Solution-focused support groups by Consultant Sue Young. The conference Developing Strength and Resilience in Children, 1-2 Nov. 2010 in Oslo.

1. "Developing Strength and Resilience in
Children"
1-2 November 2010
Day 2 13:10 – 14:00
Responding to incidents of bullying in the
primary school:
Solution-focused support groups
Sue Young

2. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 2
You may need to tell me to slow down!
Listen out out for anything that may need
translating…
If you are unsure, no doubt there‟s others,
so please just interrupt me…

3. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 3
Solution-focused scale:
How we want school to be instead. Our best hopes for
relationships in school…
A friendly, supportive and safe community …
Lots of bullying, all the time…
10
5
1

4. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 4
However…… bullying
Even in the most friendly, safe and supportive
schools there is always the possibility that
bullying will happen
So we still need effective ways to deal with it
Individual interventions:
• Solution-focused support groups (primary)
• Solution-focused conversations (secondary)

5. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 5
Successful past
In pairs:
Tell your partner about a time when you
successfully intervened to stop bullying…
What was important in making it successful?

6. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 6
• Most bullying in schools is short-lived
• Schools are generally successful at reducing
or stopping bullying
• Sometimes they need something more
powerful…

7. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 7
Groups had been used before:
• Anatol Pikas (‘Farsta’ Method, Common
Concern)
• No Blame approach (Maines &
Robinson)
• Support group approach (me!)
A solution-focused intervention

8. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 8
Solution-focused practice
• Describing the preferred future
• Recognising the successful past
• Appreciating existing strengths
• Doing more of what works

9. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 9
Video
• The Parks Primary School in Hull
• Parents unhappy – thought bullying was
frequent & the school was doing
nothing
• Trained non-teaching staff to use
support groups
• Pupils who had been in support groups
were asked to give their feedback

10. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 10
Transcript Jodie & Roxanne
Jodie

11. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 11
Video Jodie

12. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 12
Setting up a support group:
Interview the child who needs support to:
• Identify members of the support group
– pupils s/he finds difficult
– pupils who are around at the time
– any friends / potential friends
• Explain the next step, generating optimism
• Arrange to review

13. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 13
Convene the group to:
• Aim - „ to help me make X happier in school‟
• Raise empathy from their own experiences
• Ask for their suggestions
• Compliment their ideas
• Admire their group plan
• Arrange to review
(NB The group does not include the target child)

14. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 14
Review with the child a week
later:
• Ask how things are going
• Compliment them for any improvement /
success
• Arrange review or leave it open

15. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 15
Review with group to:
• Ask how things are going
• Compliment individuals for their help
• Compliment the group for success
• Thanks and appreciation
• Arrange review or leave it open

16. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 16
Roxanne

17. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 17
Video Roxanne

18. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 18
• Parents kept informed throughout

19. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 19
Support groups: outcomes
in „difficult‟ cases:
In a review of the first 50 support groups:
• 80% bullying stopped straight away
• 14% stopped between 1st & 5th meeting
• 6% improved but re-referred

20. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 20
• The traditional way of dealing with
bullying is having an investigation and
then punish the „bully‟
• So what‟s better about using a support
group?

21. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 21
Effective intervention
• Bullying stops
• Fast
• Longer term effect
• Accessible to school staff
• Time efficient
• Parental support
• Inclusive
• No „telling tales‟

22. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 22
Solution focused support groups
–„Solution key‟
–Gets beyond, rather than solves, the
problem

23. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 23
Secondary
Constraints on using a support group

24. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 24
Solution Focused Support
Groups
• Used an example
application of SF by
Peter De Jong &
Insoo Kim Berg in
the 3rd edition of
“Interviewing for
Solutions”

25. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 25
What’s different?
• Anti-bullying focusing
on POTENTIAL
• Appreciates what staff
and students are doing
already in schools
• SF strategies for whole
school, classroom &
individuals
• Now in Swedish!!

26. sue@young.karoo.co.uk 26
Thank-you
To tell me about something you are doing, or
if you think I may be able to help in any
way:
sue@young.karoo.co.uk