Evaluating the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a school-based educator intervention to identify & support children with emotional and behavioural difficulties: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Co-design focus groups The co-design process will involve educator focus groups to discuss how best to design the intervention. Focus groups will occur at each intervention school at a time of the schools choosing. Study researchers will facilitate the focus groups. Participants will be provided information regarding similar models of collaboration, such as Project Echo and Communities of Practice, to guide their thinking in the co-design process. Specific focus will be placed upon the topics of interest regarding child health, development and well-being (e.g., learning difficulties, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), along with practicalities such as the grades of children included and the frequency of the seminar program sessions. Study researchers will facilitate the focus group sessions, which will involve a single session with each intervention school. The intervention will have fixed and flexible elements as indicated below. Fixed elements - case discussions, focus on emotional and behavioural difficulties Flexible elements - case discussion topics, frequency of case discussions Seminar program From the topics selected during the co-design focus groups, a seminar timetable will be constructed to best suit the educators at each intervention school. Seminars will occur at frequent intervals (approximately fortnightly) and video technology will be used to allow all participants to attend regardless of location. Any educators supporting the students involved in the intervention schools will be invited to attend, even if not the primary educator (e.g., Wellbeing Officer). A study clinician will present the evidence on the prevalence, clinical features, assessment and management of each topic with a focus on translating evidence-based practice into meaningful approaches for educators in the classroom. Where appropriate, external expertise will also be present to assist the group in best understanding the evidence and applying it to the case discussed. Participating educators will be invited to present a case-based student following each topic discussion, which will be a de-identified participating student in their class who they are supporting. The group will then discuss the best way to support the student presented and agree upon a plan which will be followed up in future discussions. Each seminar will be approximately 60 minutes in duration. The duration of the intervention will be 6 months. Reflection focus groups At completion of the intervention, I will conduct focus groups with intervention schools to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the model in regard to educator capacity to implement and benefit from the model. The sessions will explore what aspects of the project were beneficial and which require refinement. All participating educators within intervention schools will be invited to attend. As described in the initial focus group, sessions will be 90 minutes long at a time of each schools choosing. Attendee numbers are likely to be between 4-12 depending upon the individual school. Focus groups will occur within a fortnight of completion of the intervention. Attendance will be recorded at each focus group and seminar program session to monitor adherence.