Government publishes mental health green paper for schools
Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper
SCHOOLS NorthEast take a look at the three key ‘pillars’ of the Government’s approach are set out in the Green Paper, which commits to spending £310 million to support young people’s mental health:
Senior Mental Health Leads – £95 million of the funding will go to training “senior mental health leads” to work in schools. These people will be responsible for developing a “whole-school approach” to mental health and wellbeing. Their roles will also include pastoral support and ensuring strong policies are in place for dealing with issues including bullying.
Mental Health Support Teams – The remaining £215 million will pay for new support teams. These will be expected to improve the link between schools and local health services. The teams will also work to improve early intervention on mental health, by providing a range of support and treatments in or near schools and colleges. The government hopes to recruit “several thousand people” over the next five years to fill the teams, which will be supervised by clinicians.
Quicker access to health services for pupils – The NHS will pilot the implementation of reduced waiting times for access to NHS-funded children and young people’s mental health services in some of the pilot areas. This will aim for children and young people in those areas to be able to access NHS-funded services within four weeks.
Also mentioned in the Green Paper:
Mental health discussions and CBT in classrooms – Pupils will be taught about mental health and wellbeing in classrooms through the new relationships education and PHSE curriculum. The aforementioned mental health support teams will also be trained to offer ‘evidence-based treatments’ in the classroom, including cognitive behaviour therapy.
New research – New research will be commissioned to fill “evidence gaps” across children’s mental health, including a focus on how best to support vulnerable families. There will also be a new working group to look at mental health support for 16- to 25-year-olds.
Training for teachers – Mental health awareness training for teachers will be offered to every primary and secondary school in the country.
Timeline:
January 2017 – Government announces Green Paper.
December 2017 – Green Paper launched.
March 2018 – Consultation period ends.
2018 – Training providers funded to develop training packages for Designated Senior Leads for Mental Health.
2019 – Piloting starts in a number of “trailblazer” areas.
2019/20 – Access to funding for training of the Designated Senior Leads starts.
2020/21 – Rollout starts, dependent on success of the pilots.
2022/23 – Rolled out to “at least a fifth” of England.
2025 – Training for Senior Leads for Mental Health will be available in all areas.
20?? – All new initiatives available across England at an unspecified time in the 2020s.