Using the Staff Sharing Scheme within the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) Pathfinder

Abstract

This paper describes the application of Staff Sharing (Gill & Monsen, 1995, 1996), a problem solving approach aimed at helping teaching and support staff become more effective in managing a range of challenging behaviours presented by some of pupils they work with. The intervention was one of a number delivered as part of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) Pathfinder Project in Hackney between April 2008 and March 2011. The application of this approach in a number of schools attempted to address aspects of teachers’ well-being allowing them to reflect with colleagues on an identified problem, consider the range of contributory factors including those at a class and school level and then devise an action plan.The trend towards targeting teacher well-being and how current developments within education influence the context in which interventions such as Staff Sharing are delivered will be explored. In addition how the Staff Sharing model was adapted will be outlined in the light of literature on reflective teamwork and consultative groups in schools, and as a result of the experiences of the authors. Changes to the intervention, the rationale behind them, and how a revised model was applied in primary, secondary and specialist provision will be described. Finally the revised model will be critiqued in light of outcome data and in terms of adherence to the original model before next steps and the development of a further revision of the model based on our experiences and findings is identified.