Around half of Salford's schools now have dedicated mental health support teams – and the local authority wants all of its schools to have one soon.
There are currently 38 schools in Salford which have mental health support teams out of the 76 mainstream schools in the city, including academies.
It comes after Salford was selected as a Greater Manchester 'trailblazer' site alongside three other areas to set up mental health support teams in schools.
The 'multi-agency' team brings together the health, voluntary, community and social enterprise sector into groups which coordinates support for schools.
The teams also offer support to more than 10 other schools in the city, including Orthodox Jewish community schools, a Salford council boss said.
Speaking at a scrutiny panel meeting on Wednesday (February 10), Debbie Blackburn, assistant director of public health, nursing and wellbeing, said it is the council's 'absolute ambition' to roll out this approach to all of Salford's schools.
She said: "It's an innovative approach to really addressing and supporting young people with their emotional health and wellbeing."
Conservative councillor Jillian Collinson said she has concerns about young people 'being labelled' as having mental health issues when they do not.
She praised the 'fantastic work' the council is doing, but said she fears that the label of having a mental health issue 'might stick' with some as they get older.
The council's assistant director responded to Coun Collinson's comments.
She said: "We've changed the language in Salford. We used to talk about challenging behaviour. Well, that's distressed behaviour. And actually, what we're trying to do is have that trauma-responsive approach and recognise that children might not have a mental health diagnosis.
"There are lots of children who have mental health needs as a result of those traumatic experiences and those adverse childhood experiences.
"But actually the response isn't necessarily the most appropriate to go to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), but it might be that we look at that trauma-responsive approach.
"We're really trying to change our stories in Salford around mental health diagnosis, but also around mental health needs and mental health issues in terms of our response to that.
"Our CAMHS service are really linked into that conversation and will be really clear that this is not a mental health diagnosis, it's a response to trauma."
The assistant director praised the pastoral support already offered in schools and told the scrutiny panel about the challenges faced during the pandemic.
She said: "We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on our young people as it has on all of us.
"For all schoolchildren, that social aspect of school and their friendships and relationships have been significantly disrupted during lockdown.
"We know that lots of young people are experiencing complex and potentially traumatic experiences during the lockdown without their regular coping mechanisms to escape into school and social activities.
"Our time spent in school during these important developmental years helps shape and pave the way for our future.
"So we know we've got a lot to do for our children and young people. Often schools identify routine and purpose, friendships, connections with adults who they trust and often can offer respite for victims of domestic violence.
"We know the positive relationships they build in school can really help sometimes to compensate for less supportive or accepting home environments.
"With that in mind our services have been working really closely together to develop responses to the pandemic, to change their offer, to really adapt to the circumstances."
