Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to ensure that mental health literacy is part of all post 16 education programmes.

Further education (FE) providers provide mental health support to their students in their wrap around, pastoral offer. This includes several initiatives supported by the department. For example, the department set up the ‘Wellbeing for Education Return’ scheme, an £8 million scheme funding expert advisers and training in every local authority area to support wellbeing recovery as children and young people returned to school and FE from September 2020.

Some of the colleges funded through the £5.4 million College Collaboration Fund (CCF) are developing new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, including the ‘Let’s Chat’ programme developed by Weston College. Further information on the CCF is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/college-collaboration-fund-ccf-projects/resources-college-collaboration-fund-ccf. Once developed, these resources will be available to all further education providers online.

More recently we have announced a £79 million boost to children and young people’s mental health support, including through Mental Health Support Teams. The support teams – which provide early intervention on mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in schools and colleges – will grow from the 59 set up by last March to around 400 by April 2023, supporting nearly 3 million children and young people. This increase means that millions of children and young people will have access to significantly expanded mental health services.

We also know that some FE providers are creating their own innovative programmes to support student and staff mental health. The Sheffield College have rolled out their Uniheads mental health platform, which helps students develop good mental health knowledge and skills, build mental fitness and address poor mental health.