Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support students with mental health problems at university.

The recent Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health outlines plans to set up a new national strategic partnership focused on improving the mental health of 16-25 year olds. This partnership is likely to look to support and build on sector-led initiatives in higher education such as University UK’s Step Change project. This calls on higher education leaders to adopt mental health as a strategic priority and adopt a whole-university approach to mental health, embedding it across all policies, cultures, curricula and practice.

We are also looking at how to improve education and training for students and staff in higher education about mental health. Guidance on the signs people may display when suicidal could be included in this initiative.