WGPlus (Archive)
Helping children cope with 24/7 mental stress |
Pupils struggling with mental health are to benefit from more joined up care & support across schools, colleges and specialist NHS services, in a national roll out of a £9.3m training scheme. Every school, college and alternative provision will be offered training through a series of workshops as part of the Link Programme, with the most appropriate member of staff from each put forward to take part alongside mental health specialists. This is designed to improve partnerships with professional NHS mental health services, raise awareness of mental health concerns & improve referrals to specialist help when needed. The 4-year scheme will be led by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, backed by the multi-£m government investment. It builds on 1,500 schools & colleges that have already taken up this training during the pilot stage of the programme, launched in 2015. Starting in September 2019, the training will be rolled out to schools & colleges in phases over four years, being offered to up to 22,000 schools & colleges, including alternative provision settings. The Link Programme will deliver just under 1,000 training sessions across England involving 2 whole-day workshops for up to 20 schools at a time to cover all 22,000 schools, encouraging collaborative work so children do not fall between the cracks or experience poor transition between services. One in nine young people aged 5 to 15 had a diagnosable mental health condition in 2017 and teenagers with a mental health disorder are more than twice as likely to have a mental disorder in adulthood. This package of measures is part of the Government’s plan to improve mental health support for children and young people, including identifying mental health issues before they become more acute. The announcements build on the Government’s wider investment in children’s mental health & wellbeing in schools and colleges, including compulsory health education lessons from 2020, to ensure every young person is given the tools to thrive despite challenges they may face growing up. |
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