Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is planning to take in the proposed 10-year suicide prevention strategy that will help tackle suicides among school and university students.

The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent suicides. We continue to work with experts and to review our plans to ensure they are fit for the future. The mental health and wellbeing of students in schools and universities, including suicide prevention, is a government priority. The department has been working closely with higher education (HE) providers, schools and health colleagues to ensure students are supported.

As part of a coordinated, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, the department is committed to ensuring schools provide safe, calm, and supportive environments, with access to early, targeted support. This is vital in preventing the onset, progression, and escalation of ill mental health. We are enabling schools to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing by committing to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This is backed by £10 million in 2022/23. Over 8,000 schools and colleges, including half of state-funded secondary schools in England, have signed up so far.

The department is also expanding access to early, targeted mental health support by increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges to 400 by 2023, covering around 35% of pupils in England, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.

Alongside these initiatives, we are promoting good mental health amongst children and young people through the school curriculum. Health education is compulsory in all schools and has a strong focus on mental wellbeing. Pupils are taught where and how to seek support for themselves as well as others. At secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss issues such as self-harm, addiction, and suicide when teaching these topics.

In addition to this, the department is funding a large-scale randomised control trial of approaches to improve pupil mental health and wellbeing in schools. The ‘Aware’ arm of the trial is testing approaches to mental health awareness teaching, including Youth Aware of Mental Health, which has good international evidence of reducing suicidal ideation. Moreover, colleges funded through the £5.4 million college collaboration fund have developed new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, with resources available to all further education providers online.

We also expect all universities to engage actively with suicide prevention, intervene to support students at risk, and act sensitively when a tragedy occurs.

The department supports the Suicide-Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK (UUK) and Papyrus. This framework supports university leaders to prevent student suicides, and support students and families after the death of a student. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter, led by Student Minds, which aims to raise standards in mental health provision across the sector.