Tools to measure results

The crucial factor – has this learning resource made a difference to children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing? To capture these level 4 data, we must ask the children and young people themselves, e.g., using routine outcome measures / or survey measures like whole school ‘taking the mental health and wellbeing temperature’ methods. Examples of these are provided below.

Reflective prompt: Think about a recent learning event you delivered or attended. How could you go about checking that children and young people’s mental health / wellbeing improved because of the learning event?

Routine Outcome Measures

The Clinical Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) website has a vast number of measures and supported information displayed on their website which is intended to serve as an easily accessible resource for individuals looking for information on how to measure children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The website can be accessed here.

The website has information for use of outcome measures in schools as well as individual children and young people, along with guidance about the use of, and interpretation of these measures as well as providing information about whether these are free to use or have any copyright conditions.

Whole School Emotional Wellbeing Survey Methods

The Wellbeing Profile (Glasgow Motivation and Wellbeing Profile GMWP) was originally developed by Glasgow City Council’s Educational Psychology Service to support monitoring and tracking the wellbeing of children and young people. It links to the theory of motivation and can support children and young people to evaluate their own wellbeing in line with the principles of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC). The GMWP provides a useful and engaging tool which can assist schools, settings, and local authorities to evaluate learner progress and have meaningful dialogue in relation to wellbeing and identifying next steps. The tool can also be used to monitor and track wellbeing over time in individual establishments across all sectors. It can be applied to individual pupils, groups of children or young people, a whole class or whole school or sector focus, depending on the data analysis. It could also be used authority wide to highlight trends across its establishments and enable staff to focus on authority wide intervention and prevention measures.

Education Scotland wishes to thank Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Educational Psychology Service and St Brendan’s Primary School, Glasgow City Council for sharing the resource more widely as an example of monitoring and tracking wellbeing over time. It should be noted that this tool is intended to provide a means of evaluating progress in wellbeing as part of the ongoing assessment process and the tool is not a validated assessment.

The West Partnership Learner Wellbeing Matrix, available here; Resources – The West Partnership is a resource for practitioners who are interested in learning more about the tools staff can use to evaluate progress in wellbeing. The resource first defines the complex concept of wellbeing before considering the reasons why to measure wellbeing to evaluate progress. Guidance on the best way of using tools to evaluate learner wellbeing is detailed. The main section of the resource is devoted to a non-exhaustive matrix of resources which practitioners are recommended to consider. Each tool is reviewed, with recommendations on how to effectively use each tool. This guide is not intended to be an exhaustive review of wellbeing tools and is instead intended to provide a concise overview of wellbeing measurement tools that may be helpful.