Tamsin Ford, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Exeter Medical School has been awarded a CBE for services to psychiatry in the 2019 Queen’s birthday honours list. Professor Ford has played an instrumental role in helping to improve health services and schools across the UK and advised Ofsted about mental health in relation to their new education inspection framework. Her work has been cited in recent health and education policy documents and is regularly cited in government.

Since 2010 Professor Ford has led a PenCLAHRC supported project, Supporting Teachers and Children in Schools (STARS), now in its...

The first phase of The Supporting Teachers And childRen in Schools (STARS) programme, a randomised trial to look at the effectiveness of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY - TCM) project, has come to a close with the publication of the final report. Now researchers at PenCLAHRC are looking for 140 schools across Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Reading and Southampton to take part in the second phase.

Begun in 2012 and involving over 80 schools across Devon, the STARS project looked at how teaching methods can impact youngsters’ behaviour and help to create a positive learning environment through the implementation of the IY...

New Exeter Medical School research, supported by PenCLAHRC and the Wellcome Trust, has found a link between school absence and anxiety. The comprehensive, international review of data -  the first of its kind - took place over an 18 month period and drew on the collaboration of a broad team of researchers, from medical students to statisticians, child psychiatrists to evidence synthesists. The team performed an exhaustive systematic review to investigate the relationship between anxiety and poor school attendance, including excused and unexcused absence. The second paper to be published from this research, it suggests that children with anxiety miss...

Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School have received £500,000 from the Education Endowment Fund to further enhance a study that supports teachers to improve behaviour in their classroom by developing their classroom management technique.

The study will seek to recruit 5,880 pupils in 140 primary schools nationwide. It builds on a previous study of more than 2,000 pupils in 80 schools in Devon, which found that the programme improved child behaviour, concentration and mental health. The research is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) PenCLAHRC. The funding is in addition to £1.85 million from the NIHR Public...

Training teachers to focus their attention on positive conduct, and to avoid jumping to correct minor disruption, may improve child behaviour, concentration and mental health.

Government figures indicate that 10% of children have a mental health condition. The commonest and most persistent mental health condition is severe behaviour problems, and children with “conduct disorder” are at risk of all adult mental health conditions as well as poor educational and social outcomes. Despite the research and guidelines available, there is no specific guidance on how social and emotional well-being should be promoted in primary schools.  

The Supporting Teachers and Children in Schools (STARS) study set...

Hypnosis could help to reduce the fear of medical procedures in children and young people with cancer.

New research has found promising evidence that hypnosis can reduce the distress associated with injections and other needle procedures, such as extracting bone marrow and giving chemotherapy. 

Previous research has shown that these procedures often provoke more anxiety in children and young people than the cancer itself. Up to half of children with cancer experience clinically significant emotional distress. This can cause additional anguish for the child and for their families and have a long-lasting impact on mental health.

Researchers from PenCLAHRC and the University of...

The Dartington Service Design Lab is entering into a strategic collaboration with PenCHORD (the Peninsula Collaboration for Health Operational Research and Development) and the wider PenCLAHRC, building on their strong partnership over many years.

The Dartington Service Design Lab (the Lab) was formed in September 2017, before which it was known as the Dartington Social Research Unit (DSRU). Over the past five years, the Lab has collaborated with PenCLAHRC on a number of projects, including a number of randomised controlled trials of services for children and young people as part of the Realising Ambition and Birmingham Brighter Futures projects as well as a chapter in...

Excluding children from school may lead to long-term psychiatric problems and psychological distress, a study of thousands of children has shown. Research by the University of Exeter, published in the journal Psychological Medicine this month, found that a new onset mental disorder may be a consequence of exclusion from school.

The analysis by a team led by Professor Tamsin Ford of responses from over 5,000 school-aged children, their parents and their teachers, found that children with learning difficulties and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and autism spectrum conditions were more likely to be excluded from the classroom.  

The study is...

A PenCLAHRC-supported study has found that young people who self-harm only seek emergency hospital care as a last resort due to a deep sense of shame and unworthiness.

The research, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, shows that young people who self-harm avoid Accident and Emergency departments wherever possible. They say they have received punitive treatment from staff, and these experiences perpetuate a cycle of shame, avoidance and further self-harm. 

Dr Christabel Owens and co-authors Lorraine Hansford, Professor Tamsin Ford, and Dr Siobhan Sharkey, found that young people who self-harm visit A&E only when their injuries are too serious to manage...

In the UK, it is estimated that more than 500,000 children under the age of 18, suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Characterised by a lack of attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, ADHD can cause academic impairment, social dysfunction and low self-esteem.

Professor Tamsin Ford has been awarded an NIHR grant of £800,000 to conduct research to help people suffering with ADHD transitition from child services to adult services. The project plans to explore the current options for young people with ADHD when they are too old to stay within children’s services.

ADHD is generally seen as a developmental disorder in children,...