Commenting at the start of the
awareness week, Dr Mary
Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
"In Children's Mental Health
Week we continue to call on the government to not just
acknowledge the increase in children and young people who
struggle with mental health issues but to make concrete
investment and effective planning to tackle
it.
“Schools need more than
sticking-plaster approaches and cheap substitutes for specialists
from the government. They need timely access to specialist mental
health professionals and funding for the increased pastoral
capacity that we know works, and they need it now. Years of
young lives are being lost waiting for specialist support and it
can’t go on.
“Teachers need time to get to know
their students well rather than just racing them through an
over-full curriculum towards high-stakes exams, all of which
impacts negatively on student and teacher mental
health.
“With increasing numbers of young
people missing school because of mental health issues and a
teacher recruitment and retention crisis, surely now is the
time for the government to listen to young people, families and
those professionals who work with them daily and to make the
changes we need for every child to feel connected and to
thrive.”
