Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 91
A whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing should include the promotion of good...
Conclusion
A whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing should include the promotion of good mental health as well as the early identification of those who are at risk of mental health difficulties. Designated Senior Leads for mental health can have an extremely important role in overseeing and leading this whole school approach but they need to be adequately trained, particularly in how to identify and intervene in emerging cases of mental health problems. Given the worrying signs that more children and young people are turning to self-harm as a coping mechanism and more are struggling with eating disorders, it is extremely concerning that training for Designated Senior Leads appears to have been paused and has not yet been rolled out four years after the Green Paper committed to do so.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states it accepts the recommendation but provides a lengthy and irrelevant response detailing commitments to children and young people's crisis care, including 24/7 access and single points of contact, failing to address training for Designated Senior Leads in schools.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
91
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
We accept this recommendation in part. The Department for Education’s (DfE) ambition is for all schools and colleges to have a Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) trained by 2025. DfE expects this to total around 22,000 senior leads. So far, over 7,000 schools and colleges have either a trained SMHL or a SMHL in training. We are providing training to develop Senior Mental Health Leads in schools and colleges, and DfE guidance for schools and colleges on promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing sets out the importance of the role of the Senior Mental Health Lead in leading a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. DfE funding is available to access quality assured training. The training helps SMHLs to develop an action plan to implement or enhance a whole school or college approach, and includes content on early identification of children and young people at risk, and appropriate interventions.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