Evaluating the Implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper

Evaluating how the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Implementation Programme is being delivered and experienced in practice, generating evidence to improve access, effectiveness, and long‑term outcomes of school-based mental health support for children, young people, and their families.

Why is the research needed?

In 2017, the Department of Health and the Department for Education published the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper, setting out plans to strengthen prevention and early intervention for children and young people in England. Proposals included encouraging every school and college to appoint a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health, creating new Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) supervised by NHS mental health staff, and testing a four‑week waiting time for access to specialist NHS services.

In 2018, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Implementation Programme was launched to take forward these proposals. It is important to understand how the programme has been implemented, as well as its impacts, outcomes, and costs for children, young people, their families, education settings, and mental health services.

What are we doing?

Our project is a mixed‑methods evaluation that brings together quantitative and qualitative data to examine Programme implementation and sustainability, equity and access, and to develop recommendations for future improvement. The work is organised into eight work packages. We begin by updating the programme theory of change and finalising methods, including key informant and education‑settings surveys. The subsequent work packages involve analysing routine data across all sites, conducting interviews with individuals in strategic, implementation and delivery roles, capturing the experiences and outcomes of those receiving support from an Mental Health Support Teams (MHST), assessing school‑level activities and their effects, carrying out comparative costing and cost‑effectiveness analysis, and specifying a method for longer‑term monitoring and data collection.

Our researchers are leading Work Package 5, which focuses on understanding the outcomes of children and young people who access MHST support, exploring their experiences of accessing and receiving this support, and gathering the views of parents who have received direct or indirect support from an MHST.

How are we working with communities, services and organisations?

We are working with six Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in six different regions in England to collect data and support participant recruitment.

What will the impact and benefits of this research be?

Our findings will inform the rollout and ongoing development of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Implementation Programme. They will be relevant to stakeholders involved in the planning, commissioning, and delivery of mental health support for children and young people and will contribute to improving the effectiveness and accessibility of mental health support in schools.

What do we have planned for knowledge mobilisation and implementation?

Our planned outputs include the publication of findings in peer‑reviewed journals, along with an interim report and a final report in May 2027 that summarise key findings for different audiences. We will also share results through presentations at conferences, seminars, workshops and stakeholder meetings. In addition, the project will produce an animated resource co‑produced with the children and young people’s advisory group, as well as infographics, social media content, podcasts and blogs tailored to different stakeholder groups. Finally, we will hold a consensus event with national, regional and local stakeholders to explore the implications of the findings for policy and practice.

Related papers, outputs and resources

Read the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: A Green Paper

Read the related paper, titled 'Implementing mental health support teams in schools and colleges: the perspectives of programme implementers and service providers'

Read the related article, titled 'Implementing mental health support teams in schools and colleges: the perspectives of programme implementers and service providers'

Read more about the study on the National Children's Bureau website

Who is involved?

  • Principal Investigator: Professor Nicholas Mays, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Principal Investigator: Dr Jo Ellins, University of Birmingham
  • Project Manager: Miss CJ Iliopoulos, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Professor Tamsin Ford, University of Cambridge
  • Dr Anne-Marie Burn, University of Cambridge
  • Dr Joanna Reid, University of Cambridge
  • Dr Ariadna Albajara Saenz, University of Cambridge
  • Miss Aslihan Baser, University of CambridgeDr David Lugo Palacios, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Dr Stephen O’Neill, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Dr Jessica Mundy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Dr Sarah-Jane Fenton, University of Birmingham
  • Dr Gemma McKenna, University of Birmingham
  • Dr Ellie Moore, University of Birmingham
  • Dr Colette Soan, University of Birmingham
  • Mr Niyah Campbell, University of Birmingham

Get in contact

Email Professor Tamsin Ford, Professor Nicholas Mays or Dr Jo Ellins at tjf52@medschl.cam.ac.uk, nicholas.mays@lshtm.ac.uk or j.l.ellins@bham.ac.uk. 

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