Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's proposals for Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health in schools on page 4 of its Green Paper on children and young people's mental health, published on 4 December 2017, what plans his Department has to ensure that schools will retain the benefit of the training given to those so designated people in the longer-term.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper sets out an ambitious set of proposals to fill the gap in support for children and young people’s mental health together with over £300 million of funding. This will incentivise and support all schools and colleges to identify and train a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health, introduce new Mental Health Support Teams and reduce waiting times for NHS services.

Nearly half of all schools already have a mental health lead. The training will help existing and new leads to establish whole school approaches and to engage with the new teams.