A solution focused approach to young people’s social, emotional and mental health
One of the most perplexing things I continue to grapple with in my 20 year career as an educational psychologist is how little consideration we give to the child or young person’s (CYP) voice when faced with a variety of needs, in particular when faced with social emotional mental health needs (SEMH).
There is absolutely no doubt that professionals, such as school practitioners, work tirelessly to understand the myriad of reasons for the presenting behaviour but often this is limited to the opinions of others (in the main adults) and the voice of the CYP goes unrecorded. What normally follows is a journey for a diagnosis to satisfy the co-constructed narratives of say the parent/carers and professionals. Sometimes this journey is made reluctantly to obtain extra funding to support the CYP, mainly it is made in the hope of obtaining a way forward.
So you have the diagnosis, then what? Without the CYP buying into the adult narrative agreed without them, the likely success of any intervention will be low. This is precisely why the introduction of solution focused approaches to capturing the pupil narrative or voice with the school practitioners I (and my team) work with has been so successful in ensuring engagement of all parties and ultimately better outcomes for CYP and their families. From these initial humble conversations has evolved Pupil Aspire.
In essence, Pupil Aspire provides the curious and reflective practitioner an opportunity to explore what the CYP is trying to communicate by their behaviour through the following key features:
- Solution focused language
- A person centred approach
- Use of a strengths based structured conversation
- Seeking of collaborative outcomes
- Use of a formative assessment capturing insightful information
Solution Focused approaches have consistently been shown to result in positive outcomes through changing constructs around the ‘problem’ from negative to positive and developing resilience and self-efficacy. By focusing on what has gone right, rather than on what has gone wrong, Pupil Aspire supports a process of change building on the positives and in response to the views of the pupil as well as the family and school practitioners or peers. Using a simple shared scale the guided structured conversation walks the pupil through a process to ascertain ‘what it looks like now’, ‘desired outcomes or preferred future’, ‘steps to reach the preferred future’ and ‘changes that will support movement up the scale towards the ‘preferred future’.
The solution focused language requires positive answers and sets the tone for the tool’s approach, unlocking insights for pupils and the adults supporting them that can have a profound impact on the effectiveness of future interventions. Interventions that have been co-constructed with the pupil in relation to what they consider to be the fundamental elements influencing their current SEMH. The person centred approach informs the desired outcomes and intervention planning.
The psychological basis of Solution Focused approaches stems from the ideas of theorists such as Carl Rogers (Person-centred Psychotherapy), George Kelly (Personal Construct Theory) and Lev Vygotsky (Social Constructionism). Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg are viewed as the principal definers of Solution Focused Brief Therapy on which the fundamental elements of Pupil Aspire are based.
The tool also offers provision mapping capabilities (including cost and progress tracking) but I’ll save that for another blog. Needless to say, all this makes Pupil Aspire a powerful tool that the holistic practitioner will be reluctant to part with once hooked on getting better outcomes for children & young people’s SEMH the solution focused way!
About the author
Jagdish is a Chartered Educational Psychologist and a Director of FocusChange Ltd, which operates FocusPsychology. She is the Practice Lead, managing the team of experienced practitioners and setting the high quality benchmark for professional practice. Jagdish brings a unique set of skills to this role and has over 20 years’ experience working with children, young people and adults in a variety of settings. In addition to her work in schools and other organisations, Jagdish works as an Expert Witness for the Family Courts. Jagdish’s particular area of expertise is the influence of culture on constructs around parenting and child development and its influence on attachment.