Department For Education
The importance of good mental health in schools and colleges
Good mental health and wellbeing helps children and young people:
- develop
- attend school
- engage in learning
- fulfil their potential
Schools and colleges contribute to wellbeing by providing:
- a safe, calm and supportive learning environment
- early targeted support for pupils and learners who need help
Embedding an evidence-based, holistic, whole school or college approach helps achieve this.
Schools and colleges should identify and train a mental health lead. The mental health lead should be a member of staff empowered to develop and oversee their settings whole school or college approach.
Principles of a whole school or college approach
The Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities published guidance on the 8 key principles of a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. These are:
- an ethos and environment that promotes respect, and values diversity
- leadership and management that supports and champions efforts to promote emotional health and wellbeing
- staff development to support their own wellbeing and that of pupils and learners
- curriculum teaching and learning to promote resilience and support social and emotional learning
- enabling student voice to influence decisions
- identifying the need for and monitoring the impact of interventions
- targeted support and appropriate referral
- working with parents and carers
Senior mental health lead training
Senior mental health leads oversee the development and embedding of the 8 key principles in their setting.
DfE is offering a grant of 1,200 for eligible state-funded schools and colleges in England to train a mental health lead to help develop and implement a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing.
Senior mental health lead training provides more information.
Mental health support teams
Mental health support teams (MHSTs) provide additional capacity for early support and meeting the mental health needs of children and young people in primary, secondary and further education settings. They have 3 core functions:
- deliver evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues
- help mental health leads develop and introduce a whole school or college approach
- give timely advice to school and college staff, and liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education
MHSTs are a new workforce of educational mental health practitioners. Theywork alongside senior clinicians, therapists and other professionals. They integrate with existing mental health and wellbeing support in and around schools and colleges provided by:
- counsellors
- educational psychologists
- school nurses
- pastoral care
- educational welfare officers
- the voluntary and community sector
- local authority provision
- NHS children and young peoples mental health services
The NHS website provides more information.
Resources for planning and implementing a whole school or college approach
The links to tools and resources provided on this page can help a school or college to develop their mental health and wellbeing provision.DfE does not fund or endorse these resources, unless otherwise stated:
- mental health lead resource hub has been developed by DfE in collaboration with education representatives and mental health experts to help mental health leads in their role. It includes evidence-basedpractical resources and tools to help schools and colleges review, develop and implement their approach
- provides sources of support for teachers and others in contact with children and young people
- teaching blog includes posts written by teachers which can be filtered to find posts about student and staff mental health
- targeted support toolkit provides a practical guide and filterable tool to help schools and colleges review, refresh and develop effective targeted support for learners with mental health or social and emotional wellbeing needs
- psychological first aid training supports children and young peoples mental health during emergencies and crisis situations
Mental health and wellbeing resources for pupils, parents and teachers
Curriculum teaching and learning
As part of the relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education curriculum, all pupils are taught about mental health.
The PSHE Association has published advice for teachers on teaching about mental health and wellbeing as part of the RSE and health education aspects of the curriculum.
DfE has produced a mental wellbeing training module to support the teaching of mental wellbeing as part of this curriculum.
The school sport and activity action plan helps you encourage physical activity, which helps to promote wellbeing.
Staff wellbeing and development
School and college teachers and leaders can access support for their own wellbeing and to address challenges around workload.
The education staff wellbeing charter is a declaration of support for, and a set of commitments to, the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education. It directs education staff to mental health and wellbeing resources .
The DfE school workload reduction toolkit was developed with school leaders to help schools review and reduce workload. We have updated the toolkit to make sure it remains helpful and relevant to support schools and trusts.
Other professional development is available, including:
- national professional qualifications (NPQs) - funded courses for state schools and state-funded 16 to 19 organisations
- NPQ for leading behaviour and culture for teachers who want to create and maintain a culture of good behaviour and high expectations in which staff and pupils thrive