BACKGROUND RESEARCH 

 

An initial project was carried out at Westcroft School and  Sports College Wolverhampton England in 1999 - 2000.

44 children from Key stages 1 - 4 were selected and each child was interviewed and observed and consultation questionnaires were carried out with parents / teachers / support professionals. 22 were given the therapies and the remaining 22 were not given any thherapy support. Goals ( objectives ) were set individually for each child in agreement with parents and staff

 BY THE END OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR we  achieved 84% of our aims with thERAPY group of children. THIS IS COMPARED TO ONLY 16% OF OBJECTIVES BEING MET WITH THE NON- THERAPy GROUP.

the next stage:

With funding from 'The Behaviour Improvement Programme' the HET programme grew throughout schools and other organisations in Wolverhampton. Based at a Primary Pupil Referral Unit in Wolverhampton, we were able to build upon the findings from our research, refine the research methods and further develop the good practice identified from the pilot programme.

• The practice of entry and exit consultation questionnaires was maintained. Every year we have consistently scored in excess of 85% of our 'Objectives Met' target.

• Other methods of evaluating our successes have been implemented.

• The scope of the therapies has been expanded.

• The support to parents / carers and families has been developed and expanded.

• A nationally recognised and accredited training programme has been established in HET with a continuous professional development programme in place

• An Local Authority based referral service is offered from here.

• Qualified HETs are now in post, in various multi-agencies across the Authority.

• New research is taking place into other HET approaches. This is in partnership with other agencies across the city, which aims to support children with emotional and behavioural problems.

Over the past 9 year our research has led to other methods of demonstrating how effective HET is. This has been so important in embedding the HET philosophy within various organisations amd we have had to prove how effectiv HET is to the children and the famiies every step of the way.

The following methods ae examples of the proof of HET and each practitoner has to demonstrate this as part of their training.

Below are some examples of how we go about this:

Measuring the effectiveness of what we do.

Consultation questionnaires with children, parents / staff and other support professionals. These include quantitiative and qualititative data collection

Child observations in home and school settings.

Behavioural profiles.

Therapy treatment and review sheets

Tracking behaviour incident logs and analysing data in correlation to therapeutic intervention / changes in therapy treatments etc.

This graph shows consequences of undesirable behaviours. These vary from 5 or 10 mins out or visit to Head Teacher or hone call home. These drop when the child is on the programme.