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Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools
Welcome to the SHINE February 2025 Newsletter
- Invitation to participate in new survey to understand current practice around Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance ( ABSAIL project)
- ABSAIL policy mapping executive summary
- IMPORTANT - closure of existing SHINE digital folders by 14th March 2025
- Including young people in health research - £100 for participating pilot schools
- Registration for the SHINE National Network Conference 2025
- Other research events, resources and opportunities:
- Generation Scotland: support young people to take part in health research
- What are the Top 10 questions about Mental Health, Sleep & the Body Clock?
- Seeking a teacher to contribute to a steering group for a research study investigating social networking and tobacco use among young people
- Invitation to join study on the impact of Long Covid in teaching and other public service occupations in Scotland
Invitation to participate in a new survey to understand current practice around Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance
We would like to invite senior and middle school leaders with a responsibility for attendance from your school to participate in an online survey to explore current practice in relation to EBSNA (Emotionally-based School Non-Attendance) within Scottish Secondary and Primary Schools.
The ‘Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-Term Outcomes’ (ABSAIL) project aims to identify ways to improve health, social and educational outcomes for young people experiencing Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA) by exploring the issues from a school and family/young person perspective. It will explore examples of effective practice and how schools and related services can best support young people who are affected. The project is led by the University of Glasgow and funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government. See our website for more information: www.gla.ac.uk/ABSAIL or email ebsna@glasgow.ac.uk
ABSAIL Executive Summary: mapping national local policies related to emotionally-based school non-attendance
The ABSAIL (Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-term outcomes) research project (funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government) aims to identify ways to improve health, social and educational outcomes for young people experiencing EBSNA by exploring the issues from a school and family/young person perspective and looking at what can by done by schools (and related services) to better support young people who are affected.
ABSAIL’s research is grounded in evidence-based methods, including Mapping National and Local Policies. Having reviewed policies around school attendance and EBSNA across all 32 Scottish Local Authorities to understand the broader context and identify gaps in support, the report Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA) in a Scottish Local Authority Context has now been produced. An executive summary of the report is now available to read: Policy Mapping and Document Analysis Executive Summary
IMPORTANT: closure of SHINE digital folders by 14th March
SHINE has been based within the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit since 2018 within the School of Health and Wellbeing. As the Medical Research Council will cease to fund research units across the UK from 31st March 2025, SHINE will become part of the wider School of Health and Wellbeing, still within the Clarice Pears Building on the University of Glasgow campus going forwards.
As we transfer to central University of Glasgow IT systems, there will be only one noticeable change for school and Local Authority members - namely the closure of the SHINE digital folders. The server hosting the folders will be switched off in the week beginning 17th March, therefore any schools or Local Authorities which have not already downloaded their mental health survey data reports, should do so by Friday 14th March 2025. This can be done by logging into the folder and either selecting the download all files button or by clicking on the 3 dots to the right of individual file names to download individual reports.
All links to digital folders will cease to work from 17th March onwards. Member schools and Local Authorities will receive a direct email from the SHINE Network Manager in the week beginning 17th March with the new details to access the SHINE members' resources area and any survey packs linked to the mental health survey, either for individual schools or Local Authority data collections.
A back-up of all the previous folders will be held on secure University drives so no data will be lost. If you have any queries about accessing and/or downloading your school or LA data reports, please contact the SHINE Network Manager at: Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk
Including young people in health research
SHINE and Generation Scotland have been working in partnership to develop a suite of resources for schools to explain what is big data, how does data linkage work and why research data ethics are so important. We are delighted to be one of 5 projects to receive funding from Research Data Scotland to improve the design, and broaden the range of accessibility and relevance for young people and schools. The aim is to improve engagement with the lesson plans in order to reach a wider audience with maximum impact, ensuring that young people have a good understanding of health research methods.
We are able to offer £100 to schools who would like to pilot this resource and provide feedback. Lesson content and resources would be made available to participating schools. To find out more, please contact sarah.robertson@ed.ac.uk at Generation Scotland or Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk at SHINE.
SHINE Conference 2025: registration
The SHINE conference for 2025 will take place at the School of Health & Wellbeing on Thursday 15th May 2025. The draft programme contains:
- The HWB context for young people related to smartphone and social media use
- Findings from three sleep research projects to showcase school-based research and useful knowledge for schools
- School case studies
- An update on the progress of the ABSAIL project (Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-term Outcomes)
- New resources to support schools to mitigate young people's anxiety and negative thoughts which lead to social and academic non-engagement
As previously, attendance at the conference is free and provides an opportunity for collaboration between schools and health researchers to promote understanding of how research expertise can support an evidence-based, whole-school approach to improvement planning for health and wellbeing in schools.
