This project is a pilot evaluation randomised controlled trial of Face It, a school-based intervention designed and implemented by Khulisa. Face It is specifically designed for young people at risk of offending, exploitation and school exclusion. The programme builds self-awareness and encourages pupils to reflect on the root causes and triggers of their disruptive or challenging behaviour. Khulisa believes that early intervention breaks the school to prison pipeline, which is exacerbated by exclusion, enabling young people to choose a safe and crime-free future. The intervention is delivered over 6 weeks, including an intensive 5-day programme of activities, and pre-programme and post-programme group and 1:1 sessions. Each programme is tailored to participants' needs and uses art, storytelling, 1:1 and group experiential techniques, delivered by trained dramatherapists. The randomised controlled trial will test the programme's feasibility, acceptability, evaluability, mechanisms and outcomes, to determine whether the trial should proceed to a full-scale efficacy trial through quantitative and qualitative data collection.
Face It is a schools-based intervention, developed by Khulisa. It is an intensive therapeutic group programme for young people, focused on developing social and emotional skills and designed to explore the root causes of emotional distress. It combines creative techniques like storytelling, art, debating, and role-play, informed by neuroscience. There is strong evidence that social and emotional skills are important for the positive development of children and young people, and contribute to a range of important long-term educational, economic, health, social and criminal justice outcomes. There is also good evidence that well-designed school-based social and emotional programmes can be effective, that they are being successfully implemented in UK schools, and can have positive impact on students' social and emotional competencies and educational outcomes. The Face It intervention is in its early stages in terms of evidence and evaluation, and there is not yet a robust randomised control trial demonstrating that it is effective at improving outcomes for children and young people. However, Face It indicates early promise as an intervention to improve social and emotional skills. The intervention has demonstrated that it can recruit and retain participants, and qualitative work indicates that the programme is well-regarded by participants. An internal evaluation of the programme conducted by Nesta indicated that Khulisa's theory of change highlights relevant outcomes, and both quantitative and qualitative insights suggested largely positive changes in the outcomes examined. Khulisa is also currently conducting a quasi-experimental study which is scheduled to be completed in the Autumn 2023. These studies collectively show that the intervention shows promise. However, the lack of a randomised comparison group in the existing evaluations limits the conclusions that can be made about impact on outcomes for children and young people. Before any future full-scale randomised control trial, it is important that a small-scale pilot trial is conducted in advance to support and inform this work - to test and improve evaluation procedures such as randomisation and data collection, and to generate useful information around sample size determination.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
160
School-based intervention delivered over 6 weeks, including an intensive 5-day programme of activities, and pre-programme and post-programme group and 1:1 sessions. Each programme is tailored to participants' needs and uses art, storytelling, 1:1 and group experiential techniques, delivered by trained dramatherapists.
Services as usual
Harris Academy Crystal Palace
London, United Kingdom
RECRUITINGGraveney School
London, United Kingdom
RECRUITINGBehavioural difficulties
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - young person self-report The overall (five-subscale) SDQ score ranges from 0 to 50, with a higher score indicating abnormal behaviours. The Total Difficulties score ranges from 0 to 40. The externalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales. The internalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales. Higher scores indicate abnormal behaviours. While the total difficulties score is the primary outcome, we will also examine the total difficulties score when broken down into the externalising score (the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales), and the internalising score (the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales).
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention
Behavioural difficulties
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - young person self-report The overall (five-subscale) SDQ score ranges from 0 to 50, with a higher score indicating abnormal behaviours. The Total Difficulties score ranges from 0 to 40. The externalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales. The internalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales. Higher scores indicate abnormal behaviours. While the total difficulties score is the primary outcome, we will also examine the total difficulties score when broken down into the externalising score (the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales), and the internalising score (the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales).
Time frame: Within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Behavioural difficulties
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - parent report The overall (five-subscale) SDQ score ranges from 0 to 50, with a higher score indicating abnormal behaviours. The Total Difficulties score ranges from 0 to 40. The externalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales. The internalising score ranges from 0 to 20 and is the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales. Higher scores indicate abnormal behaviours. While the total difficulties score is the primary outcome, we will also examine the total difficulties score when broken down into the externalising score (the sum of the conduct and hyperactivity scales), and the internalising score (the sum of the emotional and peer problems scales).
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Offending
The Self-Report Delinquency Scale - young person self-report Variety of delinquency score: Sum the number of items the respondent answers 'yes' to: * Yes = 1 * No = 0 Produces a score that ranges from 0-19, where a higher score indicates a higher variety of delinquency. Volume of delinquency score: Summing the point values when respondents report a number of times. Point values are assigned as follows: * Once = 1 * Twice = 2 * 3 times = 3 * 4 times = 4 * 5 times = 5 * Between 6 and 10 times = 6 * More than 10 times = 11 Produces a score that ranges from 0 to 11 for each delinquent behaviour, where a higher score indicates a higher volume of delinquency
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Victimisation
The Problem Behaviour Frequency Scale (Overt victimisation and relational victimisation subscales) Produces a score ranging from 6-36 achieved by summing scores of the two subscales, where a higher score indicates a higher frequency of problem behaviours
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Resilience
The Children's Hope Scale Produces a score ranging from 6-36 where a higher score indicates a higher level of hope.
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Emotional Regulation
The Emotional Regulation Questionnaire Produces a score ranging from 10-50, where the higher the score, the greater the use of emotion regulation strategies; lower scores represent less frequent use of such strategies
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Social and emotional wellbeing
The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) Scores range from 7 to 35 and higher scores indicate higher positive mental wellbeing
Time frame: Within 1 month after the end of the intervention and within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Average school attendance
Average pupil attendance in the previous three months, recorded as a percentage
Time frame: Within 3 months after the end of the intervention
Number of school exclusions
Number of exclusions over the previous three months
Time frame: Within 3 months after the end of the intervention
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