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Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools
Welcome to the SHINE June 2026 Newsletter
- SHINE Reflections on 2025-26 & summer reading
- SHINE Looking ahead to 2026-27
- Please remember to update us with any changes to contact addresses
- Changes to SHINE staff hours and contacts
- Developments in the SHINE Mental health survey offer - please have your say!
- New NIHR, SHINE-affiliated, 5 year project: It Takes a Village
- HBSC 2026 - thank you
- Events and wider research opportunities for schools
- Scottish Guidance Association Conference: Sat 19th Sept 2026 : register now
SHINE reflections on 2025-26
As we head towards the end of the 2025-26 academic session, the SHINE Team would like to thank all the SHINE schools, Local Authorities, and wider associates for joining us in another busy and successful year.
The breadth of the SHINE network infrastructure continues to grow and strengthen with every new engagement opportunity, school member, Local Authority contact, research partnership, working group and project.
The range of activities that our small team manages to cram in to the space of an academic year never ceases to amaze me!
While contributing to 9 affiliated research projects, in 25/26, we continued to offer a large scale mental health survey data collection (collected another ~30.000 responses), put on a month-long exhibition of our work, hosted a national conference for over 100 delegates, travelled all over Scotland to interview research participants, ran workshops in various schools & universities, coordinated validation & co-production workshops with school staff, young people and families, listened to suggestions from our wonderful SHINE teachers' panel and completed the 2-year CSO-funded Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-term outcomes (ABSAIL), which will finish at the end of June 2026.
We were delighted with the level of engagement with the ABSAIL findings during the coproduction workshops
at the SHINE conference and look forward to sharing the reports and co-produced resources with the wider network in 2026/27. Members of the team have presented the findings at various events already, with further invitations to present at international conferences in 2026-27.
Proud of our place at the table regarding national developments, we remain enthusiastic about our contribution to the Curriculum Improvement Cycle Health and Wellbeing Steering Group and support for the Sleep Action Manifesto (pictured here at the Scottish Parliament).
Beyond Scotland's borders, SHINE networks with 6 other UK universities (with school health research networks) as part of the Young People’s Wellbeing and Schools Research Coalition. Jo Inchley has recently joined the steering group for the Health Promoting School Research Group Europe.
Every development mentioned above started with a simple conversation with research colleagues, SHINE teachers, Local Authorities or 3rd sector partners - relationships remain at the heart of everything that we do and we really do appreciate the generosity of time, expertise and support that we continue to receive from the wider network. We wish you all an enjoyable and relaxing summer and leave you with some summer reading below.
- Malley, Bethan, Brown, Judith , Haughton, Dawn, Chambers, Stephanie and Inchley, Joanna (2026) Emotionally based school non-attendance in a Scottish local authority context: a policy document analysis. Frontiers in Education,
Lang, Jason, Wood, Rebecca , Inchley, Joanna , Haughton, Dawn, Turner, Fiona , Gajwani, Ruchika , Minnis, Helen and Press, Melea (2026) More than inclusion: reimagining secondary education through neurodiversity-affirming practice. London Review of Education,
Lang, Jason, Press, Melea , Wood, Rebecca , Inchley, Jo , Haughton, Dawn, (2025) Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools: Executive Summary. Project Report. University of Glasgow. Full paper
Summer Reading from 2025-26
SHINE: Looking ahead to next year
Updates to School & Local Authority Contacts
Please remember to update the SHINE Network Manager with any changes to the school or Local Authority contact name and email address linked to your school's SHINE membership, so that communications and invitations to events continue to be directed appropriately. To update your school's details, please complete this form: https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0HP8xrVlYm4Zv70
Changes to SHINE staff hours and contact details
Due to various changes to staff hours and remits in the team from July onwards, we will be making more use of the shared email inbox going forwards. The email address to reach the team is: shw-shine@glasgow.ac.uk
Changes to SHINE mental health survey for 2026/27
In 2026-27, there will be a few changes to the mental health survey. We will be introducing 3 new questions to the survey, one on ethnicity and 2 related to discrimination.
Due to the volume of participants in the survey, we are going to change the data collection window for individual schools participating (Local Authority-wide data collections will not be affected). The data collection window for individual schools participating will now only be in the Autumn term from the beginning of September to the end of November.
Review and development of the SHINE mental health survey: network consultation
Every summer, the SHINE team conduct a full review of the Mental Health Survey questionnaire, including consideration of potential new health topics that could be included in future iterations of the survey. For example, in 2026/27 we will be adding 3 new questions, one on ethnicity and two on discrimination.
We would delighted to hear from schools and Local Authorities' suggestions in this 30-second 2-question consultation.
To provide feedback, just scan the QR code or click on the green button to the side.
Thank you!
SHINE is delighted to announce its involvement in the new project "It Takes a Village".
A partnership between NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the University of Glasgow, led by Professor Helen Minnis & Dr Ruchika Gajwani from the Mental health and Wellbeing Unit in the School of Health and Wellbeing; this new five-year project, It Takes a Village, is funded with £4.5m from the NIHR and is the first of its kind in the UK.
The study is unique in trialling a community expert-based task-sharing approach to child mental health provision, and will be guided by key groups, including clinical experts and young people with experience of mental health problems.
The team will trial a new approach to children’s mental health services in the UK aimed at providing better care for young people in need.
Watch out for more information in the new academic year.
HBSC study
Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study: 2026 Survey Round
Thank you to all the schools who have already completed the 2026 HBSC survey!
Over the summer each participating school will receive their own school HBSC report with aggregate data (subject to minimum pupil number requirements) to support health and wellbeing planning and activities within their school.
Findings and trends over time by gender, age and socioeconomic status from the 2026 HBSC survey in Scotland will be available in a National report in 2027.
If your school has completed the survey but haven’t already completed the HBSC School Level Questionnaire (SLQ), we would be extremely grateful if a member of your Senior Management Team with a health & wellbeing remit could complete this questionnaire (please check your email for the SLQ link).
If you have any queries, please contact the Project Manager at Judith.Brown@glasgow.ac.uk
Upcoming Events for Schools
Scottish Guidance Association Annual Conference 2026 : registration
Saturday 19th September 2026
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
LinkedIN: Schools Heath and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE)
