manifesto nurture
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NURTURE IS OUR PASSPORT FOR GROWING THE FUTURE…
www.nurturegroups.org
‌FOR TOMORROW BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE WHO PREPARE FOR IT TODAY The Nurture Group Network is enormously proud of our members; over 1,000 professionals working with vulnerable children and young people to help them engage in, and benefit from, mainstream education. The dedication and passion they show every day proves that nurture is the solution to transforming child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing in the United Kingdom.
A manifesto for nurture
The Nurture Group Network wants to do more Mental wellbeing is the key ingredient to succeeding at school. Charities in our sector are facing an unprecedented demand on our services due to the growing mental health needs of our most vulnerable children and young people. All political parties understand that there is a need for the voluntary sector to play a greater role in transforming the service delivery of education and mental health, but we will only be able to do so if we have a strong foundation to build upon. The Nurture Group Network is calling on the next Government to change education paradigms and make nurture an essential component of our education system. Working together, we can: • Create the best environment for children to learn in by prioritising their social and emotional needs • Re-focus and re-train the education sector on mental wellbeing and attachment and its key role in the learning process • Help the most disadvantaged students access mainstream education and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty that low levels of education perpetuates
Our mission
TO ALLOW EVERY CHILD AND YOUNG PERSON IN THE COUNTRY ACCESS TO NURTURE BASED ON THEIR SEVERITY OF NEED. We will: 1. Double the number of nurture groups from 1,500 to 3,000 in the next five years so every vulnerable student has access to nurture 2. Train thousands of teaching staff who are currently on the frontline of child and adolescent mental health about routine screening measures for social and emotional aptitudes. This will not only detect children at high risk of mental health problems, but substantially improve referrals for further assessment and treatment if necessary. 3. Run an accreditation scheme for excellence in wholeschool nurturing practices across the United Kingdom.
To achieve these goals we call on political parties to commit to: 1. Investing in nurture groups and similar evidence-based provisions to improve mental health in schools.
Nurture groups provision lasts 1-4 terms and provides children and young people with an educational bridge to permanent reintegration into mainstream classrooms. The nurture group classroom is a hybrid of home and school environments with soft furnishings, kitchen and dining facilities – a space that students have to share with two NG staff and 8-10 other students. The NG staff engage intensely with each individual, within a daily routine that is explicit, uniform and predictable. Nurture groups would address problems of rising mental health issues, exclusion rates, low grades and lack of support by: • Having a NG practitioner as a key attachment figure in school for every student in need. The NG practitioner will provide them with affection, attention and the reassurance that they are valued; • Providing a nurture group curriculum where learning is understood developmentally. Students are taught goal setting, coping templates, social skills training, affective education and relaxation techniques, and are able to witness the role modelling of appropriate behaviour/social skills between two adults in constructive interaction; • A preventive, long-term strategy to help students deal more confidently and calmly with the trials and tribulations of everyday life. In-school, teacher-led psychosocial group interventions like nurture groups have been proven to improve, and prevent, the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents – from anxiety and depression, to aggression and conduct
disorders. Research has shown that childhood conduct disorders predict all adult disorders due to their substantial stability throughout the life course and we ignore this problem at our own peril. In the UK the OECD has predicted that long-term mental disorders cost society ÂŁ70 billion a year. We estimate the cost of universal nurture to be a fraction of that cost:
2. Subsidising teacher training and continuous professional development.
Although many staff feel relatively skilled in terms of providing academic and social support to their students, there remains an obvious feeling and concern that they do not have the knowledge base or level of skills required to specifically support those with more complex or emerging mental health difficulties. Yet, in past trials, teaching staff have shown to have as much, if not more, positive results implementing the same psychosocial intervention in school than psychologists. Teachers and those who work with young people in schools can, and do, successfully prevent the escalation of mental health problems in their students by understanding more about protective factors and social and emotional development.
3. Prioritise nurture in the inspection frameworks As Sir Ken Robinson said, if we want to improve the education system we have to focus on the relationship between the teacher and the pupil, and everything else – including syllabus and tests– must be considered secondary. Nurture is the fundamental ingredient to a positive relationship between teachers and their students, but this can only exist when nurture is adopted and promoted at an individual, group and systems level across the whole school community. For this reason we urge the government to have nurture prioritised in the inspection frameworks and given the same status as academic achievement - they are after all two sides of the same coin. As the UK’s Educational Endowment Foundation concluded, social and emotional learning has an, “identifiable and significant impact on attitudes to learning, social relationships in school, and attainment itself.” Together we can create the best environment for learning, giving the next generation the best possible chance to flourish and succeed in school and life.
A manifesto for nurture
SO, IF THE NEXT GOVERNMENT WISHES TO: • • • • • •
Improve mental wellbeing Increase educational engagement Reduce exclusions Ensure academic progress Create a more inclusive ethos And ultimately remove barriers for learning for ALL children and young people
Introduce Nurture as both a way of thinking and as a targeted intervention into the education system. It works. Visit our website for more information: www.nurturegroups.org
National Office t 020 3475 8980 e info@nurturegroups.org 18A Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PB Tweet us! @nurturegroups
Registered England and Wales, charity number: 1115972. Scottish registered charity number: SC042703.