Millions more children and young people will soon have access to in-school mental health support

In response to the record demand for children and adolescent mental health services, the NHS fast-tracking services are accelerating its rollout of mental health support teams.

Over the last year, over 650,000 children and young people were in contact with NHS mental health services, an increase of over 120,000 thousand from before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Currently, NHS mental health support teams are in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, with 287 specialised expert teams in place to offer support for children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues.

The rollout of mental health support teams is ahead of schedule

This week the NHS has announced that 2.4 million more children and young people will be supported by a further 112 teams in training, which will be up and running over the next year, and an additional 104 teams that will start their training next year.

Mental health support teams are part of a broader strategy of intervening early to prevent problems from escalating into severe psychological conditions. The pandemic has raised the profile of mental health and the necessity of preventative measures to alleviate future pressures on services.

At the announcement, Claire Murdoch, NHS National Mental Health Director, highlighted the "enormous disruption" of the last two years to NHS staff. However, she said, despite this pressure, the rollout of mental health support teams is a year ahead of schedule.

She continued:

"The NHS Long Term Plan will continue to invest in not just mental health support teams, but mental health services more widely as part of plans to support a further 345,000 children and young people with mental health services by 2024".

Wellbeing and training sessions provided by the teams are available for teachers and parents

Referrals to teams can be made by either teachers or GPs. Once referred children and offered one-to-one therapy sessions. Additionally, the teams help to improve the broader school's community awareness of mental health through training sessions for parents and workshops and wellbeing sessions for teachers.

One pupil who had been referred anecdotally evidenced the success of his school's mental health support team initiative. He said:

"I found the sessions really useful, and it made me think about ways I can help myself to feel better about everything and improve my mood".

The pupil's parent added: "We were so grateful for the timely support and the quality preventative input it provided.

"Our son was really struggling, and the regular support enabled him to learn simple and practical strategies and tactics to be able to improve his wellbeing and his mental health in both the immediate challenges he was facing at school and help him to have a better perspective for his future".