Pupils: Mental Health

(asked on 16th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of support for children's mental health in the run-up to examinations.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th July 2018

Schools are responsible for preparing their pupils for examinations and should have strong pastoral support in place to help pupils with any worries they might have.

The Government has taken steps to increase teachers’ awareness of mental health issues. The Department of Health and Social Care is funding mental health awareness training for every secondary school teacher and plans to extend this to all primary schools before the end of this Parliament. This is in addition to funding MindEd – a free online portal providing information and training about mental health problems for adults working with children and young people.

Where pupils have an emerging mental health issue, many schools offer support. A Departmental survey indicated that 84% of secondary schools provide school-based counselling for pupils with emerging issues.

As set out in the green paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health provision’, the Government has committed to funding all schools to train a designated senior lead for mental health. The leads will be trained to promote and support good mental health and wellbeing in a school setting. The paper includes proposals for new Mental Health Support Teams. These will be made up of professionals trained in evidence-based interventions, with supervision from clinicians, to work alongside teachers and other professionals such as counsellors to provide support. The teams will also provide better routes into specialist NHS services for the pupils who need them.

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