SHINE – The Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network
Published: 14 July 2025
SHINE is helping to transform health and wellbeing outcomes for young people in Scotland through school-based health improvement research and data-driven innovation.
Improving mental health research with young people
The aim of SHINE is to help transform health and wellbeing outcomes for young people in Scotland through high quality, school-based health improvement research and data-driven innovation.
Established in 2018, SHINE has a current membership of 770 primary and secondary schools, representing over 280,000 young people in all 32 local authority areas. The network is a collaboration between schools, researchers and policymakers.
Supporting schools to work effectively with health data
SHINE supports schools to collect and use health data in order to prioritise and address health and wellbeing needs relevant to their context. SHINE ‘s expertise in the translation and accessibility of health data for the school audience is applied to produce data reports for schools participating in the SHINE online pupil mental health survey and/or the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey. Schools use the reports to keep up-to-date with key physical and mental health data findings, for example on social media, sleep, bullying, low mood, physical activity and diet to inform improvement planning.
SHINE mental health survey knowledge exchange
SHINE schools receive personalised school-level data reports focusing on self-reported wellbeing and life satisfaction, mental health difficulties and positive mental health traits. The reports present aggregate data by school year and gender, and are shared across all stakeholders in the school community, with young people’s voices at the centre of the decision-making systems. When used at scale, across all schools in a Local Authority, outcomes can be reported according to family affluence and wider gender responses. The wider findings can be shared with GIRFEC groups and multi-agency stakeholders to inform improvement planning
The survey has been highlighted to schools as a resource to use as an additional assessment of pupil health and wellbeing in the Scottish Government’s ‘Whole School Approach to Mental Health Framework. Nationally, over 180,000 responses have been collected since 2020. It has been rated by one Depute Headteacher as:
...one of the best sources of baseline assessment that we have. I now have a clear list of areas for development to work through with staff and I am beginning to have a robust picture of our school’s evolving health needs.
Supporting adolescent mental health research through collaboration
SHINE supports high quality research which has a clear benefit for participating schools and facilitates collaboration between health researchers and educational practitioners, via the SHINE monthly newsletter, webinars and the annual in-person network conference. Responsive to current educational trends, the team were awarded CSO funding for the ABSAIL (Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-term Outcomes) project to improve understanding of policy and practice around Emotionally-based School Non-attendance. As part of the Datamind project, team members contribute to the Hub for Mental Health Informatics research development, working on the harmonisation of wider mental health research datasets.
In addition, current SHINE affiliated projects include:
- Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools
- Equally Safe at School - addressing gender-based violence in secondary schools
- AMBIENT -Teens Sleep Study
- CLOCK OFF - reducing night-time use of electronic devices and social media
First published: 14 July 2025
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