Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help improve outcomes for people with anxiety who are in full-time education.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by March 2024 so that an additional two million people, including those with anxiety who are in full-time education, can get the National Health Service funded mental health support that they need.

We have delivered the £7 million Wellbeing for Education Recovery programme, which provides free expert training, support and resources for staff dealing with children and young people experiencing additional pressures from the pandemic, including trauma, anxiety, or grief. The programme built on the success of the £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return, used by more than 90% of councils after it launched in summer 2020.

We are making good progress in rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges across England. As of spring 2022 there were 287 in place in over 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. We expect this is now at around 399 teams covering 35% of pupils and are just awaiting final confirmation of these numbers from the NHS. Over 500 are planned to be up and running by 2024.