Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how a person can contact the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Membership of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group (NSPSAG) is arranged by direct appointment and reviewed regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect the strategic direction and priorities of the national suicide prevention strategy for England and subsequent progress reports. Final decisions on membership rests with the Department and the Chair of NSPSAG, Professor Sir Louis Appleby. We will also be considering NSPSAG membership as we develop our new suicide prevention strategy.
NSPSAG membership is made up of a wide range of experts, including those with lived experience, academics, the voluntary sector, public health and the National Health Service. Member organisations are: Association of Directors of Public Health; British Transport Police; Coroners’ Society of England and Wales; Harmless; Health Education England; If U Care Share; James' Place; Local Government Association; Mental Health Foundation; Mental Health Innovations; Ministry of Justice; Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England; National Suicide Prevention Alliance; NHS England; Office for National Statistics; Papyrus; Royal College of General Practitioners; Royal College of Nursing; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Samaritans; Shout; The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities; Young Minds; and Zero Suicide Alliance.
Queries about the NSPSAG should be sent to the Department, which provides the secretariat function for the NSPSAG.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) application process and (b) appointment criteria is for members of National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Membership of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group (NSPSAG) is arranged by direct appointment and reviewed regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect the strategic direction and priorities of the national suicide prevention strategy for England and subsequent progress reports. Final decisions on membership rests with the Department and the Chair of NSPSAG, Professor Sir Louis Appleby. We will also be considering NSPSAG membership as we develop our new suicide prevention strategy.
NSPSAG membership is made up of a wide range of experts, including those with lived experience, academics, the voluntary sector, public health and the National Health Service. Member organisations are: Association of Directors of Public Health; British Transport Police; Coroners’ Society of England and Wales; Harmless; Health Education England; If U Care Share; James' Place; Local Government Association; Mental Health Foundation; Mental Health Innovations; Ministry of Justice; Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England; National Suicide Prevention Alliance; NHS England; Office for National Statistics; Papyrus; Royal College of General Practitioners; Royal College of Nursing; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Samaritans; Shout; The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities; Young Minds; and Zero Suicide Alliance.
Queries about the NSPSAG should be sent to the Department, which provides the secretariat function for the NSPSAG.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who the members are of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Membership of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group (NSPSAG) is arranged by direct appointment and reviewed regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect the strategic direction and priorities of the national suicide prevention strategy for England and subsequent progress reports. Final decisions on membership rests with the Department and the Chair of NSPSAG, Professor Sir Louis Appleby. We will also be considering NSPSAG membership as we develop our new suicide prevention strategy.
NSPSAG membership is made up of a wide range of experts, including those with lived experience, academics, the voluntary sector, public health and the National Health Service. Member organisations are: Association of Directors of Public Health; British Transport Police; Coroners’ Society of England and Wales; Harmless; Health Education England; If U Care Share; James' Place; Local Government Association; Mental Health Foundation; Mental Health Innovations; Ministry of Justice; Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England; National Suicide Prevention Alliance; NHS England; Office for National Statistics; Papyrus; Royal College of General Practitioners; Royal College of Nursing; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Samaritans; Shout; The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities; Young Minds; and Zero Suicide Alliance.
Queries about the NSPSAG should be sent to the Department, which provides the secretariat function for the NSPSAG.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of waiting times for mental health support on the incidence of self-harm.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Whilst we have made no specific assessment, we expanded the scope of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in 2017 to include addressing self-harm as a highlighted issue, and we continue to fund the Multi-Centre Study of Self-harm which is the most in-depth analysis and monitoring of self-harming trends in England. The NHS Long Term Plan also commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by 2023/24 so that an additional two million people can get the NHS-funded mental health support that they need.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what mental health support is available to prison staff.
Answered by Damian Hinds
In full recognition of the challenging aspects of prison-based work, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is committed to providing a range of formal and peer led mental health support for prison staff. Modes of support offered include self-referral to counselling via a 24 hours and 365 days a year confidential telephone helpline and self-referral for online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Management led referrals are routed to the Occupational Health (OH) provider where assessments and feedback on fitness for work or work adjustments are relayed back to the manager with employee consent. OH assessments are conducted by qualified specialist nurses, doctors and mental health clinicians. For work related trauma management, face to face or virtual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is offered if clinically appropriate. OH also offers a Post-Covid 19 syndrome service which provides structured mental health support as well as physical support.
