Commenting on the publication today
of the green paper, Transforming Children and Young
People’s Mental Health Provision, Geoff Barton, General
Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“We welcome this green paper as an important step forward in
tackling an issue which is of great concern to school and college
leaders. We are pleased to see the recognition by the Health
Secretary that schools and colleges are already doing a great
deal to support the mental health and wellbeing of young people.
This is despite severe funding pressures on their own resources,
and difficulties in accessing underfunded NHS services for young
people in need of specialist help.
“It is clear that additional support is required at a time
when the incidence of mental health problems is rising and school
and college budgets are continuing to shrink. We therefore
welcome the creation of mental health support teams to help young
people with emerging and more moderate needs.
“However, we remain extremely concerned about the
difficulties which exist in accessing local Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services for young people who require specialist
care. We note the intention to pilot a four-week waiting time,
but question whether this is achievable within the allocation of
£215m over the next three years alongside other measures in the
green paper. We will be discussing this with the government, but
we suspect that significantly more funding will be required to
ensure that specialist services are resourced to match
need.”
