PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mental Health Services (23 April 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the training programme for new mental health support teams; and if he will publish the content of that programme.

Asked by:
Alison McGovern (Labour)

The role of Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) will form a core part of the Mental Health Support Teams, working with and supervised by local children and young people’s mental health specialist staff who have undertaken EMHP supervisor training and alongside Senior Mental Health Leads in schools and colleges.

The EMHP is a new role, the education and training of which has been commissioned by Health Education England. The EMHP training curriculum was developed by an expert reference group including Professor Peter Fonagy, Senior National Clinical Adviser on Children and Young People's Mental Health for NHS England, and is designed to be as accessible as possible and aims to widen participation in the mental health workforce. The one year training programme commenced in January 2019.

EMHP trainees will:

- be trained to deliver low intensity interventions with children, young people, and their parents/carers for common mental health problems; and

- be taught the necessary knowledge and skills to work effectively in education settings and to support whole-school approaches to mental health.

Details of the training programme have not been published.

Answered by:
Dame Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative)
29 April 2019