The new mental health support teams will be based in and
near schools and colleges and will start giving support in
2019.
Each designated team will support up to 8,000 children and
young people in around 20 schools and colleges in their
‘trailblazer’ area.
Mental health support teams will:
- build on support already in place from school
counsellors, nurses, educational psychologists and the
voluntary sector
- support children and young people with mild to moderate
mental health issues
- help children and young people with more severe needs
to access the right support, and provide a link to
specialist NHS services
The Department for Education will also fund training for
senior mental health leads in schools and colleges to
ensure a ‘whole school’ approach to mental health and
wellbeing.
The first mental health support teams will begin their
training in January 2019 at 7 universities nationwide.
The trailblazer sites will be set up in between one-fifth
and one quarter of the country by 2023 to 2024.
One in nine young people aged 5 to 15 had a mental health
condition in 2017. Teenagers with a mental disorder are
more than twice as likely to have a mental disorder in
adulthood.
Plans for further expansion of children and young people’s
mental health services will be set out in the NHS long-term
plan.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:
Children and young people with mental illness should
receive the same level of support as those with physical
illness.
Made possible by the extra £20.5 billion we are investing
in the NHS, today’s announcement will see the health and
education systems come together so our children can
access the help they need at school, and takes us a step
closer to achieving our goal of parity between mental and
physical health.
Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide
Prevention said:
Early intervention is crucial when it comes to mental
ill-health and today’s announcement will ensure that
young people can immediately access life-changing support
when the signs of mental health issues first appear,
helping to prevent these problems from escalating further
into adulthood.
Encouraging young people to think about their mental
wellbeing in the same way they do their physical aches
and pains is a vital part of our goal to put mental and
physical health on equal footing, and will help ensure no
young person is left to suffer in silence.
It’s estimated 1 in 4 of us has a common mental disorder
at any one time – I’m confident that, by introducing
improved access to critical care at a young age, we are
delivering on our promise to help people lead healthier
lives for longer and build an NHS that’s fit for the
future, which will be set out further in our long-term
plan.
