Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to introduce mandatory mental health training for education professionals.

We recognise that education professionals have a vital role to play in raising concerns about eating disorders and other mental health needs, as well as providing early support where mental health problems have been identified. We believe that schools are best placed to make decisions about the training needs of their staff, and there is a range of training available. In particular we have supported the development of MindEd, a free online portal funded by the Department of Health, which enables all adults working with children and young people to learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them.

To support schools further we have funded the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association to produce guidance and primary and secondary key stages lesson plans on teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing. These lesson plans cover all the key stages and topics covered at Key Stage 3 and 4.

We have issued advice on mental health and behaviour which clarifies the responsibility of the school, points to tools that can be used to help them identify pupils that may be experiencing a mental health problem, and outlines what they can do to provide a stable environment that builds good mental health in all pupils. This includes a section on identifying eating disorders and outlines the types of support and treatment that can be offered: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2. We have worked with experts to produce guidance on what makes for good school-based counselling, including how it can be effective in the context of whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools

To help teachers understand mental health,- we are contributing £1.5 million to a joint training pilot with NHS England which aims to improve the knowledge of mental health issues with key schools and CAMHS staff and develop effective local route ways for pupils who need access to specialist mental health services.

To drive specific improvements in support for young people with eating disorders, the government has made £150 million available over the next 5 years through NHS England. More widely, an additional £1.25 billion funding is being made available over the next five years to transform children and young people’s mental health services to deliver more integrated and accessible services.