Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support the mental health and wellbeing of school and college staff during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department recognises the pressure that teachers and leaders in schools and colleges are under, and is enormously grateful to them for their efforts, resilience, and service as we continue to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Department has worked in partnership with the sector and mental health experts to provide a range of support for mental health and wellbeing. This includes improving access to resources and the development of the first ever wellbeing charter for staff which the Department intends to publish in the coming months.

The Department has taken action to respond to the mental health needs of school leaders as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak by launching a £95,000 pilot led by Education Support to provide online support and telephone supervision from experts to around 250 school leaders. This service has now been extended until March 2021. The outcome of the pilot will inform future wellbeing support. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-mental-health-support-for-pupils-and-teachers.

The £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return training programme continues to support staff in schools and colleges to respond to the additional pressures children and young people may be feeling as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as to any emotional response they or their teachers may be experiencing. Additional support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/supporting-pupils-wellbeing. The Government has also provided over £10 million funding to mental health charities – including Mind, the Samaritans, Young Minds, and Bipolar UK to help them adapt, expand, and reach those who are most vulnerable.

Following my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s announcement on 13 January 2021, the Department is also convening a new Mental Health in Education Action Group, chaired by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Children and Families, and my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities. This group will look at how we support young people and staff with their wellbeing as they return to school and university. On 4 February my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister appointed Dr Alex George as Youth Mental Health Ambassador to advise government and raise the profile of mental health education and wellbeing in schools, colleges and universities. He will be joining the new Mental Health in Education Action Group.

As well as providing additional COVID-19 specific mental health advice and support for children and young people, our Relationships, Health and Sex Education curriculum includes mental health and wellbeing. We have a host of online training materials and implementation guides, which give inclusive advice to schools and staff on how best to support pupils’ mental health, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.

The Government remains committed to long term improvements to support children and young people’s mental health, set out in the government’s response to its green paper and NHS Long Term Plan. This includes rolling out new Mental Health Support Teams to work with a fifth to a quarter of schools and colleges across the country by academic year 2023/24, offering training for a senior mental health lead in every state school in the country, and Link Programme training for all schools and colleges to help frontline health and education professionals work together effectively.