PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Schools: Mental Health Services (18 January 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies on school-based mental health services of the findings of the Children's Society's Good Childhood report, published in August 2016.

Asked by:
Judith Cummins (Labour)

Good mental health and wellbeing are a priority for the Department. The Good Childhood report emphasises some the challenges we face in tackling the burning injustice of mental health problems, so that children can fulfil their potential.

The government is clear that improving mental health starts with ensuring that children and young people get the help and support they need and deserve, and has already committed to invest £1.4bn until 2020 to transform children and young people’s specialist mental health services. On 9 January the Prime Minister announced further activities to improve these services. These include joint working with the Department of Health on: the commissioning of a major country wide thematic review of children and adolescent mental health services, led by the Quality Care Commission, to identify what is working and what is not; and bringing forward a new green paper on children and young people’s mental health to set out plans to transform specialist services and support in education settings and for families.

In addition, this Department will also take forward specific projects to extend our joint training pilot for single points of contact in education and CAMHS to up to 1200 more schools and colleges in 20 additional Clinical Commissioning Group areas; pilot a range of peer support programmes and approaches for schools, colleges, community groups and online; and launch a programme of randomised control trials of preventative programmes across three different approaches to prevention and promotion of good mental health and wellbeing.

Since publication of the report I have met the Children’s Society to discuss the implications of the report for policy. We will continue to engage with the Children’s Society and other voluntary sector organisations as we develop the green paper jointly with the Department of Health, so that we can draw on the expertise and knowledge that they hold.

Answered by:
Edward Timpson (Conservative)
23 January 2017