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DfE announces children's mental health pilot in 250 schools

More than 250 schools will trial a new initiative to boost support for children with mental health problems, government minister Sam Gyimah has said.

Speaking at a CYP Now conference on children’s mental health in London today, Children’s Mental Health: Policy and Practice, Gyimah said the Department for Education (DfE) will provide £1.5m to improve joint working between school settings and child and adolescent mental health services in 255 schools.

The initiative will involve a single person being named as children’s mental health lead in each school, becoming responsible for mental health, and developing closer relationships with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

“We want to facilitate better access to specialist services,” Gyimah said.

“We are working with NHS England to run a pilot looking at how schools and CAMHS can work better together.”
 
“We have invested £1.5m and are working with 255 schools to test out how training and subsequent joint working can improve local knowledge and the identification of mental health issues, and improve referrals to specialist services.”
 
Gyimah also reaffirmed his commitment to introducing peer mentoring in schools, whereby students will support their peers on mental health issues. He said an advisory panel established last month will explore what good peer support looks like and how it can be “embedded in the community”.

“We want to consider whether young people will benefit from training to support peers better with appropriate advice and information,” he said.
 
Gyimah said the DfE will work with schools and those with relevant expertise to ensure that peer-to-peer support becomes standard practice in all schools.
 
“So rather than parents being pleasantly surprised by a school offering peer support, parents will ask ‘why not?’ from schools that don’t,” he said.

The government has set aside £1.25bn to improve mental health services for children and young people by 2020.

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