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We report on a randomized controlled trial of Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS), which is a nationally mandated school-based mental health program in England. TaMHS aimed to improve mental health for students with, or at risk of, behavioral and emotional difficulties by providing evidence-informed interventions relating to closer working relationships between health and education services. Our study involved 8,480 children (aged 8-9 years) from 266 elementary schools. Students in intervention schools with, or at risk of, behavioral difficulties reported significant reductions in behavioral difficulties compared with control school students, but no such difference was found for students with, or at risk of, emotional difficulties. Implementation of TaMHS was associated with increased school provision of a range of interventions and enhanced collaboration between schools and local specialist mental health providers. The implications of these findings are discussed, in addition to the strengths and limitations of the study.

Early detection of child mental health problems in schools is critical for implementing strategies for prevention and intervention. The development of an effective measure of mental health and well-being for this context must be both empirically sound and practically feasible. This study reports the initial validation of a brief self-report measure for child mental health suitable for use with children as young as 8 years old ("Me & My School" [M&MS]). After factor analysis, and studies of measurement invariance, 2 subscales emerged: emotional difficulties and behavioral difficulties. These 2 subscales were highly correlated with corresponding constructs of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and showed correlations with attainment, deprivation, and educational needs similar to ones obtained between these demographic measures and the SDQ. Results suggest that this school-based self-report measure is psychometrically sound, and has the potential of contributing to school mental health surveys, evaluation of interventions, and recognition of mental health problems within schools. (Contains 5 tables and 1 note.)

The importance of joint working between educational and child mental health professionals is well documented but there are numerous challenges and only limited training models. While the evidence base and training programmes for educationalists regarding child mental health is growing, training mental health professionals about education is more limited. This study presents the views of 36 child mental health and education professionals from four service localities in England regarding their experiences of joint working and perceptions of training, including a preliminary evaluation of a training programme designed to bridge this gap. The findings indicate that participants perceived that a degree of knowledge in education matters is important, and reported that this could be acquired through the development of relationships with educational professionals, setting up link posts and joint training; they also described challenges related to building experience and to resource constraints. Participants were generally positive about the training package and reported that there was a clear training need in this area. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)