PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Children and Young People: Mental Health Services (23 March 2021)

The Department for Education has spent £9.2 million to date on the delivery of our specific commitments outlined in the government’s 2018 response to ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health: A Green Paper’. This includes £2.6 million for supporting the roll-out of new mental health support teams, the national roll-out (and adaptation during the COVID-19 outbreak) of the Link Programme, improving joint working between local health and education partners, and developing a training offer for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges.

In response to the pressures of the COVID-19 outbreak, the government prioritised bespoke training and support to meet the immediate challenges that schools and colleges were facing in supporting children and young people. The department has therefore also spent £6.6 million contributing to the Wellbeing for Education Return programme alongside the Department for Health and Social Care, providing training and support to schools and colleges with their immediate approach to wellbeing and mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme has funded local experts to provide training, advice and resources for schools and further education (FE) providers to help support the wellbeing, resilience and recovery of pupils and students, parents and carers and staff in light of the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown.

Over 90% of local authority areas in England have reported that they are delivering additional training and support into local schools and FE providers because of the Wellbeing for Education Return funding, and have been continuing to do so remotely. Nationally, information indicates that more than 15,000 education settings are being offered additional training and support. We remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with DHSC and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams for all schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.

The support that schools and FE providers provide to their pupils as they return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting mental health and wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting children and young people’s recovery. The £700 million package includes a new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary, secondary and special schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students. This will help schools and FE providers to provide their disadvantaged pupils with a one-off boost to the academic and pastoral support that has been proved most effective in helping them recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. It can be used for mental health and wellbeing support. The expectations for schools in this regard are set out clearly in the department’s guidance to schools, which also signposts further support: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

This funding follows our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package, which includes £650 million shared across early years, schools and 16-19 providers over the 2020/21 academic year to support education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place. This is already being used by schools to put in place additional mental health and wellbeing and other support.

We have also recently announced a £79 million boost to children and young people’s mental health support, including through mental health support teams. The support teams provide early intervention on mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in schools and colleges, supporting them with their wider approach and liaison with health services. The teams will grow from the 59 set up by last spring to around 400 by April 2023, supporting nearly 3 million children. This increase means that millions of children and young people will have access to significantly expanded mental health services.

As well as providing additional COVID-19 specific mental health advice and support, our relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education curriculum includes mental health and wellbeing. We have online training materials and implementation guides, as well as case studies, which gives inclusive advice to schools and staff on how best to support pupils’ mental health: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.

The department has convened its Mental Health in Education Action Group to look at the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people and staff in nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities. It is bringing together partners to take additional action to support mental wellbeing of children and young people with the return to education settings and with transitions between education settings in September 2021. This will include looking at what more we can do to help schools to make the most effective use of the recovery premium to support mental health and wellbeing.