Hayley Gains

Hayley is a PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. She is based in the Child and Adolescent Resilience and Mental Health team and is currently conducting research into school attendance difficulties.

Hayley is experienced in working with schools, parents and young people to better understand social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence. She recently used co-production methods to develop teacher training materials on self-harm and led patient and public involvement to examine the UK’s special education needs and disabilities system.

Previously, Hayley worked on an evidence review for the Education Endowment Foundation, which used realist methodology to examine what works to support the implementation and sustainability of interventions in UK schools. She worked on the delivery of a UK-wide multi-centre cluster randomised control trial to evaluate the KiVa anti-bullying intervention and evaluated youth crime prevention initiatives with Devon and Cornwall Police.

Hayley graduated from BSc Psychology at Durham University in 2017 and MSc Psychological Research Methods at Exeter University in 2021, with a Dean’s Commendation for Exceptional Performance.

Useful links

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FH2qULwAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0335-347X

PhD (ARC East of England): https://arc-eoe.nihr.ac.uk/research-implementation/research-themes/measu...

Publications

Key publications:

Selected Publications

Burn, A. M., Gains, H., & Anderson, J. K. (2025). Principles of practice for a whole school approach to self-harm: a qualitative study. (in press) https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7529401/v1

Burn, A. M., Gains, H., & Anderson, J. K. (2025). A Self-Harm Awareness Training Module for School Staff: Co-Design and User Testing Study. JMIR Formative Research, 9, e69309. https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e69309

Saxton, J., Burn, A. M., Zhang, X., Toulmin, H., Parker, J., Casey, H., ... & HOPE Study). (2025). Barriers, enablers and outcomes reported by parents engaged with the special educational needs system in England: A qualitative study. PLoS One, 20(11), e0335606. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335606

Gains, H., Winterburn, I., Saxton, J., Matthews, J., Farr, W., Black-Hawkins, K., ... & HOPE study. (2025). Identification, assessment and provision of special education needs in England: a cross-sectional survey to compare perceptions of young people, parents/carers and professionals. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2025.2491192

Moore, D., Proctor, R., Benham-Clarke, S., Gains, H., Melendez-Torres, G., Axford, N., Rogers, M., Anderson, R., Hall, D., Hawkins, J., Berry, V., Forbes, C., & Lloyd, J. (2024) 'Review of Evidence on Implementation in Education', Education Endowment Foundation: Retrieved from https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/pmsresearch/1128

Bowes, L., Babu, M., Badger, J. R., Broome, M. R., Cannings-John, R., Clarkson, S., ... & Hutchings, J. (2024). The effects and costs of an anti-bullying program (KiVa) in UK primary schools: a multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 54(15), 4362-4373. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291724002666

Sanders, A., Gains, H., Baer, R., Ball, S., Jones, B., Banks, H., ... & Ukoumunne, O. C. (2023). Investigation of the factor structure and differential item functioning of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM): Analysis of data from a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial. Mindfulness, 14(7), 1718-1734. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02166-9

News, Blogs and Magazine Publications

Gains, H. (2025). Young people share what mental health research should focus on. NIHR News. arc-eoe.nihr.ac.uk/news-blogs

Gains, H. & Hitchcock, L. (2025). Self-harm E-learning for School Staff: Co-production of the SORTS Toolkit. ACAMH. 10.13056/acamh.86412

Gains, H. & Fatima Nawaz, R. (2024). Traumatic Stress in Palestinian children and young people in the Gaza Strip. National Elf Service. https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/ptsd/trauma-palestine-g...

Gains, H. (2020). How do you measure student teacher relationships? Tes Magazine. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/how-do-you-measure-student-teacher-...

Gains, H. (2019). How would you feel if you couldn’t play? The Psychologist. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/how-would-you-feel-if-you-couldnt-play

Hayley is a PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. She is based in the Child and Adolescent Resilience and Mental Health team and is currently conducting research into school attendance difficulties.

Publications

Affiliations

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge