A model for personal and professional support for nurture group staff: to what extent can group process consultation be used as a resource to meet the challenges of running a nurture group?

This article details a mixed methods study designed to examine the impact of a group process consultation model in helping staff manage challenging behaviour in the nurture group setting. It relates to two geographical clusters of staff, including teachers and teaching assistants, running 11 nurture groups in a major metropolitan area in the UK, facilitated by an educational psychologist (EP). For 32 consultation referrals, teacher-rated levels of concern were compared before and after each session revealing a consistent drop, which was maintained throughout the intervention (p < 0.001). Measures of self-confidence and self-efficacy collected at the beginning of the group process consultation programme, and at the end of the first year of operation, revealed that teacher and teaching assistant self-confidence had improved significantly (p < 0.001) along with aspects of teacher self-efficacy (p = 0.023). A focus group, comprising eight teachers and teaching assistants, identified several themes and provided further elaboration on the outcomes of involvement.