The event is by invitation only and we have approximately 100 delegate spaces available. Please check availability with your line manager before reserving a place. The invitation to register for the conference will be emailed directly to the SHINE lead in each member schools and Local Authority associates in the week beginning 3rd March 2025. We hope you will be able to join us.
Other research events, resources and opportunities for schools
Generation Scotland, the largest family health study in Scotland: new compensation scheme for young people aged 12-18 years old
Offering £20 compensation to volunteers aged 12-18!
Generation Scotland, the largest family health study in Scotland, recently launched a new compensation scheme for young people aged 12-18 years old, following feedback received from young advisory group members.
Young people are often under-represented in health research, but are needed since so many conditions start developing much younger than 18. We need to include them in order to work towards cures and better understanding of health.
The last few years have been exceptionally challenging for young people following the pandemic and we still do not fully understand the long-term impact of this and other challenging facing young people.
We understand it can be especially hard for young people to make the time to volunteer, due to commitments such as school. As young people are currently less than 2% of our volunteers, we wish to support them to be part of our study and help us better understand the unique challenges faced by this generation.
This £20 e-voucher will be claimable once the young person has completed our signup process. Our new compensation covers time spent joining Generation Scotland. For more information please visit www.gen.scot or email sarah.robertson@ed.ac.uk
In 2024, the Circadian Mental Health Network, based at Edinburgh University, asked people: "What do you want to know about mental health, sleep and the body clock?". They were inundated with questions from young people, people with lived experience of mental health conditions, people with lived experience of sleep and body clock disruptions, healthcare workers, carers and other members of the public. Now they need help to find out which of these questions are the most important. and have launched a new Mental Health and the Body Clock survey. This will allow people to choose the 10 questions that are most important to them, and that they want future research to focus on.
What questions are most important to you about mental health, sleep and the body clock? If you are a person with lived experience, clinician, healthcare worker, carer, or support for someone with lived experience (family, friend), they would love to know your top 10s.
You can find the survey here: https://edinburgh.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7P9EO2VGRjMQmAm
"How do peers influence adolescent health behaviour? Using social network analysis to understand mechanisms in peer-led interventions."
The Scottish Graduate School and Medical Research Council have launched a three-year studentship project focusing on school-based interventions to address adolescent tobacco problem behaviours.
The interdisciplinary team at the University of Glasgow, under the supervision of Dr. Emily Long aims to unpack for whom and under what circumstances opinion leaders may shape behaviour change amongst their peers. Key to the project is an advisory group made up of a diverse mix of people from public sector, education and public health researchers.
We are seeking a teacher to participate in 3 (1 hour) insightful sessions over the course of the studentship (2025-27) and contribute to the discussion on enhancing tobacco-free programmes. Stakeholders are welcome to join these sessions in-person, with the option for the meetings to be hybrid. Please contact e.omiridou.1@research.gla.ac.uk with any queries and/or to register interest.
Take part in our study on the impact of long sickness absences on people employed in frontline occupations in Scotland.
We would like to find out about how primary and secondary public sector teachers, managers, advisory staff and service delivery planners are affected by long-term sickness absence, including due to Long COVID, within education services.
We’d like to hear from you if:
- you are a public sector school teacher (primary or secondary) whose work has been affected by someone’s long-term sickness absence (due to Long Covid or other health conditions) within your department or school (e.g. changes to your workload or hours, changes to your tasks
- OR you manage or advise teachers whose working lives have been affected by long-term sickness absences (e.g. you are a principal teacher, faculty head, school senior leadership team member, occupational health or HR adviser, trade union representative)
- OR you advise managers who support teachers affected by long-term sickness absence (e.g. you are an occupational health or HR adviser)
- OR you plan delivery of public sector teaching services in Scotland.
What happens if you take part?
- Taking part will involve doing a one-to-one confidential interview with a researcher lasting up to 45-60 mins. The interview will be at a time to suit you and will usually be online or on the phone.
- All the interview questions are optional, so you can choose not to answer any of the questions and you are free to stop at any time.
- You will be offered a £20 voucher as a thank you for taking part. Information sheet
All the best,
The SHINE Team
Dawn Haughton
Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) Manager
E-mail: Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk
Web: www.gla.ac.uk/shine
Twitter: @ScotlandSHINE
