PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Pupils: Mental Health Services (11 June 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on mental health services for school students in (a) York Central constituency and (b) England in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Rachael Maskell (Labour)

The Department for Education does not specially allocate funding to mental health services. Local Authorities may choose to use some of the funding allocated to them in this way but that is not the subject of data collection.

It is a priority for us to support schools and other settings in how best to help pupils succeed through the development of character, resilience and good mental health.

We are providing nearly £5m in funding this year to a number of voluntary and community sector projects supporting the mental health needs of children and young people, as well as supporting Childline, which provides a free 24-hour, UK wide counselling service supporting young people with issues causing distress or concern, including suicidal feelings.

We also funded the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association to produce guidance to improve teaching about mental health in PSHE in March 2015. More information can be found online here: https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?ID=1435

In June 2014 we 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 and outlines what they can do to provide a stable environment that builds good mental health in all pupils. This advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2

We are working with Department of Health and NHS England to develop a pilot to train mental health leads in schools and specialist Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Answered by:
Mr Sam Gyimah (Liberal Democrat)
17 June 2015