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NAHT members are at the forefront of safeguarding children. School leaders are committed to keeping children safe, so they can learn well. NAHT believes that all pupils should receive the support they need to maintain their well-being and achieve their potential, both within school and from wider services including health and social care.

NAHT is campaigning to:

Enable schools to play their part in supporting pupils' well-being

Lobby for pupils and schools to get the support they need from wider services including health, social care, police and youth services
Influence the implementation of the proposals from the mental health green paper, including the senior lead for mental health and mental health support teams
Support schools to access relevant, high-quality training and resources to enable pupils to exercise their right to support for their mental well-being.

Support schools to safeguard and protect pupils

Engage with the DfE over proposed changes to the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
Influence changes to Keeping Children Safe In Education, Working Together and Sexual Violence and harassment guidance
Campaign to improve online safety for children and young people
Press the government to ensure home educated children are adequately safeguarded
Promote guidance and resources to support schools to protect children at risk of harm including involvement with violence and other crime.

Enable schools to support vulnerable groups of pupils

Campaign to ensure pupils with SEND can receive the support they need from schools and wider services
Press for improved alternative provision and collaborative approaches across communities to support pupils excluded from school
Provide information to schools to help them to support disadvantaged children
Enable schools to make informed decisions regarding parental requests to home educate
Ensure reforms to behaviour guidance and networks is evidence-based and appropriate for all schools and a diverse pupil population.

Update from DfE on implementation of the mental health green paper proposals

Mental Health Support Teams

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced 123 new Mental Health Support Teams that will operate in 57 areas (see the full list here).

Each team will support around 20 schools and colleges in their area, building on support already in place from school counsellors, nurses, educational psychologists and the voluntary sector, so that more children and young people get the help and support they need, when they need it. These teams represent year 2 of the Mental Health Support Team programme, and are in addition to the 59 teams that will be fully operational by January in 25 'trailblazer' areas announced last December.

The teams will be comprised of newly trained education mental health practitioners, as well as senior clinicians and higher-level therapists. They will work across schools and colleges to deliver evidence-based interventions for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health problems; support senior mental health leads in schools and colleges to develop a holistic approach to promote well-being and good mental health; and give timely advice to school/college staff, and liaise with external services, to help children and young people to get the right help and stay in education.

Senior mental health leads training

The DfE has also launched an exercise to recruit a specialist provider to deliver training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, so they have the skills and knowledge to promote positive mental health and well-being and implement effective processes for children and young people to receive appropriate support.

Part of the role of Mental Health Support Teams will be to work with senior mental health leads in schools and colleges to support them in developing a holistic approach to mental health.

The Link Programme

The secretary of state also announced that every school, college and alternative provision setting will be offered training through a series of workshops as part of the Link Programme, with the most appropriate member of staff from each put forward to take part alongside mental health specialists.

The Link Programme is intended to improve partnerships with professional NHS mental health services, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed.

The four-year training scheme will be run by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, backed by £9.3 million of government investment. It builds on 1,500 schools and colleges that have already taken up this training during the pilot stage of the programme, launched in 2016.

Starting in September, the training will be rolled out to schools and colleges in phases over four years, starting with areas where schools and colleges are already attached to Mental Health Support Teams. The Link Programme will deliver just under 1,000 training sessions across England involving two whole-day workshops, for up to 20 schools at a time, to cover all 22,000 schools and colleges, including alternative provision settings. It will encourage collaborative work so children and young people do not fall between the cracks or experience poor transition between services.

First published 16 July 2019

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Safeguarding and support for pupils