Psychosocial Support Activities

This indicator measures the proportion of learning spaces that provide holistic and structured psychosocial support (PSS) services to children, enabling a greater understanding of the prevalence and quality of wellbeing support available. This is measured against the four attributes mentioned above.

1) Determine the total number of schools or learning spaces targeted by the action. This data can be gathered from project level documentation.

2) Determine what needs to be achieved under each of the four attributes listed below for PSS activities to be considered as meeting the criteria and create a scoring system (for example, per attribute: 0 = criteria not met, 1 = criteria partially met, 2 = criteria fully met). Some examples of criteria for the attributes are provided below:

• structured: for example, activities follow a lesson plan that includes an introductory activity, main activity and concluding wrap-up or summary of learning.
• goal-oriented: for example, activities work towards meeting a specific learning objective or outcome.
• evidence-informed: in order to fully measure this part of the indicator, a needs assessment that includes information on specific child protection, wellbeing and cognitive needs should be conducted before a PSS intervention is designed. Any intervention should correlate to the findings of this needs assessment. If it does, it can be considered as being “evidence-informed”. If the intervention does not correlate to the identified needs, it should not be counted as being evidence informed.
• targeted and tailored to different sub-groups of vulnerable children: for example, activities are designed to meet the specific needs of different sub-groups of vulnerable children, ensuring that all children are able to participate equally in activities. This might require a curriculum review or adaptation of PSS activities to be suitable to a particular context and target audience. If a curriculum review has been conducted and/or adaptations have been made to ensure that activities are suitable for all children they can be considered "targeted and tailored”. If this process has not been conducted or activities are found to not adequately address the needs of all children, they cannot be considered as “targeted and tailored”.

3) Review relevant program documentation (such as relevant PSS curriculum, lesson plans, and needs assessment data) and/or school or learning space policies or other documentation in order to determine whether these attributes have been met by the assessed PSS activities. It may be necessary to conduct observations of PSS activities in order to verify that activities are conducted in line with the reviewed documentation (for example, whether the sessions follow a lesson plan that includes a specific learning objective). The PIN PSS Session Observation Form can used to conduct the observations.

4) Once relevant documentation has been reviewed and/or PSS session observations have been conducted, allocate a score to each attribute. Add up the scores to determine how many attributes are met in the school or learning space (if following the above scoring system, the overall score should be between 0-8. In order to be counted as fulfilling at least three attributes, a score of 6, 7 or 8 must be obtained.). 

5) To calculate the overall percentage of PSS sessions meeting at least three of the criteria of being a) structured, b) goal-oriented, c) evidence-informed, and/or d) targeted and tailored to different sub-groups of vulnerable children, divide the number of targeted schools or learning spaces featuring PSS activities that scored at least a 6 on the scale above by the total number of targeted learning spaces. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

Disaggregation of the data can be done by the four attributes by the type of school or learning space (formal versus non-formal), including the type of non-formal education (NFE) or level of education (primary, lower secondary, upper secondary).

1) This is INEE Indicator 2.3.

2) When determining the examples of how PSS sessions meet the four required criteria, reference should be made to in-country standards for provision of PSS services, or, if they do not exist, the INEE Guidance Note On Psychosocial Support and Minimum Standards (especially Standard 9: Protection and Well-being).

3) Note that the term PSS – and related terminology – can be sensitive in some contexts and can be translated inappropriately and/or commonly misunderstood. Ensure that any reference to such technical terms are culturally appropriate and do not cause harm by increasing stigmatisation or discrimination.

4) Related indicators:

     ECHO

        - KRI: Number of students, teachers and other education personnel provided with psycho-social support services

     Global Education Cluster

        - % of emergency affected learning spaces/schools in target areas incorporating psycho-social support

        - % of Child Friendly Spaces where structured age appropriate CFS activities are implemented based on needs identified by girls, boys and families

     UNRWA

        - % of students participating in at least one recreational and/or extracurricular activity during the year

        - number of students who have attended at least one counselling session provided by UNRWA

     Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS)

        - 15.2.1 % of target locations where culturally, gender, age-sensitive group activities are accessible to all children