As a headteacher, I experience a myriad of challenges on a daily basis. But this World Mental Health Day I can’t help but reflect on a shared growing concern among all school staff: the mental health and social care needs of our young people.
We serve the close-knit community of Gateshead, and we like to think of our school as a family away from home. We’re incredibly focused on meeting the needs of every one of our students, and work tirelessly to identify and tackle the individual barriers they face. This is especially vital for the 50 per cent of our students who are eligible for free school meals and those who have special educational needs.
I’m incredibly proud of how we support our pupils, but I sadly wasn’t surprised to learn recently that the proportion of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) as a result of a mental health conditions has almost trebled over the past 10 years.
It’s a heart-breaking reality that there are now so many factors contributing to the mental health conditions our young people face. During key developmental stages, they have adapted to learning through a global pandemic and are now dealing with a cost-of-living crisis.
With a growing number of students on roll requiring mental health and social care support (especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds), we’re determined to not leave one young person struggling and at risk of falling out of the education system.
But to truly unpick the reasons behind a child’s struggling mental health takes time, communication, and the right staff. We can’t expect teachers to take on additional pastoral responsibilities while juggling a full teaching timetable. So with the support of our trust, Consilium Academies, we have focused on recruiting and retaining specialist staff to understand and meet the needs of our most vulnerable students.
We’ve often had to reshuffle school funding to keep crucial staff
Our trained mental health practitioner provides successful interventions like play therapy, mindfulness, and cognitive behaviour therapy. Our early help worker supports them to increase their attendance and ability to thrive in lessons long before they reach crisis point. And Our full-time social worker also supports students and families when they need it most, which involves anything from providing clean uniform through to supporting a child going into care.
Our mental health and social care specialists also work with our subject teachers to ensure students can engage fully with their learning. This includes exchanging information on students’ needs, tailoring PHSE lessons and assemblies to meet those needs and delivering our Innovation Centre – a short-term, tailored learning and wellbeing environment for small groups of disadvantaged and vulnerable students.
While initiatives like the ‘Gateshead Social Workers in Schools’ project have been a great help, small local authority budgets mean that support is never long-lasting. But consistency matters, so we’ve often had to reshuffle existing school funding like pupil premium to keep these crucial staff.
We work with Teach First to recruit and support our brilliant teachers, and I know that they continuously call for further support in this area. As part of the charity’s manifesto for school recovery following the pandemic, they want to see uplifts in local government and school funding for children and young people’s services so that wider support services can be provided by expert organisations, allowing teachers to focus on their important day job.
It’s hard to disagree. We are lucky to have unlocked the support and resources we have, and I know it isn’t a given for every school or trust. But I would go further still; I’d also like to see brilliant individuals encouraged to consider working in school-based children and young people’s services, which is a really powerful intervention.
Our school is experiencing first-hand how a whole rounded approach to learning can positively impact our most vulnerable students’ lives. But ensuring every young person has their chance to shine – no matter their circumstances or the challenges they are facing – requires people, time and resources. And every community deserves that.
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