Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to require all schools and colleges to have Mental Health Support Teams; and what steps he is taking to increase access to accredited counsellors though Mental Health Support Teams.

Mental health support teams are commissioned by integrated care boards as part of the National Health Service mental health service offer which, through the NHS Long Term Plan, is receiving an additional £2.3 billion investment a year by 2023/24. On top of this, the Government provided an additional £79 million in 2021/22 to expand children and young people’s mental health services, which included a faster increase in the coverage of mental health support teams.

Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally proposed in the Transforming Children and young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper. This will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils by April 2023, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024. Details on the rollout of further mental health support teams are being developed and will be confirmed in due course.

On average, each mental health support team will work with around 8,000 children across 10-20 schools and colleges. All schools involved will have a mental health lead. Each mental health support team is made up of a number of education mental health practitioners and senior clinicians or higher-level therapists as well as a team manager and some admin support. The teams act as a link with local NHS children and young people’s mental health services.