Select Committee criticises Government’s Mental Health Green Paper
A joint report published this week by Parliament’s Education and Heath Select Committees has heavily criticised the Government’s “unambitious” “Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision” Green Paper.
The MPs said: “The Government’s strategy lacks ambition and will provide no help to the majority of those children who desperately need it. The narrow scope does not take several vulnerable groups into account, and the proposals put significant pressure on the teaching workforce without guaranteeing sufficient resources.
“There is also little or no attention to prevention or early intervention. The suggested speed of delivery will leave hundreds of thousands of children with no improvements in provision for several years and with possibly worsened provision if staff leave to join trailblazer areas elsewhere”.
Similar concerns emerged when SCHOOLS NorthEast consulted school leaders in the region to inform a regional response to the Green Paper consultation. No heads gave a sense that we are reaching a limit on the responsibilities schools can take on in the absence of additional ongoing funding and expressed disappointments at the long delivery timescales envisioned by the Government.
At the SCHOOLS NorthEast Healthy MindED conference on the 24th May, delegates will have a chance to put questions to Matthew Hopkinson, Children and Young People’s Mental Health at the DfE, on the Green Paper and the Government’s children and young people’s mental health agenda.
Other speakers at the conference include Simon Finch, an online safety specialist who will be discussing social media, Dr Mina Fazel from Oxford University, an expert on school-based mental health interventions, Dr Emily Henderson, CYPMH lead at North East Clinical Networks who will discuss building pupil resilience and Dr Wendy Thorley, an expert on adverse childhood experiences (ACES).
To view the full programme and book your place go to http://bit.ly/2K5dqqN