Supporting Children and Young People’s Mental Health

Last month, following my roundtable discussion with schools in Norwich North, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Education regarding a number of issues, one of which was asking what the Government are doing to ensure mental health support for young people.

I know how incredibly important it is to protect and support the mental health of children and young people in our society. That is why I continue working hard to ensure that young constituents with mental health problems get the appropriate care and treatment they need. 

In response to my letter, the Government recognise that supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, especially at this time, is incredibly important. That is why they are ensuring that children’s mental health and wellbeing is central to their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, as part of Mental Health Awareness Week, the Government announced more than £17 million of mental health funding to improve mental health and wellbeing support in schools and colleges. This included £7 million of additional funding for local authorities to deliver the Wellbeing for Education Recovery programme.

All this builds on Wellbeing for Education Return in 2020/21, which provided free expert training, support and resources for staff dealing with children and young people experiencing additional pressures from the last year, including trauma, anxiety, or grief. Wellbeing for Education Return has been used by more than 90 per cent of councils since its launch last summer.

In addition, up to 7,800 schools and colleges in England will be offered funding of £9.5 million to train a staff member to become a senior mental health lead in the next academic year, which is part of the Government’s commitment to offering this training to all state schools and colleges by 2025.

I am also pleased that the Government will fund a programme designed to improve partnerships between health and education leaders in local areas, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed.

The Government have convened a Mental Health in Education Action Group, led by the Children’s Minister, Vicky Ford and the Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan. Through this group, they are working to ensure they put in place the right support for children and young people’s mental wellbeing at this critical time, and in the longer term. This is being backed by the Youth Mental Health Ambassador, Dr Alex George.

Through constituency casework, I know all too well about the long delays in children and young people receiving the appropriate mental health assessment and therapy. So I am delighted that the Government is expanding children and young people’s mental health services to support an additional 345,000 individuals by 2023/24, backed by record investment of an extra £2.3 billion per year. This includes investing £57 million in suicide prevention from 2019/20.

I hope that this additional funding will give constituents confidence that the Government will do everything they can to support children and young people with their mental health – so that when they need help, they get help.

If I can help constituents with any matter, please do email me on chloe@chloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756