Schools: Mental Health

(asked on 13th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which of this Department's funding streams will be used to allocate funding to schools for mental wellbeing in September 2020.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 21st July 2020

The return to school is a vital factor in supporting the mental wellbeing of pupils, in addition to providing more opportunities for physical activity, attendance at school allows social interaction with peers, carers and teachers, which benefits wellbeing. To support this, we have encouraged schools to focus on mental wellbeing as pupils return.

The department has now published detailed plans for all children and young people to return to full-time education from September. The guidance highlights the particular need to focus on pastoral support and mental wellbeing as a central part of what schools provide, in order to re-engage them and rebuild social interaction with their friends and teachers. This will involve curriculum provision as well as extra-curricular and pastoral support. Our recently published mental wellbeing module, part of the relationships, sex and health education curriculum, will support teachers to prepare to deliver content on mental health and wellbeing. The guidance for schools is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

The mental wellbeing teacher training module as part of the relationships, sex and health education curriculum is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.

Schools already support the mental wellbeing of their pupils as part of their curriculum provision and pastoral support. This is paid for from schools’ core funding, which is rising by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 funding levels. 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 catch-up package, to be shared across all state-funded schools over the 2020-21 academic year. School leaders will have the discretion on how to use this funding to best support their pupils to catch up for lost time, which in some cases, will include support to parents, carers and children to help them re-engage with learning. Pastoral support is a core job for schools, we do not place restrictions on spend because it is important that schools are free to decide how best to use the core funding they receive.

Access to mental health support is more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak. NHS services remain open, and leading mental health charities are being supported to deliver additional services through the £5 million Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund. During Mental Health Awareness Week, the government also announced that a further £4.2 million will be awarded to mental health charities, including the Samaritans, Young Minds and Bipolar UK. All NHS mental health trusts have been asked to ensure that there are 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages.

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