Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government plans to make changes to the Mental Health Support Teams model to ensure that it is fit for purpose in SEN schools.

No formal assessment has been made of the adequacy of the mental health support team model for delivery in special educational needs (SEN) schools.

Mental health support teams are trained to deliver specific interventions for mild to moderate mental health needs. These interventions can benefit children or young people with special educational needs who have co-occurring mild to moderate mental needs. The core functions of the mental health support team model can also be used to support education settings such as SEN schools to develop their whole school approach to mental health, and to facilitate access to appropriate external specialist services to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education.

There are currently no plans to make changes to the model. Mental health support teams have adapted their offer to provide tailored support in SEN schools. However, as these are relatively new teams, it is too soon to be able to share learning from those teams, or to make changes to the model.