Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of Mind’s report entitled, Not making the grade: why our approach to mental health at secondary school is failing young people, published on 30 June 2021.

The government is grateful to Mind and Young Minds for their report about mental health in secondary schools. We recognise the difficulties that a significant number of young people are facing with their mental health and wellbeing, and that this can be linked to experiences of racism, trauma and abuse. We also know that the COVID-19 outbreak has had a particular impact on the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Mental health and wellbeing are a priority for the government, and we are working closely with schools and colleges to support pupils to return in a way that supports their mental wellbeing.

We recently announced more than £17 million to improve mental health and wellbeing support in schools and colleges. This includes funding to train a senior mental health lead in 7,800 schools and colleges in England this academic year. Senior leads will learn about the range of mental health issues likely to be encountered in schools and colleges, the risk factors associated with specific groups, including pupils who have suffered from trauma and vulnerable groups and how to put in place whole school approaches that embed that knowledge into wider staff training and school processes, including behaviour and attendance policies.

This is in addition to the £79 million we announced in March to boost children and young people’s mental health support. This funding will increase Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to cover around 35% of pupils in England by 2023. MHSTs work with groups of schools and colleges to identify specialist needs of pupils in their areas.

We understand that mental health difficulties can lead to challenging behaviour, and we know some students require additional support to behave well. Our Behaviour Hubs programme equips schools and multi-academy trusts to create and sustain positive behaviour cultures. The programme includes specialist training modules on managing challenging behaviour and inclusive practices and policies.

However, we will always support headteachers to use exclusion when required as part of creating calm and disciplined classrooms – and our guidance sets out how headteachers can make these difficult decisions in a way which is lawful and fair. At times, it may also be necessary to use reasonable force to restrain a pupil – for example, to break up a fight to protect teachers and other pupils. We trust schools to use their judgement in recording incidents involving force and, when serious incidents occur, we would expect schools to record the incident and let the parents know.

Furthermore, recently the department carried out a call for evidence as part of a fundamental review of both the behaviour and discipline and suspensions and permanent exclusions guidance. For this we gathered views on behaviour management which included interventions that support pupils with particular vulnerabilities. This will help us understand how schools have appropriate provision to support any mental health needs, special educational needs or disability that a pupil may have.

Racism has no place in schools, or in society. We expect headteachers to put effective behaviour policies in place to tackle this, including actions to prevent bullying, and have put in place support. Our Respectful School Communities tool can support schools to develop an approach which promotes respect and discipline, in order to combat bullying, harassment and abuse of any kind. We are also currently running a procurement exercise to fund anti-bullying organisations in 2021-22, to make sure that schools have the right support in place to prevent bullying of all pupils, including those with protected characteristics. This builds upon the changes we have made to make relationships education compulsory in all schools, which covers teaching pupils the knowledge they need to foster respect for other people and for difference. Where bullying and racist incidents do occur, schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring these and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their circumstances.