Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specialist mental health support she plans to provide to secondary schools to help tackle absences.

Poor mental health in children and young people is a significant contributing factor in school absence, and a key barrier to opportunity and learning, that the government is committed to addressing.

To tackle mental ill-health among children and young people, the government has committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. We need to ensure any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers which is why we are exploring a range of options. This includes existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

This is in addition to activity to support schools and local authorities to tackle the school absence challenge, which includes setting clear expectations for schools, trusts and local authorities to provide a ‘support first’ approach to attendance. Departmental guidance can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.

The department is also piloting attendance mentors, offering 1:1 targeted support to 10,000 persistently absent pupils and their families across 15 local authorities to identify and address barriers to education.