Sharing Student Projects

The aim of this project was to understand the experience of TAs in supporting the mental health and psychological wellbeing of UK primary children. The role of TAs in this area is not well understood and there is a lack of prior research on TAs. This dissertation examined both general support and structured support for mental health and emotional wellbeing. The voice of TAs is central to this dissertation, and TAs’ experiences provided insight into school mental health and wellbeing provision and the current state of child mental health. Ten online interviews were conducted with TAs employed in English schools with an average of 12 years’ experience. Data were analysed using the qualitative method of reflexive thematic analysis. This 6-step method allowed the researcher to identify patterns across the data and create four themes which best fitted the participant’s meanings. 1) Changing demands and responsibilities: with increasing demand, TAs are taking on more mental health and wellbeing support in their general duties or in interventions. 2) Emotional engagement: TAs are supporters of wellbeing, providing emotional labour to nurture and comfort CYP and are more emotionally engaged than teachers. 3) Creativity and conformity: TAs brought creativity or their own strengths/ interests to delivering interventions or adopted established best practice which led to positive intervention outcomes. 4) Every cloud has a silver lining: TAs experienced the storm cloud of COVID-19 disruption, observing declines in child mental health and ineffective mental health support. The silver lining was that some pupils experienced improved wellbeing and mental health because of smaller classes and improved family relationships. These findings reflect recent trends described in prior literature of worsening UK child mental health issues. Some TAs are taking on specialist roles, or are finding themselves picking up mental health support around their academic duties as mental health support is becoming schools’ responsibility. TAs support mental health and wellbeing in interventions, and in everyday practice, e.g. in check-ins or consoling an upset child. TAs are closer to pupils and are viewed by children as more nurturing than teachers. TAs are more trusted than external staff and their role as ‘natural supporters’ for SEMH could be further built upon. Research on the COVID-19 pandemic suggested negative impacts on mental health. This was confirmed by the experience of TAs in school. This dissertation demonstrated that delivering mental health and wellbeing support remotely proved difficult, and that children’s mental health was better supported in smaller classes. Recommendations of this dissertation include that TAs can effectively support SEMH if they have sufficient interest and training, but training and supervision should be improved. At a time when education budgets are under pressure, TAs are an easy target, so it is crucial their contribution to the school community is better understood– this small project could be inspire more research into, and promote better understanding of, TAs and their support for CYP mental health and wellbeing.

This dissertation has potential impact for government policy, in the context of devolving mental health support to schools. It could benefit educational practitioners such as senior leaders and teachers’ understanding of current TA practice and TAs’ potential role in SEMH support. Parents and members of the public could be better informed of the work TAs do in the classroom, as there are common misconceptions about TAs. TAs are suitable candidates to take on a more active role in SEMH support and intervention work as children trust them and they are embedded within school. This is especially true if TAs have relevant experience. TAs provide value for money as they support the whole-state mental health and wellbeing of pupils, something which indirectly benefits achievement. Whole school approaches to SEMH should be better coordinated and PSHE better embedded into the school day. TAs can deliver self-developed interventions, based on experience, but it might be better to have a coherent programme of evidence-based interventions with the scope for TAs to tailor the delivery. One concerning aspect of this research is the variability in training and support for TAs. This should be improved to foster better outcomes for CYP mental health and wellbeing. Government policy should reduce risk factors for children and family mental health through ameliorating wider social issues, such as reducing poverty, food insecurity, substandard housing and academic pressures on children. Support staff roles are poorly understood in the public domain and in political discourse, so their vital work needs to be more well-known and better disseminated.