Government to pledge £300m for school mental health staff

The government’s green paper is expected to include measures for mental health support in schools, including over £300 million for new support staff.

The consultation on the document is set to be released today, 4 December and is expected to include £95 million for schools to put in place trained senior leaders for mental health from 2019.

As reported by Schools Week, they will be in charge of coordinating support within schools, helping children access specialist therapies and NHS treatment, and developing a “whole-school approach” to mental health and wellbeing.

Also expected to be promised is £215 million for mental health support teams, which will work with the NHS to offer support and treatments in schools, including cognitive behaviour therapy.

The government is aiming to recruit “several thousand people” over the next five years, and they will be supervised by clinicians and work with educational psychologists, school nurses, counsellors and social workers.

However, it is unclear whether the teams will be directly employed by schools.

The consultation on the green paper will run for approximately 13 weeks.