{
  "abstract": "Background Children and young people’s mental health services in the UK are not meeting demand. The UK government has pledged £300 million to introduce Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in half of all schools in England by the end of 2024, with further calls to expand them to all schools. To date, there have been no controlled evaluations of the effectiveness of MHSTs.Methods We used two data sources: the dates when MHSTs were introduced in secondary schools, and school-level absence data obtained from the Department for Education. Each school provided two measures of absence. 1) The overall absence rate for all enrolled pupils. 2) The proportion of persistently absent pupils (i.e., those that miss more than 10% of scheduled school time). We estimated the effect of MHSTs using a multiple-location interrupted time series to account for rollout of MHSTs across schools over time, within termly time increments. This was performed with a general linear mixed-effects model. The dependent variable was the absence rate, and independent variables included the presence of an MHST, long-term and seasonal trends, and COVID-19. The effect of MHST was modelled as a step-change in absence rate (i.e., time invariant). Random intercepts and slopes were included to allow the base absence rate and effect of MHST to vary by school.Results We included 33 secondary schools in Bradford with absence data available from September 2013 to January 2025. Over this period, the median absence rate was 7.08% (IQR = 5.39 – 9.78) and the median percentage of persistently absent students was 21.1% (IQR = 15.3 – 29.5). By the end of 2024, 18 schools had implemented MHSTs (median start = Sep 2021, range = Nov 2020 – Dec 2023). We found no effect of MHSTs on the absence rate (β = -.066; 95% CI = -.174, .040; p = .222), this corresponds to a rate change of -0.82ppt (95% CI -1.28, 0.82) relative to the mean observed rate in January 2025 (12.6%). There was also no evidence of an effect on the proportion of persistently absent students (β = -.067; 95% CI = -.210, .075; p = .357).Conclusion MHSTs to date have not had a meaningful effect on absence rates in Bradford secondary schools. Further evaluations should include longer follow-up, mental health outcomes, and evaluation of the intervention implementation.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Bradford Institute of Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK"
      ],
      "name": "John Pickavance"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Bradford Institute of Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK",
        "Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Dan Lewer"
    }
  ],
  "title": "OP01 The effectiveness of mental health support teams at reducing school absences: a multiple location interrupted time series in Bradford, England",
  "uid": "748c0308-280b-54cb-a775-fdac71beae6d"
}