Case studies

Specialist Support Spaces give young people safety, understanding, and belonging, helping them attend and re-engage. However, their impact is greatest when their influence extends school-wide and support is offered proactively, before difficulties escalate.

After burnout and difficulties attending school, a flexible, child-led appproach enabled gradual reintegration. With trusting relationships, autonomy, and proactive staff, the focus shifted to wellbeing, rebuilding trust, and re-engaging positively with education.

With collaborative, child-led planning, environmental adjustments, and unconditional support, an autistic student rebuilt trust, returned to full-time school, and thrived academically. Her mum now uses this lived experience to create more inclusive practice.

When we talk about having a relational approach that does not use rewards and punishments, it can be hard to think of an alternative, so we wrote a Relational Policy that outlines what this means that anyone is welcome to use, adapt and implement at their school.

After trauma and unmet needs in mainstream school, Jack thrived in a setting that used 'Therapeutic Thinking'. Relational, flexible support rebuilt trust, reduced anxiety, and led to him thriving at school.

A training activity using reward charts highlighted their drawbacks: anxiety, suppression of needs, and reduced learning. The exercise sparked reflection on moving away from behaviourist systems towards affirming, relational practices.

The Salford WARMTH Audit Tool is adapted from an audit tool created by Wirral EPS, which is based around the 8 principle model for whole school approaches for Mental Health, and adapted from Manchester City Council’s ‘Anxiety Based School Avoidance Guidance’ (2020). Salford EPS has updated this to incorporate WARMTH into the tool.