Supporting educational and youth organisations to deliver self-harm and suicide prevention and postvention: a mixed methods study and co-produced guidance (the 4S study)
Researchers: Abby Russell, Judi Kidger, Lucy Biddle, Rowan Streckfuss Davis, Hannah Robinson, James Parsonage, Emily Widnall
Your child has been invited to take part in our research project, Support Systems for Self-harm, and Suicide in Young People (The 4S Study). Before you decide together whether they want to take part, we would like you both to understand why the research is being done and what it would involve. Talk to others about the study if you wish. You can contact a member of the research team if you have any questions. Thank you for helping your child consider whether to take part.
What is the purpose of the project?
Adults in schools and youth organisations, such as teaching assistants and coaches, often support young people with their mental health.
We want to investigate your child’s experiences of support for mental health; their existing knowledge and experience of guidance, procedures, or support; and their suggestions for what the important components of guidance for adults working with young people would be. This focuses on support for when someone has intentionally hurt themself.
We are asking your child to take part in one focus group, with up to five other young people. It will take about 90 minutes and two adults will be present. Your child can take part in a 45–60-minute interview with one researcher if they prefer.
While the broader 4S study is about self-harm and suicide risk, we will not ask details about your child’s experiences of self-harm or suicide in the focus group/interview. Instead, we will focus on the support that would be useful for them from education/youth organisations and they may draw on their own experience to respond to this.
Why has my child been invited to participate?
Your child has been invited to participate because they:
- are young person (aged 14-21)
- live, work, or study in either:
- North Somerset
- Birmingham
- Lincolnshire
- the Tees Valley
- have lived experience of self-harm, either themselves or someone close to them
We aim to include 6 young people in each focus group, with 3-4 focus groups per area. We can pay for travel costs to attend the group. If your child is aged 14-15, they will be in a group with other 14-15 year olds. We require parents or guardians to provide informed consent for anyone age 15 or younger to take part in the study; those age 16-21 may provide their own informed consent.
Does my child have to take part?
No. It’s your child’s choice to take part. In this information sheet, we will describe exactly what they will be expected to do if you both decide that your child can take part. If you have any questions before they decide to take part, you can contact any members of the research team and they can provide you with some more information. If you agree for your child to take part, we will then ask you to sign a consent form and gain an assent form from your child. Your child is free to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason. If they participate in a focus group, you or they may request that their data is destroyed up to one week after the focus group. If they take part in an interview, you or they may request that any of their data collected be destroyed up to three months after taking part.
What will happen to my child if they take part and what will they have to do?
To have received this information sheet, your child will have already told us some information about themself. We will be making phone contact with everyone who will take part in a focus group/interview before they are invited to join one, in order to discuss what kind of questions will be asked and to give them an opportunity to let us know of any relevant experiences they may want to discuss. We will talk about how they could discuss these in the group without giving detailed information to others. We will also check they have a support network and a plan in place in case taking part triggers any negative thoughts or memories. This may determine which focus group your child will be part of, but it will not be used or referred to during the focus groups.
Next, your child will be invited to attend an in-person focus group with up to 5 other participants, or an interview if preferred. The researcher will ask questions based on a pre-determined topic guide, but they will also encourage the introduction of new topics. The questions will be about:
- What your child already knows about getting support related to mental health from their school/college/youth group.
- Their experiences of barriers to getting support from a professional in their school/college/youth group around mental health and what would make this easier.
- Their experiences of the support that is provided if someone has intentionally harmed themselves
- What the important parts of guidance should be for professionals or staff providing support in these scenarios.
We will not ask about details or specific experiences of self-harm or suicide in the focus groups. Your child will be asked not to talk about methods of harm and not to provide details of anyone you know who has harmed themselves or died by suicide.
If in a group, all other participants in your child’s group will be a similar age to them. There will be separate groups for 14-15 year-olds and 16-21 year-olds, and two researchers will be present to facilitate the group discussion.
