A new report sets out plans to embed a wellbeing culture in schools and enable pupils to access a range of early help services to tackle what campaigners are calling a crisis in children’s mental health.
The proposal is one of several measures put forward by the Centre for Young Lives (CfYL)/Child of the North campaign for policymakers across all parties to adopt as part of a drive to reduce the prevalence of children’s mental health problems by half over the next decade.
The report, Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing with and Through Educational Settings, sets out the crucial role schools can play in supporting children’s mental health and promoting and supporting wellbeing.
With children spending more time in school than in any other formal institutional structure, the report’s authors argue that educational settings are best placed to reach large numbers of children and facilitate interventions with pupils displaying early symptoms of concerning behaviour.
MHST expansion
The report calls on the next government to expand the mental health support offered through schools and educational settings from primary school onwards, without placing extra burdens on teachers. In particular, it recommends an expansion of mental health support teams (MHSTs) both in terms of their remit and the speed in which they are being set up.
MHSTs, a key recommendation of the Children’s Mental Health Green Paper 2017, support children with mild-to-moderate mental health problems and provide a link to services for those with severe problems. MHSTs aim to strengthen partnerships between education providers and mental health services through linking schools with single points of contact in child and adolescent mental health services.
By April 2024, around a third of schools and colleges and 44% of pupils were due to be covered by an MHST, with this expected to rise to 50% next year. The CfYL report says these teams need to be available to all pupils as soon as possible and their remit should be broadened to include school-wide preventative work as well as one-to-one support for more complex problems.
“The evidence shows that MHSTs are mostly doing one-on-one support for children and young people with moderate-to-severe mental health difficulties suggesting a need to investigate the efficacy of peer-to-peer group work when problems are milder in nature,” the report states.
“There also needs to be recognition that not all children will benefit from MHSTs, and a multi-faceted approach is required to providing support – both through the school offer and through external provision. These approaches need to treat the mental health problems of young people as a priority and tackle pervasive issues such as academic pressure, the removal of extra-curricular activities, and teacher training.”
This can be achieved, it says, by involving the community and voluntary sector, alongside health and social care services.
Link to non-attendance
Anne Longfield, executive chair of the CfYL, says the rise in schoolchildren with a probable mental health condition – from one in nine to one in six over the past five years – is a factor in rising absence rates (see graphics).
“As an anchor in children’s lives, schools have a crucial role to play in supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing,” she says. “Yet four million children will not have access to mental health support teams under current plans. We need to rocket-boost support in schools if we hope to bring down the numbers of children who are struggling with mental health problems.
“The current school attendance crisis is likely to be driven in part by children with mental health problems who are unwilling or unable to attend school. We know already that children and young people with mental health conditions are more likely to be absent from school, and that poor mental health significantly impacts on school attendance and outcomes.”
Other recommendations in the report include the creation of a network of “one stop shop”online NHS information hubs to signpost children and families to appropriate local mental health support. These hubs would allow schools to work with parents and children to create a “supportive learning environment, tailored to local services and the local community”.
Regular school-based surveys using digital platforms would gather information about children’s mental health and wellbeing, identify geographical hotspots and determine when the “emotional temperature” of a school is in the “danger zone” so it can offer support, it adds.
Better early support for neurodivergent children and boosting the educational psychology workforce are other measures in the plan.
Expert backing
Children’s mental health and education experts have backed the plans (see box).
Catherine Roche, chief executive of mental health in schools charity Place2Be, says: “We know that having an expert, evidence-based, mental health service available in school is effective. When this support is in a familiar accessible setting, delivered by a trusted professional, we can ensure more young people get the right care before their mental health issues escalate.
“Place2Be supports this report’s calls for mental health support teams to be expanded, both in their reach and in their delivery. To achieve this, we need ambition, backed up with investment. Like others, we urge the government to fulfil their promises to the next generation and invest in their future, by giving every child across the country the right support for their mental health.”
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition agrees with the report’s call for the government to be more ambitious with the speed of the rollout of MHSTs.
Coalition manager Charlotte Rainer says: “The ambition to reach 50% of the country by 2025 is simply not good enough, particularly in the face of rising mental health need amongst children and young people. On the current trajectory, millions of children will be left behind and the postcode lottery that already exists in mental health provision for children and young people will be exacerbated.
“Members of the Coalition have long been calling for a full rollout of MHSTs, and we welcome the recommendations in this report to expand the mental health support offered to educational settings. MHSTs have huge potential to support children, young people, families and schools, and it is crucial that this potential is realised and built on.”
The recommendations also chime with the findings from a recent report by the Anna Freud Centre which calls for the next government to adopt a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing. This includes encouraging schools to give greater priority to children’s social, emotional and physical development as well as academic achievement; improving access to preventative mental health programmes in schools for those with mild-to-moderate needs; and improving training for teachers on good mental wellbeing.
With improving education outcomes and children’s mental health set to be key issues in the coming general election, campaigners hope political parties develop comprehensive and ambitious measures to develop the support infrastructure in schools.
Full report: Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing with and Through Educational Settings.
Expert view: School-based support is crucial to preventing mental ill health
Helen Marshall, chief executive, Brook
Half of mental health conditions arise by the age of 14 yet too many young people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed and bounce between services from their teens into adulthood, and investment in children’s mental health services remains considerably less than for adult services. We know that educational settings provide a valuable opportunity to reach large numbers of young people and family support, so increasing services through schools and early years’ settings is key to early help and prevention. It is fundamental to invest now to address the long-term challenge of improving mental health and wellbeing, reducing lengthy waiting lists, and ultimately leading to a vast reduction of the billions spent on crisis support in the future.
For 60 years, Brook has been listening and responding to what young people want and need, adapting services and provision to meet them where they are and offering tailored, non-judgmental support without stigma or shame. This mirrors what young people are saying they want from mental health services, which are fundamentally failing to meet their needs, especially for those with multiple and complex needs, including neurodivergence.
As the political parties vie for attention in the run up to the general election, there are welcome developments and some new commitment to improve young people’s wellbeing through schools and community hubs. Clearly more needs to be done. Brook services are frequently the first health services that young people access independently and where they feel safe and comfortable to disclose a range of mental health and safeguarding concerns. However, our work shows an alarming increase in unmet mental health needs at a time when the system is unable to respond.
Support for young people must be diverse and adaptable, acknowledging that mental health isn’t a linear progression but a spectrum requiring tailored interventions. Achieving this requires unified efforts across statutory and voluntary services, bolstered by increased recruitment and training of mental health professionals. It hinges on early intervention, age-sensitive therapeutic services, and community-based initiatives ensuring equitable access to safe spaces, while also enhancing data collection for those slipping through the cracks of formal services.
Brook is committed to pioneering new early intervention mental health and suicide prevention services for young people. Having helped normalise access to sexual health services for young people, we are excited to rewrite the narrative with young people for their mental health and wellbeing.
