Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a suicide prevention strategy aimed at (a) school and (b) university students.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to reducing the numbers of lives lost to suicide, including through prevention in educational institutions.
The Department of Health and Social Care published a Prevention Strategy for England on 11 September 2023 with over 130 actions aimed at reducing the suicide rate. The strategy also sets ambitions to improve support for people who self-harm and people who have been bereaved by suicide. As part of the strategy, a number of groups have been identified for consideration for tailored or targeted action at a national level, including children and young people.
Guidance to schools is reviewed regularly, including the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance that all schools must have regard to. Amongst other things, the guidance sets out the role all staff must play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including identifying where mental health concerns are also safeguarding concerns and making appropriate referrals into early help support services and statutory support services as appropriate.
The statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which came into force in September 2020, advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The department is currently reviewing the RSHE guidance and as part of this process the department will explore whether additional content is required on suicide prevention.
The National Review of Higher Education Student Suicides will report with important lessons for better supporting students and preventing tragedies in higher education (HE) settings in the spring. This will be published alongside updated data on HE student suicides from the Office for National Statistics.
Sep. 13 2024
Source Page: Student Mental Health Action PlanFound: The Student Mental Health Action Plan acknowledges these challenges and places student wellbeing at
Found: link together to cause me concern over the risk of people being pressurised into opting for assisted suicide
Mentions:
1: Esther McVey (Con - Tatton) I beg to move,That this House has considered the matter of suicide and mental health of young people - Speech Link
2: Stephen Kinnock (Lab - Aberafan Maesteg) We have made suicide prevention and mental health a priority, especially for young people. - Speech Link
3: Helen Grant (Con - Maidstone and Malling) Over the past 10 years in England and Wales, one student has died every four days as a result of suicide - Speech Link
Found: Please do not take my student status as a lack of experience, as I am a mature student and have also
Found: mental health campaigner with a focus on improving the mental health of young people and preventing suicide
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is her Department's policy that universities should have a statutory duty of care to students.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has asked the higher education (HE) Student Support Champion, Professor Edward Peck, to continue to work with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce.
The Office for Students (OfS) is providing £400,000 of funding to the student mental health charity, Student Minds, to rapidly expand the scale and membership of the University Mental Health Charter Programme. The Programme supports universities to adopt a whole-institution approach to mental health, and also follow a process of continuous improvement to work towards the Charter Award. The University Mental Health Charter is already raising standards within the sector.
The department has appointed academic experts from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health to undertake a National Review of HE Suicides. It will report findings by spring 2025, ensuring lessons from tragic cases are shared widely across the sector.
In 2024, to support HE providers to engage with the National Review of HE Suicides and develop mental health and suicide prevention strategies, the OfS is allocating £15 million of funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million provided early this year to support student mental health and hardship.
The government is determined that children and young people receive the mental health care they need which is why it has committed to recruit 8500 additional staff across children and adult mental health services.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help improve mental health practice in universities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has asked the higher education (HE) Student Support Champion, Professor Edward Peck, to continue to work with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce.
The Office for Students (OfS) is providing £400,000 of funding to the student mental health charity, Student Minds, to rapidly expand the scale and membership of the University Mental Health Charter Programme. The Programme supports universities to adopt a whole-institution approach to mental health, and also follow a process of continuous improvement to work towards the Charter Award. The University Mental Health Charter is already raising standards within the sector.
The department has appointed academic experts from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health to undertake a National Review of HE Suicides. It will report findings by spring 2025, ensuring lessons from tragic cases are shared widely across the sector.
In 2024, to support HE providers to engage with the National Review of HE Suicides and develop mental health and suicide prevention strategies, the OfS is allocating £15 million of funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million provided early this year to support student mental health and hardship.
The government is determined that children and young people receive the mental health care they need which is why it has committed to recruit 8500 additional staff across children and adult mental health services.
Mentions:
1: None death.Akash Bashir, who was 20, was on the welcome group at his church in Pakistan when he stopped a suicide - Speech Link
Found: In regards to Clause 4 subsection (2): The idea of assisted suicide is, for the majority of people, not