Boxall Childhood Project (2017-2019)

We have recognised for a long time the important role schools and teachers play in identifying the social emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs of children and young people. We believe that an early identification of needs is crucial to prevent the development of more serious mental health difficulties during adolescence and schools are key in offering cost-effective interventions to support children.

Schools taking part in the National Nurturing Schools Programme are already encouraged to measure the SEMH of all their pupils using the Boxall Profile. But in spring 2017, we decided to go a step further and launched the Boxall Childhood Project, a 2-year project that will allow nurtureuk to gather evidence about the importance and the impact measuring all pupils’ SEMH can have.

The aims of the Boxall Childhood Project were three-fold:
1) Evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of measuring the SEMH of all pupils. 
Does it lead to improvements of children’s SEMH? Are schools actually able to assess so many children? Is it cost-effective for schools to measure all their pupils?
2) Gather data related to SEMH
What are the SEMH needs of pupils across the UK? What are the risk factors linked with SEMH? What are the consequences of SEMH on pupils and schools?
3) Raise awareness about children and young people’s SEMH and how nurture can help answer those needs

The results of the Boxall Childhood Project, involving 25 primary schools, were published in May 2019 in our Now You See Us report.