Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department is providing to (a) Place2Be and (b) other children’s mental health charities that provide support within schools and colleges, in academic year 2020-21; and how much of that funding has been distributed to date, by region.

The department does not provide specific funding to Place2Be or other mental health charities to provide support within schools and colleges.

It is up to schools and colleges to decide what support to offer to students, drawing on support from specialist services. Many schools use their funding to bring in support from charities, but we do not collect details of spend.

The Department for Education is currently providing the biggest increase to schools funding in a decade, with total additional investment of £14 billion across the next 3 years. There has already been a £2.6 billion increase in 2020-21, including £780 million for high needs, and there will be an increase of £4.8 billion compared to 2019-20 in 2021-22, including £730 million for high needs. There will also be an increase of £7.1 billion for schools and high needs compared to 2019-20, in 2022-23. High needs funding provides for children with complex special educational needs and disabilities including social, emotional and mental health issues, continues to be provided to local authorities as normal.

To support the return to school, the government has also announced an additional £650 million ‘catch up’ premium, as part of our wider £1 billion COVID-19 catch up package, to be shared across all state-funded schools over the 2020/21 academic year. This can be used to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, as a method of helping pupils to catch up after a period of disruption to their education.

On 27 January 2021, the government announced a further £300 million of new funding for high-quality tutoring to help children and young people catch up. The government will be working in collaboration with the education sector to develop specific initiatives for summer schools and a COVID premium to support catch up, alongside developing a long-term plan to support pupils to catch up over the course of this Parliament. Further detail on this funding and support will be confirmed in due course.

As part of our joint Green Paper delivery programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, we are introducing Mental Health Support Teams to provide mental health support to groups of schools and colleges. These are currently being rolled out across England and charities are leading the provision of teams in some areas.

The government is also funding charities to provide wider support to children, young people and families affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The department is providing £11 million to the See, Hear Respond programme between June 2020 and March 2021), delivered by a consortium of national and local charities to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and associated restrictions. The programme provides support to those at risk of harm outside of the home, for new or struggling parents and to successfully connect or reintegrate children and young people back into education. It is particularly equipped to work with children under 5 years old and those who are experiencing a negative impact on their mental health.

Additionally, the government has provided £9 million funding to mental health charities – including Mind, the Samaritans, Young Minds, and Bipolar UK to help them adapt, expand and reach those who are most vulnerable.