Further Education and Schools: Mental Health Services

(asked on 13th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools are on the waiting list after applying to receive a grant for senior mental health lead training as of 13 January 2022; and what steps he is taking to reduce that waiting list to help ensure that training is offered to all eligible schools and colleges by 2025.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 18th January 2022

The government is making good progress on its commitment to offer senior mental health lead training to all state-funded schools and colleges in England by 2025. Since applications opened in October 2021, over 8,000 eligible schools and colleges have applied for a senior mental health training grant. As at 12 January 2022, over 6,500 of these have booked onto a Department for Education quality-assured training course, and their grant payments are being processed. Furthermore, over 3,500 senior leads are estimated to have begun their training, providing knowledge and skills to enable them to implement effective holistic approaches to promoting and supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in their school or college.

As at 14 January 2022, around 270 schools and colleges are on a waiting list for a senior mental health lead training grant. All currently available grants are reserved, pending schools and colleges that have submitted their initial application confirming they have booked a training course. The waiting list enables the department to quickly allocate any grants that become available, and our position on issuing grants for the 2022-23 financial year will be confirmed later in the spring.

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