Schools: Mental Health Services

(asked on 29th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to introduce a statutory requirement to have a trained mental health professional or counsellor in every school in England.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 6th December 2021

The government remains committed to promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges. The department recognises that it is more important now than ever that children and young people have access to the support they need for their mental health and wellbeing, and we know that having the right provision within education settings is key to ensuring they do so.

Schools already support the mental wellbeing of their pupils as part of their curriculum provision and pastoral support, which is paid for from schools’ core funding. The autumn 2021 Spending Review delivers an additional £4.7 billion for the core schools’ budget by 2024-25, compared to previous plans.

The hon. Member for Rotherham will be pleased to know that in March 2021 the Department of Health and Social Care announced £79 million to significantly expand children’s mental health services. This will partly be spent on speeding up and expanding the provision of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges, meaning nearly three million children in England will access school or college-based support by April 2023.

These teams are comprised of newly trained Education Mental Health Practitioners, an entirely new role, as well as more senior clinicians and therapists, they work alongside existing provision, such as counselling services, to help ensure children and young people get the support they need. They support staff within schools and colleges to develop their whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, as well as providing early intervention for those experiencing mild to moderate issues and liaising with external specialist services where additional support is needed.

The government is providing £9.5 million to offer senior mental health lead training to around a third of all state schools and colleges in England in the 2021/22 financial year. The senior mental health lead is a strategic leadership role, with responsibility for overseeing the school’s ‘whole school approach’ to mental health and wellbeing. As part of this training, leads will learn about how to develop a culture and ethos that promotes positive mental health wellbeing, as well as how to make the best use of local resources, including counselling services, to support children and young people experiencing issues.

School-based counselling, by well-qualified practitioners, can be an effective part of a ‘whole school approach’. Our national survey of school provision, published in 2017, found that 61% of schools offered counselling services, with 84% of secondary schools providing their pupils with access to counselling support. Recently, findings from the department’s COVID-19 School Snapshot Survey in July 2021, found that 96% of schools were providing support in school for pupils identified as having mental health needs.

The department has produced guidance on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling, to further support schools who have decided that counselling support is appropriate for their pupils. As a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has committed to updating this guidance to make sure it reflects the current context.

The guidance sets out our strong expectation that over time, all schools will offer counselling services, alongside other interventions.

However, with regards to mandating counselling for schools, the department will not be doing so as we believe it is vital that schools have the freedom to decide what support to offer their pupils, based on their particular needs.

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