Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to promote the school-as-community-hub model with integrated health, education and social care provision for children and family engagement outside the school day; and if he will make a statement.

New multi-agency arrangements were introduced through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which set the framework for how the three safeguarding partners (police, health and local authorities) should work with other key agencies, including schools, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area.

Once designated as a relevant agency by the safeguarding partners, schools must comply with their local arrangements. Beyond this, it is up to schools to decide how best to operate in practice with health and social care services to provide support for pupils and their families and engage with the community more widely.

The Government recognises that schools are well placed to act as a focus for collaborative delivery of early intervention services, an important part of maintaining children and young people’s engagement in education.

An example of this will be the introduction of new mental health support teams as part of the proposals set out in the 'Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services' green paper. These teams will work collaboratively across schools, colleges and NHS mental health services to support children with emerging and moderate mental health issues and to boost preventative activity. The intention is that teams should work with other existing local authority, health and voluntary and community sector provision to ensure that children and young people receive the right support at the right time.