Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board newsletter: October 2022

Mental Health, Happiness and Wellbeing of 3-5 Year Olds

As part of the work of the Board, this group was set up to develop recommendations to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children 3–5 years.

In the March newsletter, the group shared the engagement work carried out by Early Years Scotland in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland to inform the recommendations. This exercise has now been completed with the key findings and recommendations presented to the Joint Delivery Board in September for consideration. Below is a summary of the methodology involved in the activity.

Survey questions used a mixed methods approach including closed and open-ended questions. Four different themed survey questionnaires engaged with a total of 657 participants. This included:

• 121 children aged 3–5 years old.
• 142 Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) workforce.
• 278 parents of 3–5 year old children.
• 82 parents of Primary 1–3 children.

Promotion of the survey was undertaken by working in partnership with six local authorities who volunteered to be part of the project. All responses were anonymous.

Respondents (except children) were asked several questions about how children's mental health and wellbeing is currently supported and what is needed going forward. Children's engagement was undertaken differently. Workers within early years settings were given the questions as a guide and encouraged to discuss these with the children in their care in a way they deemed most suitable. Children were invited to share what sorts of things made them feel happy or sad. Many of the children talked about how hugs and playing with their friends made them happy. On the other hand, not seeing friends or being able to play made them feel sad.

The group look forward to sharing more about the findings from the engagement in future updates. The final report will be published in the coming months.