Having explored key components of the EiE context that are important to consider when developing educational programmes, the next question is around creating optimal conditions for academic attainment in the EiE context. This section explores how an SEL programme might be designed to promote the interacting mental health, wellbeing, and social and emotional competencies (SECs) and skills necessary for successful academic engagement among learners on the move. International investment in SEL programmes is increasing as the role that these competencies and skills play in academic achievement, relationships, civic participation and employment opportunities is supported by empirical findings (Corcoran et al., 2018; Durlak et al., 2011). In EiE contexts, the research reviewed here indicates that SEL programming is most helpfully located within a wider MHPSS programme area with a public mental health-wellbeing promotion focus for formal and informal educational settings. The following section reviews the wider MHPSS literature, including: æ The model of mental health that shapes SEL design and delivery. æ Child mental ill-health and wellbeing and resilience. æ Education, play, and play- and learner-centred pedagogies as pathways to mental health and wellbeing. A public mental health promotion focus requires the involvement of local voices in MHPSS-SEL programming. Along with consultations with host countries about any existing MHPSS-SEL programming, the Community Readiness Assessment Model (CRA) and Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) are considered as initial steps for the Learning Passport as a whole, to access local voices, as well as to initiate the intervention process. An ecosocial, multidimensional model (ADAPT – Adaptation and Development After Persecution and Trauma) created with and for refugee, migrant, and displaced populations is then reviewed, including evidence that it offers a helpful framework for the multiple interacting levels of these populations’ experiences. The MHPSS-SEL triangle is considered and followed by a brief overview of SEL as a field. The discussion then focuses on the underlying mechanism of all SEL competencies and skills, self-regulation through the developmental progression of differentiation and integration, and concludes with a suggestive, preliminary SEL framework for EiE contexts.