School-led commission into the mental health of pupils in the North East sees official launch
The country’s first schools-led commission on pupil mental health, Healthy MindED, will sit for the first time on Monday 23 January.
Healthy MindED, created and co-ordinated by SCHOOLS NorthEast, will bring together a representative group of school leaders along with influential practitioners working within and alongside the education system to consider how best to tackle growing problems with children’s emotional wellbeing.
SCHOOLS NorthEast is keen to hear from as many schools as possible about the issues they face around mental health, so that we can understand the scale of the problem and what schools have found effective in dealing with it.
The Commission will hold open sessions during which will gather evidence from schools as well as regional and national organisations. The sessions will be open for those interested to attend and will also be streamed and recorded for those who are unable to be there in person. The first of these is scheduled to take place on 3 March.
The Commission will also be supported by two sub-regional advisory boards and we will soon be looking for members for these boards – details of what will be expected from members and how to apply will be released shortly.
SCHOOLS NorthEast will be holding a conference on mental health in schools – linked to the work of the Commission – in early June.
Dame Sue Bailey was formally announced as Chair of the Commission at the SCHOOLS NorthEast Annual Summit in October 2016.
Commenting on the announcement, Dame Sue said: “The time has come for us all to take action and improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing and prevent mental health problems developing.
“The strength of SCHOOLS NorthEast is that it represents such a large community of schools who are not only committed to academic excellence, but as importantly to the emotional wellbeing of their pupils. At a time when schools are potentially becoming more atomised and policy more fragmented, this group of schools has decided to share good practice, learn from collective successes (and mistakes) in order to improve the lives of children and young people in the North East.
“That is why the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition are delighted to be working with SCHOOLS NorthEast. I personally feel privileged to be asked to chair the Commission.