(Twickenham) (LD)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision to
require every school to have access to a qualified mental health
professional; and for connected purposes.
Mr Speaker,
“He used to be such a lovely happy little boy and now he’s so
sad. I’m terrified for his future. All I’ve ever wanted was to
help my son and I’ve failed and fallen at every hurdle.”
Those are the anguished words of a constituent of mine who is
mother to a nine-year-old. Week in and week out, I speak to
parents whose children are struggling with their mental health
and struggling to access appropriate support. When I speak to
headteachers, they tell me that some of the most pressing
challenges facing our education system come from outside the
classroom, and mental health is among the biggest. Teachers often
feel as though they are the fourth emergency service, filling the
gap left by under-resourced services across the country.
Let us be clear: mental health services for young people before
the pandemic were inadequate. Since the pandemic, despite the
best efforts of everyone working in the sector, services are on
their knees. The current generation of children have had to
contend not only with rising pressures and judgments brought by
social media, but with the huge consequences of a global
pandemic. It is unsurprising that such challenges have taken
their toll on children’s and young people’s mental health.
It is estimated that one in five children between the ages of
seven and 16 has a probable mental health disorder. If six
children in every classroom were diagnosed with a physical
condition such as diabetes, there would rightly be a public
outcry, and there would be no discussion about urgently putting
both proper treatment and preventive measures in place. We would
just do it. Mental health is no different and should not be
treated any differently.
We must do everything in our power to ensure that every child
arrives at school happy, healthy and ready to learn and thrive.
My Bill provides one of the tools to help to achieve that. It
would place a dedicated qualified mental health practitioner in
every school—primary and secondary—giving every child in school
access to care and support from the moment they start to need
it.
Early intervention is crucial. Research tells us that half of all
lifetime mental health disorders start before the age of 14.
Stepping in as soon as warning signs start to show can often help
to prevent conditions from becoming more severe. When Nicole, now
aged 19, was struggling with her mental health, she had to wait a
very long time before she could access any support. Describing
that time, she said:
“Waiting for suitable mental health support meant that my whole
life felt like it was paused and erased…I was left without
suitable support and my mental health left to deteriorate.”
This story is not unique, nor is it unusual. I know that
colleagues across the Chamber are aware of many similar stories
in their own constituencies.
The state of our children and young people’s mental health is a
significant and urgent challenge facing our country and, frankly,
this Government are not taking it seriously enough. In December
2021, the Health and Social Care Committee warned that the
combination of unmet need before the pandemic and additional
needs created by the pandemic were significant. It said that the
Government’s plans
“are simply not sufficient for the task at hand.”
In the two years since, there is no indication that their
approach has improved. Last month, when I asked the mental health
Minister, the hon. Member for Lewes (), in a written question
what proportion of mental health funding had been allocated to
children and young people, I received an answer that such funds
are not “separately identifiable.” How can a Government begin to
take a problem seriously when they do not even know how much
money they are spending on it?
Sadly, in the eyes of the Treasury children and young people are
too often seen as a financial burden and a drain on Government
resources, and that is just wrong. Spending on education and
services to support our children is an investment in their future
and our country’s future, and it is time that the Government
recognised that.
The introduction of mental health support teams has been an
encouraging step forward, but they are under-resourced and
overstretched. Last year, I visited Carshalton Boys Sports
College. I met MHST staff as well as some of the pupils they were
supporting. The boys talked about how the team had helped them to
learn coping techniques for anxiety and how to identify the
techniques that work for them. The staff mentioned how important
it was that they could intervene early before things escalate and
children need other services, such as child and adolescent mental
health services, but what struck me was that the team was
stretched thinly across many local primary and secondary schools,
which meant that their valuable skills and service were available
only for half a day to one day per week in each school.
Furthermore, research by the Liberal Democrats revealed that by
the end of this year half of secondary schools and three quarters
of all primary schools in England will still have no access at
all to mental health support teams. Instead, the role of
supporting children’s mental ill health falls on teachers, who
are already managing a heavy workload at the same time as
contending with extremely overstretched budgets. With many
schools struggling to afford the basics, sadly some of those that
have found their own money for mental health support are being
forced to cut back, which is why schools must not have to fund
the provision themselves.
My Bill makes it clear that funding needs to be made available
for the proposed statutory duty for all state schools. Using the
“polluter pays” principle, Liberal Democrats have proposed
funding mental health practitioners through tripling the digital
services tax on our big social media companies, given the harm
that they have contributed to our children’s mental health.
A big challenge currently facing schools is persistent absence,
with the most recent Government data revealing that a fifth of
children missed on average a day of school every fortnight last
term. One of the most significant causal factors of absence is
mental ill health. According to new data from YoungMinds, more
than one in five children waiting for mental health support has
missed more than six months of school.
Absence has a huge impact on a child’s education and ultimately
their prospects. Three quarters of these children said that they
had stopped exercising, doing hobbies and even seeing friends.
These children should be carefree, enjoying themselves and
spending time with loved ones; instead, their lives are being put
on hold and their life chances being diminished because they
cannot access the support they have so bravely asked for.
Just last week I heard of a pupil at a school in my constituency
who is stuck in exactly that limbo. Despite desperately needing
mental health support, they are stuck on a long CAMHS waiting
list. In the meantime, not only has the child stopped attending
school, but their mother said that they have not left the house
in more than four months. A teacher at the school told me that
they strongly believe that had there been the possibility of
seeing a mental health professional at school on a regular basis,
that pupil would still be attending school. Instead, their mental
health is rapidly deteriorating, leaving those around them
worried sick. Sadly, this is not uncommon—alarmingly, the
headteacher of this pupil told me that it was just one example of
many.
There is a tidal wave of mental ill health among our children and
young people, which is jeopardising their wellbeing, education,
prospects, and long-term health. A report commissioned by the
Local Government Association, and undertaken by the Children and
Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, asserted that there
is
“a missed opportunity to significantly ease pressure on the
system by increasing the availability of preventative and early
intervention support.”
That is exactly what putting a mental health practitioner in
every school would do. It would make mental health support
accessible to every pupil, regardless of their age, where they
live or their background. It would save our NHS money in the long
term by tackling issues before they become more severe, and it
would ensure that children’s mental health is supported early on,
giving them the tools they need to be resilient and thrive into
adulthood.
The Bill is an investment in our future and one that we must
make, not just because it is sensible but because we owe it to
this generation of children and young people—a generation that so
often feels let down and neglected. I would like to end by
thanking the young people, parents and teachers who have shared
their stories with me, as well as the organisations that have
supported me with the Bill, including YoungMinds, the Centre for
Mental Health, Barnardo’s, Place2Be, the British Association for
Counselling and Psychotherapy and the Sutton Trust. They are all
dedicated to ensuring that every child has the right support in
their time of need. The Bill would be a significant step towards
achieving that.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , , , , , , , , , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the
Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 21
June, and to be printed (Bill 75).
