Lead Organisation: Regional Partnership Board
The Children and Young People’s Transformation Programme is developing a framework to support children’s emotional health, well-being and resilience. They commissioned a survey of parents of 8 to 11 year olds to find out more about the support they need. This was a pilot survey which will be rolled out to other age groups.
The survey asked questions about the ‘Five ways to well-being’ which are connect, be active, take notice, give and keep learning.
There were over 2,400 responses from across North Wales. The survey found that:
- Parents/carers would like a range of support including school based support, support from GPs or recommended websites or podcasts.
- There were 63% of parents/carers who said that friends, family and school were the most important support contacts.
- Altogether 87% of parents/carers said they would use ‘digital resources’ to help them and their children with good habits.
- Most parents said they were happy or very happy with the way their child experiences the five ways to well-being. The highest rated was ‘Give’, where 96% parents/carers said that their child helps and thinks about others. The lowest rated was ‘Take notice’ where 10% of parents/carers said that they weren’t happy with the way their child takes time for themselves, notices things around them and savours the moment.
- Overall 84% of parents/carers said they confident in supporting their child with ‘feeling sad or low’ with the least number of parents (68%) feeling confident in supporting their child with possible loss or separation.
- Most parents (77%) said that they were happy that they can support their child’s well-being.
The top 10 additional concerns that parents mentioned about their child’s well-being were: Loneliness, isolation, loss of education, anger issues, being active, eating disorders, lack of professional appointments (such as doctors’ appointments), too much time online, lack of socialising and social media.
The top 10 resources parents/carers were aware of were: young minds, headspace, Barnardos, NSPCC, Childline, fitness programmes (TV/Online), Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS), Activity Groups (TV/Online), social media groups and ELSA (Emotional literacy support assistants).