are deployed can have a significant impact on the outcomes of pupils1. But in order to ensure positive impacts TAs require ongoing CPD, support, and resources. This includes their role in supporting the wellbeing of students both with and without known SENDs1. Building skills in-house means that support is dynamic and responsive to the ‘real time’ needs of children and young people.

Why invest in supporting the students’ SEMH using the ELSA programme?

School guidance (2, 3, 4, 5) and research (such as a report highlighting 10 percent of CYP aged 5 to 16 have a diagnosable “mental health disorder” (6)), solidifies the need for preventative and proactive support for CYP’s mental health. This is now further visible and pressing since the COVID pandemic. For example, in 2020 one in six 5 to 16 year olds were found to have a “probable mental health disorder” compared to one in nine in 2017 (14) and Year 7-9 pupils exposed to the pandemic had significantly more depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction (15). When looking towards school-based support for student mental health, the DfE (3) stated, “the strongest evidence supports prevention/early intervention approaches” particularly at a primary school age (p.39). 

Often those best placed to provide this sensitive support are professionals who have a familiarity with the school and children, such as LSAs. It has been found LSAs are most effectively utilised in the targeted deployment at an individual and small-group level and whilst LSAs CPD is invested in1. This is where the ELSA programme is key. It trains and upskills LSAs to become ELSAs who can provide emotional support to students whilst they receive ongoing supervision involving the expertise of other ELSAs and EPs. This is with the aim of directly improving pupils’ emotional and social outcomes and other school-based outcomes, indirectly. 

It is clear student wellbeing and mental health is of increasing priority in schools and trusts, where the remit of supporting the complex emotional needs of students continues to develop. For example, a national survey of pupils in their final year of primary school (7) found almost two-thirds of children “worry all the time about at least one thing to do with their school life, home life or themselves” (p.1). Things that caused children to worry ‘all the time’ or ‘a lot’ included family (54%), friends being okay (48%), not doing well at school (40%), and bad things happening in the world (40%); with 1 in 5 children did not know what to do when worried. 

But early support during childhood, such as in school, can prevent a large proportion of adult mental health problems (8). This is where programmes such as ELSA are important as they offer an evidence-based model that helps settings more sustainably support wellbeing alongside existing initiatives such as Senior Mental Health Leads, whilst following an “assess, plan, do, review” model (4). This can further inform future school improvements to more proactively support their students’ mental health. 

The ELSA programme works to provide personalised interventions that promote emotional wellbeing and reduce/prevent mental health issues in children (9). These children are often identified as being at risk of emotional challenges. The programme includes the training of school staff over six days, which covers a range of areas including friendships, social skills, self-esteem, anger, and bereavement or loss. 

Research continues to champion the impact of the ELSA programme, highlighting positive outcomes for ELSAs, specifically their self-efficacy to support the emotional needs of primary school students (10, 11), and for pupils, for instance in improving their emotional wellbeing, attainment, attendance and adaptive behaviours (11, 12, 13).

The training of ELSAs has become more accessible and can be delivered online. Ready to explore training for your support staff? Check-out our LSA/TA training courses.

Sources:

1 The Education Endowment Foundation 

2 Gov.uk (2017). The Children and Social Work Act.

3 DfE. (2016). Mental health and behaviour in Schools: Departmental advice for school staff (2nd ed.).

4 DoH. (2015). Future in Mind. Promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. 

5 DfE. (2014). Mental health and behaviour in Schools: Departmental advice for school staff (1st ed.).

6 Green, H., McGinnity, A., Meltzer, H., Ford, T., & Goodman, R. (2005). Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain. Office for National Statistics, UK 

7 Place2Be (2017) Children’s Mental Health Week Survey.

8 Kim-Cohen, J., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Harrington, H., Milne, B. J., & Poulton, R. (2003). Prior juvenile diagnoses in adults with mental disorder: developmental follow-back of a prospective-longitudinal cohort. Archives of general psychiatry, 60(7), 709-717.

9 Burton, S. (2008). Empowering learning support assistants to enhance the emotional wellbeing of children in school. Educational & Child Psychology, 25 (2), 40-56. 

10 Rees, C. (2016). The Impact of Emotional Literacy Support Assistant Training on Teaching Assistants’ Own Trait-Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy and Their Perceptions in Relation to Their Future Role. D.EdPsy thesis, Cardiff University.

11 Bravery, K., & Harris, L. (2009). Emotional Literacy Support Assistants in Bournemouth: Impact and Outcomes. 

12 Burton, S., Osborne, C. & Norgate, R. Hampshire Educational Psychology Service: Research and Evaluation Unit. (2010). An evaluation of the impact of the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) project on pupils attending schools in Bridgend.

13 Hampshire Educational Psychology Service (2009). An Evaluation of the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) Programme.

14 NHS (2020) Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, Wave 1 follow up to the 2017 survey.

15 DfE (2022) The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health.

Making the best use of teaching assistants EEF Guidance Report (https://maximisingtas.co.uk/assets/content/taguidancereportmakingbestuseofteachingassisstants.pdf

MITA evaluation (https://maximisingtas.co.uk/impact.php)

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