Commenting on the report of the House of Commons Education
and Health and Social Care Committees, "The Government's Green
Paper on mental health: failing a generation", Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders (ASCL), said:
"This report confirms ASCL's concerns that the government's
plans for improving mental health support for children and young
people do not go far enough or fast enough. The government's
green paper fails to address the critical problem facing schools
and colleges, which is the fact that real-terms funding cuts are
forcing them to cut back on existing counselling and support
services at exactly the time that mental health issues are
rising. The proposal for a designated senior lead for mental
health in every school doesn't address this problem, and may
actually add to workload. And there are many unanswered questions
about how the mental health support teams envisaged in the green
paper would work.
"The green paper also fails to adequately address the most
important issue beyond the school gates, which is the lack of
capacity in local NHS services for students with serious mental
health problems. Its ponderous plan to roll-out pilot projects to
reduce waiting times over the course of several years is simply
not good enough. The crisis is happening now."
