Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide funding to help improve the mental health of (a) primary school pupils, (b) secondary school pupils and (c) 18-25 year olds in (i) further or (ii) higher education.

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

That is why the government has committed to expand Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. ​ NHS-funded MHSTs are expected to cover at least 50% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England by the end of March 2025.

The department will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.

In addition, to support education staff, the department provides a range of guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. For example, a resources hub for mental health leads, and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils.

The department continues to work closely with the further education sector to promote and support providers to develop and implement a whole college approach to mental health and wellbeing. This includes supporting the Association of Colleges (AoC) in their goal for all colleges to sign up to the AoC Mental Health Charter and to align it with the University Mental Health Charter in higher education (HE). AoC’s framework aims to integrate mental health and well-being into every aspect of college life.

Departmental officials also continue to work closely with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce, which recently published its second stage report.

To raise standards in the sector, the Office for Students has also provided £400,000 of funding to the student mental health charity, Student Minds. This has enabled significant expansion of the University Mental Health Charter Programme, with 113 universities now signed up. The programme helps universities to adopt a whole-institution approach to mental health, bringing universities together to drive forward continuous improvement in mental health support for students.