Many young people are reporting low community connection and loneliness, which is affecting their mental health, wellbeing, academic attainment, and school attendance. INACT is trying to understand the types of social and community networks young people use, what factors affect this, how to best support young people who report having low social and community networks or feel lonely, and how supporting these pupils improves their outcomes. It is a collaboration between University College London, the University of Manchester, the National Academy for Social Prescribing and the Social Prescribing Youth Network and is funded by the Kavli Trust.
We are currently looking for schools to take part in the project. If you work in a school and would like to find out more about participating in INACT, sign up here.
Schools will benefit from:
- Tailored support to develop social prescribing and signposting pathways so that pupils can access local community support (this UCL in-kind support is valued at £2476)
- A free year-long programme providing social prescribing with a DBS-checked link worker as an option for pupils in Years 4–5/7–8 who report loneliness to support their mental health and wellbeing
- Tailored reports on pupil’s mental health and wellbeing
- A full evaluation report on the impact of the programme for the school at the end of the project
- All the resources for the school to continue the programme once the evaluation has ended (including toolkits, information leaflets and a personalised and comprehensive list of community resources in your local area)
- Opportunities to engage in media or engagement activities surrounding the project, highlighting the school’s prioritisation of mental health and wellbeing
- £500 for participation
INACT is split into three phases:
Phase 1 (2024): working with 12 primary and secondary schools, educational professionals, community social prescribers, community resources and young people to develop pathways for young people to access community resources. This will involve 3 meetings over 6 months to develop (i) a community social prescribing pathway and (ii) a community signposting pathway.
Phase 2 (2024-2025): Identification of pupils who may benefit from social and community support and referral into the community signposting and community social prescribing pathways. Following pupils up to see how the support impacted them and what they thought of the support.
Phase 3 (2025-2027): Expansion of INACT to 30 primary and secondary schools and an evaluation looking at pupil and educational outcomes, as well as economic impact. Sharing findings with decision makers to try and secure long-term investment for the programme to spread to more schools.