Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on strategies adopted by secondary schools to educate young people in coping with poor mental health and suicidal thoughts.

We recognise that schools have a vital role to play in helping to promote good mental health for all their pupils, as well as providing early support where mental health problems have been identified. It is important that schools can develop approaches to supporting pupils which suit their particular circumstances. While we do not collect information on the approaches taken, the department has produced a number of pieces of guidance which reflect practice in schools.

We are providing nearly £5m in funding this year to a number of voluntary and community sector projects supporting the mental health needs of children and young people, as well as supporting Childline, which provides a free 24-hour, UK wide counselling service supporting young people with issues causing distress or concern, including suicidal feelings. We also funded the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association to produce guidance to improve teaching about mental health in PSHE in March 2015. More information can be found online here: https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?ID=1435

In June 2014 we issued advice on mental health and behaviour which clarifies the responsibility of the school, points to tools that can be used to help them identify pupils that may be experiencing a mental health problem and outlines what they can do to provide a stable environment that builds good mental health in all pupils. This advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2

The cross-government suicide prevention strategy was published in September 2012. The objectives are to reduce suicide and support people bereaved or affected by suicide. Much of the planning and work to prevent suicides is carried out locally. It is for local agencies, including working through health and wellbeing boards, to decide the best way to achieve the overall aim of reducing the suicide rate.