Focus groups are expected to last 90 minutes and interviews expected to last 45-60 minutes. A digital voice recorder will be used to capture the focus group/interview from the point where everyone has agreed, to the end of the questions and answers. As well as this, the researchers may take notes throughout. This audio recording will be securely transferred to and transcribed by Devon Transcription, meaning everything will be typed out exactly as it was said. This company has been approved to process data subject to the Data Protection Act, for which the University is the data controller. We will then anonymise these written transcripts which means nothing your child said in the focus group/interview could be used to identify them, you or others. We will only use direct quotes in publications once all identifiable information has been removed from them.
An example of an anonymised quote is:
Direct quote: “My mum, Judy, is a nurse prescriber in Exeter”
Direct anonymised quote: “My mum, [name], is a [healthcare professional] in [medium sized city]”
Only the project researchers at the University of Bristol, University of Exeter, University of Newcastle and the University of Birmingham will have access to these audio recordings. No one outside the project will be allowed access to the original recordings.
What are the possible disadvantages and risks involved in taking part in the project?
We understand that talking about self-harm can make people uncomfortable or upset. In the even that your child finds talking about any of the topics upsetting, they can take a break from the focus group/interview and talk to one of the researchers, or they can choose to stop taking part. The researcher(s) conducting the focus groups and interviews will have a list of resources or organisations that we can share with you and your child, should either of you wish to talk to someone once the focus group/interview has finished. If your child would like to suggest one of their friends also takes part, they can sign up the same way and let us know they would like to be in a group together.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There are no direct benefits of taking part in this research, but your child may feel positive about sharing their thoughts and experiences to improve support for other young people. The findings from this study will ultimately improve the support provided by professionals to young people. Your child will receive a £30 thank you voucher for taking part in a focus group or £20 for taking part in an interview and we will pay for any travel costs (even if they decide to withdraw after the focus group has started).
Will my child’s participation in this project be kept confidential?
Your and your child’s personal information required for contact will be stored in a separate password protected excel spreadsheet and will be linked to the study data using a unique participant identification number.
All researchers involved in the study are aware of, and understand, codes of practice and confidentiality and understand the concept of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. They are aware that participants’ names and contact details are key identifiable information.
Once the study is complete, our list of participants’ names, phone numbers and addresses (including yours) will be destroyed as it will no longer be necessary to contact you or your child. Study ID numbers (not names) will be used to identify participant data. Confidentiality of individuals participating in focus groups/interviews will be maintained in written or verbal dissemination of the findings.
The written transcripts will be anonymised, this means anything your child said in the group/interview which could identify them, for example the names of a specific places or people, will be removed. The focus groups and interviews are being led by the University of Exeter. The University of Exeter processes personal data for the purposes of carrying out research in the public interest. If you have any questions, please speak to the researchers. You can also find more information about how the University uses personal data here and what to do if you are unhappy with how your data are being handled: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/privacy/research/
The only exceptions to the above will be if you or your child tell us something that suggests a serious risk to any person (including themself). If this happens, we may ask your child to talk through the situation with one of our team outside the focus group.
What will happen to the results of the research project?
The audio recordings from your child’s focus group/interview will be deleted at the end of the study (January 2026).
The anonymised transcripts will be stored in the University of Bristol Research Data Repository if you consent to this (optional), other researchers may apply to access this data to support future research. These requests will be managed by the Research Data Service.
It is likely that results from this research will be published in journals or presented in media and at conferences. We will use direct quotes from the focus groups/interviews in these outputs, but any information that could lead to you or your child being recognised will be removed.
Who is organising and funding the research?
This study is being carried out by the University of Bristol and University of Exeter along with collaborators from several other Universities in the UK. It has been funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research.
Who has reviewed the study?
This project has been submitted for full ethical review by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Bristol.
Further information and contact details
If you would like further information relating to the study, or have any questions about what you are being asked to do, please contact Dr Abby Russell: A.E.Russell@exeter.ac.uk
If you have any concerns relating to your participation in this study, please contact the Faculty of Health Science Research Ethics Committee, via the Research Governance Team: research-governance@bristol.ac.uk