Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary school students (i) have access and (ii) will have access in the next 12 months to a mental health support team.
The delivery of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in education settings is led by NHS England, with support from the department. MHSTs support the mental health needs of children and young people aged 5 to 18 in primary, secondary and further education (FE).
MHSTs have three core functions:
Guidance on senior mental health lead training can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/senior-mental-health-lead-training, and guidance on a whole school or college approach to mental health support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-children-and-young-peoples-emotional-health-and-wellbeing.
There are currently 398 operational MHSTs in place, and a further 100 teams are currently training Education Mental Health Practitioners, which means around 500 MHSTs will be up and running by April 2024.
An estimated 1.4 million (32%) primary school pupils, and 1.6 million (46%) secondary school pupils are covered by the current operational MHSTs. Data is not yet available by school type for the next 12 months. The department anticipates coverage of pupils in schools and learners in FE to increase from the current 35% to around 44% overall in 2024.
Further information on the MHST rollout progress is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1156762/Transforming_CYPMH_implementation_programme__data_release_May_2023.pdf.