Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Transforming Children Green Paper, what his strategy is for ensuring a joined-up approach between school mental health leads and other appropriate agencies to improve the mental health of young people.

The Department has a joint programme of work with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Health Education England to deliver the proposals set out in the green paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’.

New Mental Health Support Teams are being introduced jointly by the Department and NHS England and will be available to 20-25% of England by 2023. These teams will work with schools and colleges and other professionals such as educational psychologists, school nurses, counsellors and social workers to supplement existing support.

The Department is also incentivising schools and colleges to identify and train a senior mental health lead, who will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of a whole school or college approach to promoting better mental health and wellbeing.

In addition, the Department is providing training through the Link programme to schools and colleges in England over four years from autumn 2019. The Link programme is designed to develop effective partnership working between schools and colleges and NHS specialist mental health services for children and young people.