Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assistance her Department provides to primary school teachers to support pupils with severe depression.

We recognise that schools have a vital role to play in helping to promote good mental health for all their pupils as well as providing early support where mental health problems have been identified.

To support them we have funded the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association to produce guidance and key stages lesson plans on teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing. The primary level lesson plans include topics such as teaching children how to describe emotions, talk about anxiety and worries, and develop coping strategies

We have issued advice on mental health and behaviour which clarifies the responsibility of the school, points to tools that can be used to help them identify pupils that may be experiencing a mental health problem such as depression, and outlines what they can do to provide a stable environment that builds good mental health in all pupils. This can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2

The department has also supported the development of MindEd, a free online portal funded by the Department of Health, which enables all adults working with children and young people to learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them.

However, teachers are not mental health professionals and schools need to have timely access to appropriate specialist support where pupils have clinical conditions. In order to help them with this, we are contributing £1.5 million to a joint training pilot with NHS England. This aims to improve the knowledge of mental health issues with key schools and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services staff as well as develop effective ways for pupils who need access to specialist mental health services.

£1.25 billion additional funding is also being made available over the next five years to transform children and young people’s mental health services to deliver more integrated and accessible services.