Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specialist support is provided within schools for pupils with mental health problems.

Schools have an important role to play in supporting children and young people around good mental health. Many schools provide their pupils with support services such as counselling. In order to help them do this effectively, the Department for Education published a blueprint for school counselling services, on 25 March 2015. This was developed in conjunction with experts in the field, and provides head teachers with practical advice on how to secure high-quality school based counselling services. More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools. The Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Association published guidance, funded by the Department for Education, on providing age-appropriate teaching about mental health problems. This guidance can be found at: www.pshe-association.org.uk/emotionalhealth.

However, the Department recognises that teachers are not mental health professionals and need access to specialist support. Our ‘Mental health and behaviour in schools’ guidance, first published in June 2014, provides teachers with information and tools that will help them to identify pupils who need help, provide effective early support and understand when a referral to a specialist mental health service may be necessary. More information can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2.

“Future in Mind”, the report published by the Government’s children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing taskforce, was published on 17 March 2015[1]: It sets out the Department’s ambitions for 2020, including for improved access to support through named points of contact in specialist mental health services and schools. The report also outlines our ambitions for mental health specialists to work directly in schools and GP practices. In order to inform future practice, the Department will be contributing £1.5 million in 2015-16 to a joint pilot with NHS England to test joint training for single points of contact in specialist services and schools.

On 14 March, the Government announced an additional £1.25 billion in funding over five years from April 2015 to secure better access to specialist services for children and young people with mental health problems. This will mean that at least 100,000 more children and young people will receive treatment by 2020, and this funding will pay for the introduction of new waiting time standards.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-mental-health-services-for-young-people