All together now!

The impact of the ‘Music for Health’ pilot project on the emotional health and well-being of vulnerable children in Bath and

North East Somerset schools

Presenters• Sarah Heathcote – Bath and North East Somerset

Public Health commissioning manager

• Judy Allies – Director of Public Health Award Co-ordinator for Bath and North East Somerset

• Rainer Dolz – Head of the Music Service in Bath and North East Somerset

All Together Now!

• History of the

project

• Methodology

• Findings

• Implications for

commissioning

Healthy Schools Plus

• A 3 year funded programme in South West England

• Sought to bring about healthier behaviours in schools serving communities with the greatest health inequalities

• Focus on addressing local health priorities, which in B&NES wereo Healthy Weighto Emotional health & Well-being (EHWB)

Healthy Schools Plus• Schools identified priorities and set outcome measures based

on a local health profile

• Identified whole school issues

• Identified smaller group of Children in Challenging Circumstances (ChiCCs) – vulnerable groups

• Put interventions in place to tackle identified issues – opportunities to pilot and develop creative approaches

• Partnership working was key, as was flexibility to adapt an intervention

The ‘Music for Health’ pilot

• September 2010 – July 2011

• A pilot intervention to tackle emotional health and well-being issues in identified children for example:o Children with identified Special Educational Needs (SEN)o Children with behavioural Individual Educational Plans (IEP)o Children with low self esteemo Children consistently showing poor concentration resulting in low

academic levelso Children who don't enjoy coming to school o Children reporting that they don't feel calm in school

Evidence base• 'Participation in music does seem to promote self

confidence, social skills, increased concentration and a sense of belonging…. although the quality of experience and of teaching is essential to achieve positive outcomes.' (Hallam, 2006)

• Giving a whole class access to high quality music provision also removes any stigma involving the selection of the more vulnerable children

• Based on the evidence we took an existing programme, ‘the Wider Opportunities’ programme, and explored how it could also have an impact on emotional health and wellbeing

‘Music for Health’

Identifying required behaviour change

• Development of a SMART outcome – for example:

• ‘To increase the number of identified Year 4 children who have behavioural Individual Education Plans (IEPs) reporting that they enjoy coming to school from 3 out of 7 pupils in Oct 2010 to 7 out of 7 pupils by July 2011’

• Setting a baseline figure and a target within a suitable time- frame

Measurement

Measurement• Also collected qualitative information from

children, class teacher and music teacher throughout the project

• This gave added information about the impact the intervention had from a variety of perspectives

• NOT a double blind, randomised, trial!

Findings

• In all schools, measures of self esteem had improved by the end of the intervention

• Enjoyment of performing increased (67% to 96% in one school)

• Enjoyment of school increased (74% to 91% in one school)

• There was significant impact on individuals• Transition into a new mixed year group class was

smoother as the children already knew each other

FindingsPupil comments:

• “Fun, enjoy it. Not everyday boring work.”

• “Excellent because whenever I go [to the music class] we can hear her [the teacher] play and it makes me excited and happy. It's better now as we get more time together.”

• “It's perfect - Whenever she plays it makes us feel happy and comfortable inside. I use to not like school now I think it's the best on Tuesday when we drum.”

• “Amazing. It never gets boring but my hands get tired.”

• “I want to learn drumming when I'm older. We get to go on trips.”

FindingsThe class teacher comments:• “The drumming in particular has been great for these

(IEP) pupils compared to other instruments. It has helped them practice their listening skills without them even realising it as they have to listen to learn the new skill. They also get immediate shared success out of it which they seem to love.”

Music teacher comment:• “They are all, without exception, engaged with the

drumming and the singing, even those children who I have been told find it hard to focus and to join in”

Many schools now fund the intervention themselves

Implications for Commissioning-

Legacy• Development of the Director of Public Health Award

(www.directorofpublichealthaward.org.uk)

• Positive uptake from schools and other settings

• Emotional Health and Wellbeing remains a priority • included in the Healthy Schools Certificate criteria & EHWB can be a priority area for the

Healthy Outcomes Certificate

• ‘Music for Health’ included in interventions directory for schools - currently 5 schools are accessing Djembe as part of their DPH Award work

• Potential to explore and ‘scale up’ further creative projects which have an impact on wellbeing

Conclusions• Healthy Schools Plus was a real step change in getting schools to

choose priorities based on evidence of need and measuring impact

• Schools value the process – they have continued with ‘Music for Health’ programme in subsequent years

• Key learning points for commissioning work in schoolsCreative approaches have huge potential in schoolsBe pragmatic! -Try to link with what’s already happeningThe need for a framework like the DPH Award

• Opportunities & challenges going forward:o Engaging with Secondary schoolso Extending the range of music/arts projects and linking the to other aspects of EHWB