Proactive mental health support, by the means of ‘Reflective Sessions’ is delivered by a third-party provider and mental health qualified practitioners. Reflective Sessions take the form of individual or group sessions at either HMPPS or supplier premises. The sessions aim to both reduce the likelihood that staff will experience adverse effects as a result of working on programmes with offenders or high-risk cases, and to increase the likelihood of the experience of positive effects as a result of this work. A wide range of mental health promotion proactive wellbeing workshops are also offered and delivered either via Teams or in person in prisons.
Peer support groups include Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) practitioners, Care Teams and Mental Health Allies. Chaplains are also well-established to provide mental health support to prison staff and prisoners alike.
Employee wellbeing apps are available to be downloaded on mobile phones and tablets which provide up to date guidance, support and signposting to a range of employee physical and mental health support services.
In September 2020, working in collaboration with the Samaritans and the Zero Suicide Alliance, HMPPS introduced a staff self-harm and suicide prevention campaign, Reach Out, Save Lives. Backed by the Lord Chancellor, the campaign drives a consistent message about reaching out to support one another and seeking assistance and aims to impact and challenge cultural norms around a publicly sensitive topic.
HMPPS Occupational Health and Employee Assistance policy and the Post Incident Care policy are in place to support staff.
A comprehensive section on Stress Risk Assessment is available on the employee intranet Health and Safety site. Guidance includes a stress toolkit designed for both employees and managers.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.
Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative. This includes websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that if teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including suicide prevention in the statutory guidelines for the RSHE curriculum.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which was made mandatory in 2020 for all pupils.
Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide cautiously. Schools should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. If teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including teaching on suicide and self-harm prevention in the national curriculum; and what steps he is taking to help ensure students starting examinations have access to mental health and other support services.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.
Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that where teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.
Schools and other education providers should be preparing all children and young people for examinations and should have strong pastoral support in place to help pupils deal with any worries they might have throughout the year.
Ofqual has a series of dedicated resources on exam anxiety and stress. This includes a practical guide for students on coping with exam pressure, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students. The NHS have also produced advice and guidance aimed at parents and carers on supporting their child through examinations, accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/advice-for-parents/help-your-child-beat-exam-stress/.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is planning to take in the proposed 10-year suicide prevention strategy that will help tackle suicides among school and university students.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent suicides. We continue to work with experts and to review our plans to ensure they are fit for the future. The mental health and wellbeing of students in schools and universities, including suicide prevention, is a government priority. The department has been working closely with higher education (HE) providers, schools and health colleagues to ensure students are supported.
As part of a coordinated, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, the department is committed to ensuring schools provide safe, calm, and supportive environments, with access to early, targeted support. This is vital in preventing the onset, progression, and escalation of ill mental health. We are enabling schools to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing by committing to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This is backed by £10 million in 2022/23. Over 8,000 schools and colleges, including half of state-funded secondary schools in England, have signed up so far.
The department is also expanding access to early, targeted mental health support by increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges to 400 by 2023, covering around 35% of pupils in England, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
Alongside these initiatives, we are promoting good mental health amongst children and young people through the school curriculum. Health education is compulsory in all schools and has a strong focus on mental wellbeing. Pupils are taught where and how to seek support for themselves as well as others. At secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss issues such as self-harm, addiction, and suicide when teaching these topics.
In addition to this, the department is funding a large-scale randomised control trial of approaches to improve pupil mental health and wellbeing in schools. The ‘Aware’ arm of the trial is testing approaches to mental health awareness teaching, including Youth Aware of Mental Health, which has good international evidence of reducing suicidal ideation. Moreover, colleges funded through the £5.4 million college collaboration fund have developed new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, with resources available to all further education providers online.
We also expect all universities to engage actively with suicide prevention, intervene to support students at risk, and act sensitively when a tragedy occurs.
The department supports the Suicide-Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK (UUK) and Papyrus. This framework supports university leaders to prevent student suicides, and support students and families after the death of a student. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter, led by Student Minds, which aims to raise standards in mental health provision across the sector.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral statement of 27 June 2020 on Draft Mental Health Bill, what plans he has for the proposed 10-year suicide prevention strategy to recognise a link between self-harm and suicide; and what steps he plans to take to tackle the prevalence and frequency of self-harm.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We will engage with those working to prevent suicide to understand the priorities for the new suicide prevention plan. While self-harming can present a risk of suicide, this does not determine that an individual may wish to take their own life. Approximately, half of those who died by suicide had a history of self-harm in their lifetime.
In 2017, we expanded the scope of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to include self-harm. In addition, we have provided funding for the Multicentre Study of Self-harm in England to analyse trends in self-harming. We are allocating £57 million by 2023/24 to support local suicide prevention plans and bereavement services. We have ensured that suicide prevention funding for local areas includes addressing self-harm.