The aim should be to significantly reduce school-based mental health 'interventions'

There is no question that mental health and wellbeing is a top priority for schools right now.

I see and hear schools highlight the growing number of interventions they have available as a way to highlight their commitment to mental health and wellbeing.

And at the same time, there are leaders stressing and labouring over how they can increase the capacity for more interventions within the school timetable.

What I'm inviting you to consider in this article is that this approach may not be as effective as we hope.

In fact, as the title says, it is my belief that schools should be aiming to significantly reduce the number of mental health and wellbeing interventions they deliver.

When I was drafting this, what I considered writing was "by at least 90%".

(It's important to say that I just made it up. 90% may be right or wrong. I'm not attached to it but what I'm trying to communicate is a significant reduction.)

While I understand the intention behind having all these interventions on offer and I love the commitment that these schools are standing for, the reality is that this approach is just not sustainable.

This focus on continuously expanding interventions moves our attention away from the core underlying issues that have created the mental health crisis we now find ourselves in.

Training and allowing staff to deliver specific mental health interventions means a significant investment in time, money and other tangible and intangible resources.

This constant push to expand interventions in school can lead to a number of problems, such as a strain in resources, intervention fatigue (by both students and staff) and also no real change in the underlying causes, which while it may improve things in the short term, is still a recipe for disaster in the long run.

Putting relationships and environments first

If we are serious about improving the world for our children and tackling the mental health crisis, we must shift our focus. Instead of chasing interventions, we should concentrate on improving the relationships and creating supportive environments within schools.

This involves:

• A relational approach and being attachment aware. By prioritising meaningful relationships connections between and amongst students and staff, we can create a more supportive and understanding school ethos and culture.
• Improving the [physical and emotional] environments in school. Ensuring that the physical and emotional environments in schools are trauma-informed and aligned with basic neuroscience. I'll keep saying it until the day I die... "if you put children in high arousal environments, expect high arousal behaviours".

Leading training providers in whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing like Trauma Informed Schools UK , Thrive Approach and NurtureUK already have training and programmes available that empower schools to really look at these underlying causes and create whole school shifts.

These ways of working highlight the importance of creating an overall positive school ethos, culture and practices where everyone feels valued and supported. Holistic approaches like this can significantly reduce the need for numerous individual interventions and still create significant improvements for everyone.

This is not to say that mental health interventions, therapy, and treatment are unnecessary and should not be available!

There will always be a need for Tier 2 school-based interventions and Tier 3/4 specialist or clinical interventions, therapies and treatments to be available and the children who need them should have access to them but we need to move away from interventions being the 'go-to' approach.

Historically, children who required specialist intervention or treatment had access to clinical support. And then there were long waiting lists so school-based interventions because popular to bridge the gap, ensuring all children who needed support received it.

But now, we find ourselves in a place where demand for even these school-based interventions is at an all time high and there are even waiting lists for these!

If we stick to this intervention-focused mindset, we are going to find ourselves chasing our tails and facing the same problems for decades to come.

By improving relationships and environments within schools, we can reduce the overall need for 'interventions' at all levels - we will be creating better lives and experiences which will serve as protective and supportive factors in the face of adversity.

And if we can do this, we will create a foundation for long-term positive mental health and wellbeing.

A world where all children thrive and flourish.

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