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<p>As a department, we are committed to building education providers’ capability to
create safe, calm, and supportive environments for children and young people, where
they can access mental health and wellbeing support if and when they need it.</p><p>The
department recognises professional counselling can form an important part of an education
providers’ approach to mental wellbeing, and we have set a strong expectation in our
‘Counselling in schools: a blueprint for the future’ guidance that over time, all
schools will offer counselling services to their pupils. This guidance is available
here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497825/Counselling_in_schools.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497825/Counselling_in_schools.pdf</a>.</p><p>Many
children and young people also benefit from other in-school support, including from
trained pastoral staff, educational psychologists and Emotional Literacy Support Assistants,
who may offer a range of therapies. It is vital that schools and colleges continue
to have the freedom to choose what support to offer their pupils based on need.</p><p>Schools
can use the additional £1 billion of recovery premium funding announced in the autumn,
on top of pupil premium funding, and their increased core budget to support their
pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, including for counselling or other therapeutic
services.</p><p>To support schools and colleges to introduce effective approaches
to mental health and wellbeing, the department has committed to offer all state schools
and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. Over 8,000 schools
and colleges, which includes half of all state-funded secondary schools in England,
have taken up the offer so far, which has been backed by £9.5 million in the 2021/21
financial year. On 12 May, the department announced an additional £7 million to extend
senior mental health lead training to even more schools and college to meet our ambition
of reaching two-thirds of eligible education providers by 2023, bringing the total
amount of funding for the 2022/23 financial year to £10 million.</p><p>As part of
the training, senior leaders will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to understand
the mental health needs of their student population and consider the range of in-school
provision needed, such as counselling services.</p><p>Information on progress introducing
Mental Health Support Teams is included in a report published on 12 May 2022, which
follows the news that more than 2.4 million children and young people now have access
to support in schools and colleges. This report is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision</a>.
NHS England has also announced that over 500 teams will be confirmed this year, which
will surpass the government’s original ambition to have 400 teams in place by April
2023. This article is available here: <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/05/nhs-fast-tracks-mental-health-support-for-millions-of-pupils/"
target="_blank">https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/05/nhs-fast-tracks-mental-health-support-for-millions-of-pupils/</a>.</p>
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