Mental health support teams will be expanded to cover almost a million more pupils by next year, the government announced today.
The Department for Education said it will invest £49 million to ensure that six in 10 pupils - incorporating an additional 900,000 children - will have access to a mental health support team by March 2026.
The rollout will be prioritised based on NHS identification of local need - which takes into account inequalities such as free school meal eligibility and deprivation, and learning disabilities - and reach the most vulnerable children first, the government said.
Mental health support teams currently cover 54 per cent of pupils, according to data released by the DfE today.
The announcement follows on from Labour’s manifesto commitment to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
The previous Conservative government’s rollout of mental health support teams was criticised for moving at a “glacial” pace, but today’s announcement means that the DfE will meet its target to reach more than half of pupils.
Mental health support teams in schools
Mental health support teams currently reach 59 per cent of secondary schools and 35 per cent of primaries, 31 per cent of special schools and 34 per cent of alternative provision settings, according to the latest 2024 figures.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said that ”breaking the vicious cycle of poor mental health, low attendance and bad behaviour among children and young people is the most urgent [issue] facing our schools”.
“Taken alongside new intensive support for schools that are struggling, our free breakfast clubs for millions of children and our wider work to drive up school attendance, this government will continue using all available levers to break the destructive link between background and success,” she added.
Attendance and behaviour hubs
The government also announced today that it will be launching 90 attendance and behaviour hubs in September, along with new attendance and behaviour ambassadors.
These schools have a “track record of improving attendance and behaviour standards”, the DfE said, and will “directly target the schools with the highest need” alongside giving wider support.
Around 500 schools with “weak attendance and poor behaviour” will be supported by the hubs, which are to funded with £1.5 million from the DfE.
The DfE is yet to confirm which schools have been selected as the new hubs.
Leaders previously warned that behaviour hubs were being disbanded with no replacement, after the government confirmed that the current programme would end.
Tes understands that the current attendance hubs will be running until September, when the new combined hubs will start operation.
Research by the DfE shows that the mental health of children who are severely absent - missing over half of school - is around twice as bad compared with those who miss only 1 per cent of their schooling. This finding is based on use of the GHQ-12 scale, a globally recognised scale that examines mental health.
Persistently absent students in secondary school go on to earn £10,000 less, on average, at age 28 compared with pupils with strong attendance, further research shows.
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