Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department provides financial support to schools for student counselling following incidents of a tragic nature.

Schools need to respond to tragic incidents, which vary widely in nature. The Department’s Mental Health and Behaviour guidance includes links to sources of information and support, including on bereavement and other traumatic events. This includes MindEd, which provides online advice and training on mental health for all professionals working with children and young people. Where children need more specialist support, it is important that other services work together with schools to provide the right support. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out how specialist mental health support will be increased including through to access crisis care 24 hours a day by 2023/24, and support for at least an additional 345,000 children and young people who will be able to access support via NHS funded mental health services, including mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges.

While the Government does not routinely provide additional funding to schools to respond to specific incidents, it will look at whether adequate support is available in specific cases. In response to incidents in Manchester and at the Grenfell Tower the government provided funding to enable local authorities to provide additional support to schools, colleges and children affected. The planning of mental health support across education, health, local authorities and the voluntary sector is a critical element in the response to such major incidents, such as the terrorist events in Manchester and London.