Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to provide funding for mental health services for children in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

While it is not for schools to provide clinical mental health services and teachers should not be expected to diagnose or treat mental health, schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support to put in place to support their pupils.

To help schools to make informed decisions on what support to provide, the department is funding all schools and colleges in England to train senior mental health leads who can put in place effective whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. This includes how to ensure they are including robust processes for identifying students or specific groups who need additional mental health support. Two thirds of schools and colleges will have been able to access funding by April 2023, backed by a £10 million investment for the 2022/23 financial year. The department is also providing over £1 billion Recovery Premium funding for schools for the 2021/22 and 2023/24 academic years which, on top of pupil premium, can be used to support pupil mental health and wellbeing, including providing counselling services.

The department is working with the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England to increase the number of Mental Health Support Teams working in schools and colleges. These teams offer support to children and young people experiencing common mental health issues and facilitate smoother access to external specialist support. As of Spring 2022, there are 287 Mental Health Support Teams covering 26% of pupils in schools and learners in further education. More teams are on the way, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.