Asked by
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of
the links between rising levels of mental health issues among
school age children and poor school attendance; and what steps
they are planning to take to address the situation.
The Minister of State, Department for Education ( of Malvern) (Lab)
My Lords, mental ill-health and inadequate access to support are
real challenges facing children today and have a detrimental
impact on their school attendance. This is despite the excellent
work done by education and health staff across the country. Poor
mental health and low attendance are mutually reinforcing
barriers to opportunity and learning. That is why we are
committed to providing access to a specialist mental health
professional in every school and developing new young futures
hubs.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer. As she has
acknowledged, the evidence increasingly shows a clear link
between school absences and poor mental health. There is also a
growing recognition of the gap in mental health support available
to children who need a greater level of support than is currently
available in school mental health teams but do not require
specialist treatment from CAMHS, and that this gap is best
filled, as happens in Scotland and Wales, by school counsellors
and suitably qualified practitioners. She talked about providing
specialist mental health support for every school, mirroring my
recent Private Member's Bill, and I very much welcome that. Could
she confirm when these proposals will be brought forward and
whether they will include primary as well as secondary
schools?
of Malvern (Lab)
My Lords, I know that the noble Baroness has done much work in
this area and, obviously, has had a Private Member's Bill on it.
Access to mental health professionals will be for all schools,
secondary and primary. We are working with the Department of
Health and Social Care to ensure that we get that model right and
that we can, as she emphasises, provide that early support to
alleviate the need for more acute mental health provision for
young people, I hope.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome my noble friend to her position and
congratulate her on her appointment to the House. Research by the
Disabled Children's Partnership found that only one in three
disabled children receive the support they need in education, and
only one in five receive the support they need within the health
service. In the light of these findings, it is unsurprising that
mental health issues prevent many disabled children continuing
their education. Can she assure the House that these two barriers
in particular will receive urgent attention from the Government,
because they are destroying lives?
of Malvern (Lab)
My noble friend identifies particular issues around mental health
and special educational needs and disability. There are 1.6
million children identified with SEND. Unfortunately, outcomes
are poor and confidence in that provision is declining. That is
why we are working hard and, as I mentioned in my speech last
week, are willing to engage widely to provide ways in which we
can support those children and improve a system that is currently
failing too many of them.
(Con)
My Lords, schools are called the fourth emergency service by
the Association of School and
College Leaders They often help parents with benefit
applications and mental health support so that their children
will attend school. However, disrupted home environments, as well
as mental ill-health, drive persistent absenteeism. Family hubs
in Sefton, Salford, Kirklees and Bury St Edmunds are lifting this
burden, freeing schools to teach. Will the new Government
continue to support the growth of family hubs?
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Lord is right, of course, that, for many children,
schools are the stable part of their lives, but teachers,
although they provide enormous levels of support along with other
school staff, need to be able to focus on teaching children.
Family hubs indeed play an important role in helping families to
access vital services to improve the health, education and
well-being of children and young people. We are already
considering the overall approach to early childhood and family
support, and how it can support this Government's opportunity
mission. That includes reviewing the future vision and intentions
for family support, including the core role played by family
hubs.
(CB)
My Lords, may I press the Minister on what the Government will do
to ensure access to mental health support for those children with
disabilities and special educational needs? We know that they are
disproportionately represented in absence and persistent absence
figures, and that mental health is often a contributing issue.
She spoke in her Answer about the evidence link between
absenteeism and life chances. Does she agree that failing to
address this risks widening even further the existing gap between
attainment and life chances for those children who live with
disabilities and educational challenges and those who are
fortunate not to live with those challenges?
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right that, where special
educational needs come alongside mental health problems and other
issues in children's lives, they are more likely to be absent
from school. Of course, while they are absent from school, they
are not learning and it is also likely that mental health issues
will increase, not reduce. That is why, for the vast majority of
children with special educational needs who are being educated in
mainstream schools, early intervention through the use of access
to mental health support workers will be an important first way
to support them and prevent conditions from becoming worse.
(Con)
My Lords, improving attendance is the most urgent and important
priority to support our children's well-being and their academic
attainment. There is rightly a focus on the most vulnerable
children who are severely absent from school, including those
with mental health issues. They represent about 2% of school-age
children, but there is a much larger group—about 37% of our
children last year, or 2.7 million pupils—who miss between 5% and
15% of school, with all the impact that has on behaviour and
attendance, and the pressure it puts on teachers. What are the
Government planning to do to help schools to improve the
attendance of those children?
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness has done considerable work in this area, as I
was reminded while being briefed for this Question. In
particular, the whole range of work outlined in the updated
Working Together to Improve School Attendanceguidance, which of
course becomes statutory in August, is important in outlining the
responsibility of schools to develop a policy and the support
that needs to be available to children and young people to enable
them to attend. She worked carefully on improving access to data,
so that schools can have a more granular approach to the reasons
why individual children or cohorts of children may be missing
from school, and can put tailored interventions in to support
them. She will know that 93% of schools already provide that data
to the department, and from September that will be compulsory for
all schools.
(CB)
My Lords, will the new Government seek to address the severe
problems of child and adolescent mental health services coping
with increased referrals and lack of staff? As reported by the
Centre for Young Lives and others, there are now quite
unacceptable delays in obtaining appointments, assessments and
necessary treatment. Giving priority to children and families
needing intervention will reduce much misery and save costs in
the long run.
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Lord is right that there is a considerable problem with
access to child and adolescent mental health services, at a time
when one in five eight to 16 year-olds have a probable mental
health disorder, it is suggested, and are seven times more likely
to be absent for extended periods of time. When the median wait
for these services for children is 201 days, there is clearly
more that needs to happen. Alongside access to mental health
professionals in all schools, my colleagues in the Department of
Health and Social Care are also committed to recruiting an
additional 8,500 mental health staff, with a priority for
enabling them to work with children and young people.
of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister comment on what
further work the Government plan to do specifically for young
people with spectrum disorders, such as autism and ADHD? They can
do well in mainstream schooling, but often do not because their
needs are not recognised soon enough, and they can then present
with mental health disorders on top of their spectrum disorders.
What is being done to help teachers understand how to manage
those children and keep them in the classroom, which is often not
easy?
of Malvern (Lab)
My noble friend is of course right. There are a whole range of
reasons why children may be absent from school. Special
educational needs and particular disabilities, as she identifies,
are a key reason. That is why, in a system that is not properly
serving children, this Government are committed to improving that
and working to ensure, across the whole spectrum of special
educational needs and disability, that children get the support
they need to remain in mainstream schools. As she also rightly
says, teachers are getting the support they need, along with
other staff within the school, to both identify and then support
those children, so that they can achieve and succeed in a way
that will be an important foundation for the rest of their lives.
