Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer Programme – Interim report

The BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre and Policy Innovation and Evaluation Unit have published initial findings from the early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme.

The evaluation is exploring the experiences of the first wave of mental health support teams and education mental health practitioners, which are working with more than a thousand schools and colleges across England. The interim report shares the findings from surveys, interviews and an analysis of programme monitoring data.

The key findings include:

• Schools and colleges welcomed the funding of additional capacity to provide in-house mental health support, and the programme’s focus on prevention and early intervention.
• Participants raised concerns about remaining gaps in support, especially for children and young people whose needs were not ‘mild to moderate’ (the group that the teams are designed to support) but also not serious enough to meet the referral criteria for specialist services.
• The new education mental health practitioner (EMHP) role and training programme had proven popular, but retaining EMHPs once in the post was widely reported as a challenge

Further information about the evaluation can be found here. The final report from the early evaluation will be published in the summer of 2022

BRACE PIRU CYPMH Trailblazer interim report summary_FINAL_9.7.21

BRACE PIRU CYPMH Trailblazer interim report general infographic_FINAL_9.7.21