Leadership and Management

Providing visible senior leadership for emotional health and wellbeing: essential for activities promoting emotional health and wellbeing are to be accepted and embedded.

Key question: how are we providing visible leadership to promote emotional health and wellbeing?

Checklist

• Clear policy in relation to children’s mental health - you can view an example policy and guidance, here.
• Included in whole-school planning and related policies (safeguarding, PSHE, SMSC, behaviour and rewards systems) and practice.
• Involve staff, pupils and parents in policy developments to make them relevant, realistic and achievable.
• A lead governor with knowledge and understanding of the issues who can champion organisation-wide practices.
• Key staff to help champion, implement and embed policies into practice.
• Knowledge of specialist children and young people’s mental health services.

Ofsted expectations

Schools have to demonstrate how effectively leadership and management enable all pupils to overcome specific barriers to learning, for example through effective use of the pupil premium and sports premium, and the extent to which leaders and managers create a positive ethos in the school. The framework also specifies that schools should demonstrate capacity for further improvement, for example by working in partnership with other schools, early years providers, external agencies and the community; as well as by engaging with parents.

SCARF support

By supporting and promoting the use of the full range of SCARF resources, senior leaders in schools will help to ensure that its impact on children's behaviour, emotional health, safety and achievement is maximised.