Making it Mainstream
Throughout his life William Yapp was interested in the advancement of knowledge and
the trust has maintained a commitment to supporting educational work and research.
The trustees thought carefully about how they might contribute to a greater
understanding of the mental health of young people and the development of timely
actions to support those in difficulties. This project, Making it Mainstream is the
outcome of that aspiration. The financing of the work was a partnership between the
Yapp Charitable Trust and members of the family of a young person whose mental
distress was not recognised in time.
Much of the information in this document draws upon visits made by a small team of
researchers who were commissioned by the Yapp Trust to work with a selection
of schools to further our understanding of what works in schools and the barriers school
staff can face in developing in-school support strategies.
In addition, a wide range of school staff offered their views and suggestions on the
initial project findings at an event in November 2008 supported by SENJIT
(Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training) at the Institute of Education in
London.
We are very grateful to all the schools and the staff who work in or with schools,
who contributed information and ideas for this publication. The booklet was published in July 2009 and is made freely available for download below.
Making it Mainstream (pdf 2650 kb)
The Research Team
Cathy Street is currently Young People’s Research and Development Lead at the national mental health charity Rethink. This is a part-time position and Cathy also works as freelance researcher and consultant in children and young people’s mental health. Over the last 10 years, Cathy has worked for the Department of Health, the National CAMHS Support Service (NCSS) and a variety of large charitable trusts, including Save the Children and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She has led national research projects on best practice and innovative approaches in in-patient health services for young people; measuring mental health outcomes for children and young people; addressing social exclusion, poverty and discrimination, and girls and exclusion from school.
David Goosey teaches masters level courses at the University of Westminster to medical, health, social work and community development staff in leadership and management and research methodology. Alongside his academic responsibilities, David has worked as a consultant in the field of children and young peoples’ services and in mental health for many years including as a
Lead Trainer and Consultant for YoungMinds, the national children’s mental health charity. He is also a consultant at the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) and an Associate Consultant of The Grubb Institute.
Brenda Allan is an experienced consultant and senior manager in the local authority and voluntary sectors, with a strong health and children’s services background and an extensive knowledge of social care, health, education and housing services. Brenda has led consultancy projects at YoungMinds for a wide range of organisations and has also worked with Shared Solutions Consulting on service, workforce and training issues in the NHS. She has worked on various research projects and service evaluations with Cathy Street. Brenda was previously National Assistant Director of a large children’s voluntary organisation, Chair and vice Chair of two charity boards and joint manager of a London CAMHS.
