The Solihull Approach: Its use by school and community nurses in school drop-in sessions

This study looks at the experiences of Solihull Approach trained school and
community nurses, asking if and how they use the Solihull Approach in their school
drop-in sessions. The study also explores the experiences of pupils who have
attended drop-ins with Solihull Approach trained nurses.
The Solihull Approach is a psychotherapeutic and behavioural model for
professionals working with children and their families. It provides a framework for
practice and advocates the use of three key elements with children and their families:
containment, reciprocity and behaviour management.
This study used semi-structured interviews with nurses and pupils. It was found
through thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) of the transcripts that school and
community nurses use two of the main elements of the Solihull Approach;
containment and reciprocity in their drop-in work. It was found that nurses used
containment prior to Solihull Approach training, although naming the process is itself
suggested as helpful. Although nurses report not using reciprocity in their drop-ins,
their descriptions of their behaviour and pupil accounts of the sessions indicate nurses
use reciprocity in their drop-in sessions. It was found that nurses do not think
reciprocity is relevant to their drop-in work but is relevant in the home, particularly to
the parent and child relationship. Additionally, the findings indicate what pupils value
about drop-in sessions; privacy and confidentiality being paramount to them.
The implications of these findings for training in and development of the Solihull
Approach are discussed, while methodological issues arising from the research paradigm are explored. The distinctive and original contribution of the research is
described and recommendations for future research are presented.

This thesis supplied via ROAR to UEL-registered users is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication of any part of the material is not permitted, except for your personal use for the purposes of non-commercial research and private study in electronic or print form. You must obtain permission from the copyright-holder for any other use. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, for sale or otherwise, to anyone. No quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.