Suicide prevention plan includes more mental health support for children

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced the cross-government plan to “to aid specific groups at risk of suicide, including children and young people, autistic people, middle-aged men, pregnant women, and new mothers”.

As part of the plan, schools, universities, and charities will be signed up to a new national alert system to notify relevant authorities of emerging methods of suicides and risks, and any required actions that can reduce access or limit awareness.

Further measures aimed at children and young people highlighted in the plan include:

• Working with NHS England to continue to roll out mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

• Reviewing relationships, sex and health education guidance to consider the inclusion of suicide and self-harm prevention as an explicit part of the curriculum.

• Offering all state schools and colleges funding to train a senior mental health lead by 2025.

• Funding anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying.

The government has also pledged to grow the mental health workforce by 73 per cent by 2036/37 as part of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, said: “This national cross-government strategy details over 100 actions we’ll take to ensure anyone experiencing the turmoil of a crisis has access to the urgent support they need.

“It’s imperative we support people earlier to prevent them reaching the lowest point, while tackling emerging methods of suicide, and eradicating harmful material online.

“We’re working at pace to achieve this, and we continue to invest billions of pounds to transform and improve our nation’s mental health services and – most importantly – save lives.”

Responding to the launch of the five-year strategy, health and social care committee chair Steve Brine said: “We’ll also be considering mental health as part of our major inquiry into preventing ill-health.

“Ministers have recognised that underlying the strategy’s success is the need for a bigger mental health workforce. We’ll be monitoring the government’s ambitious target to grow this workforce by nearly three-quarters by 2037.”

The strategy comes after NHS data released last month showed that the number of urgent referrals of under-18s reached more than 3,000 in April.

This increased to 3,732 in May this year, which is three times higher than the same period in 2019, and the highest rate of referrals recorded in a single month since records began.