Schools to get mental health teams to tackle pandemic fall out

This comes as Schools North East said the region’s pupils from long term disadvantaged backgrounds fared the worst during the pandemic.

Amidst rising levels of ill mental health, teachers and education professionals have called for additional support to deal with skyrocketing levels of self-harm, eating disorders, poor attendance and behaviour. 

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has condemned the Government for the erosion of children's support services over the last decade, leaving schools to fill gaps.

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Brand new robotics equipment will prepare Darlington College students for 'jobs of the future', the Education Secretary said. (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Schools surveyed by the ASCL reported that they were providing additional mental health and counselling support, employing their own educational psychologists, and providing foodbanks and uniforms for children.

The Education Secretary argued that current child support services had not been eroded, as claimed by the ASCL, but rather demand has reached levels that services cannot match. 

She said: “It is not that the services are eroded - demand has grown massively. The pandemic has had a massive impact, not on every child, but on some children.  Some have suffered with their mental health and anxiety.

“We are collaborating with the Department of Health to roll out more mental health support in school.

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“There will be senior leads for mental health in every school, and training mental health support teams that will serve around five to eight schools.

“I have seen some of them in action doing group sessions and one to one counselling. We have never had that before.

“Historically, we have had CAHMS, which has obviously got a lot more demand than supply at the moment. We are rolling out this new service as we don't want the pandemic to have lasting legacy for student opportunities.”

Ms Keegan was visiting Darlington College alongside local MP Peter Gibson and Cllr Jonathan Dulston, to see the college's new robotics lab - the Ingenium Centre - which will be used to deliver the engineering T-level course. 

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The college has all new VR facilities, which Ms Keegan tried. (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

The state of the art Ingenium Centre, set to open on March 17, includes electric vehicle workshop, virtual reality facilities, and equipment to simulate mechanical faults to teach students practical repair skills.

But despite this investment, she could not give a time frame for when schools in the North East will reap what the Government is sowing, and see exam results, opportunities, and prospects will match those of the South. 

A spokesperson from Schools North East said that “schools and students have had to overcome huge challenges during the pandemic”, which could have risked widening the disadvantage gap and regional disparities.

“The North East has high levels of students from long-term disadvantaged backgrounds, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

“This context is too often ignored, creating a false narrative that North East schools and teachers are failing students. Too often in current measurements of school performance, economic and geographical factors are mistakenly presented as educational ones.

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“Schools need real resources to address the contextual challenges, using evidence-based policy, with the right resources that are actually needed and where they are best targeted.

“Education policy has too often taken a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. It is vital that policy makers urgently act to ‘de-pressurise’ the school system, trusting the profession to deliver the support that children and young people need.”

Research done by the group suggests there should be five priorities for education policy in the region: reading, attendance, social and emotional wellbeing, maths, and communication.