Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the costs to schools of new obligations for mental health support and education; and whether he has plans to allocate additional funding to schools to discharge those obligations.

The proposals set out in the green paper 'Transforming Children and Young people’s Mental Health Provision' do not place new obligations on schools.

The Government will fund the training of a Designated Senior Lead for mental health in every school, but it will be for schools to decide whether to put a lead in place and train them in how to implement a whole school approach to mental health. Around half of schools already have an identified lead for mental health and see the benefits it can bring.

New mental health support teams will provide a trained workforce linked to groups of schools and supervised by NHS staff to meet the needs of children and young people with mild to moderate mental health issues. The teams have the potential to reduce the burden on schools of dealing with mental health issues very significantly. During the initial trailblazer stage of implementation the Department will evaluate how well they work with schools to achieve this.

Schools will be required to teach about mental health as part of our plans to make Health Education compulsory. The Department is currently considering what support schools will need to deliver high-quality teaching, and are seeking views through the consultation on the subject.