Schoolchildren will be helped to develop “much-needed grit” for life beyond school with increased mental health support, the education and health secretaries have said.
Writing in the Telegraph, Bridget Phillipson and Wes Streeting said they would expand mental health support in schools to nearly 1 million extra children in England.
Asked what she meant by “grit” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillipson said: “It’s about having the grit, the resilience, the ability to cope with life’s ups and downs, about the challenges that are thrown at you.
“And young people today face many challenges, very different to the some of the challenges that I faced, and what I’m announcing today with the health secretary is that a million more young people will be able to access mental health support teams in schools.
“That’s about getting in there early when young people are struggling, making sure they’ve got access to trained, qualified professionals who can help them manage all of this.”
The support will include helping teachers to identify which children need extra help, running group sessions to tackle anxiety and low mood and bringing in one-to-one support for those who need it but do not meet an NHS referral threshold.
The support will help curb low school attendance, which can ultimately lead to lower incomes later in life, the secretaries of state argue.
“By deploying NHS-led, evidence-based intervention during children’s formative years, we will not only halt the spiral towards crisis but cultivate much-needed grit amongst the next generation – essential for academic success and life beyond school, with all its ups and downs,” they write.
“Children today, who have been brought up in an increasingly digitised 21st century, are facing new and complex challenges in their childhoods that simply didn’t exist when we were younger. Negotiating your school days in the face of this is having a serious impact on some children’s mental health.”
About 20% of young people in England experience some type of mental health issue in any given year, up from 14% in 2017, the ministers write.
Research published by the government last week illustrated the direct, escalating impact that poor mental health had on children’s school attendance, they said. Children with poor attendance earn £10,000 less by age 28 on average, compared with those who had near-perfect attendance as pupils.
