Just £200 per school allocated to tackle child mental health crisis

[noblegiraffe]

As I expected, the government has announced a paltry amount to tackle the mental health crisis in schools. A brief INSET for one teacher, but no extra time in the timetable, no extra resources.

Awesome. Have the government not learned that skimping on resources and cutting vital funding doesn't end well?

twitter.com/fcdwhittaker/status/879682429061132289

Hardly a surprise, tbf. This government.

The courses are being delivered by MHFA England. They normally charge £200 for a one day course and £300 for a two day course. So, depending on whether there is a discount, this may be a one or two day course for each teacher being trained.

As for extra resources, etc., there will be a green paper later this year. Just because they are doing this doesn't mean they aren't doing anything else.

How effective do you think a single teacher who has been on a one day course, with no extra time on their timetable will actually be?

The term is Mental Health First Aid. It is not about treating pupils or training pupils. We expect a teacher who has been on a one day course with no extra time on their timetable to be able to deal with First Aid issues for a school (although, of course, most schools will have more than one trained First Aider on the staff).

No, this is not a complete solution on its own. But I'm not going to condemn it for that. It looks like a useful first step. More is needed so I will be interested to see what is in the green paper when it comes out.

It depends if you think the only help a child will get is what is available in school. I would suggest it is the NHS that will take the lion's share of funding and this is correct. Teachers can be made aware of issues and be vigilant with pupils but they are not professionals trained in MH and nor should they be. We need money for MH services in the NHS as the most important source of help. I am glad schools are getting something rather than nothing. Schools have access to ed psychs and can refer to other specialist services.

Schools have access to ed psychs and can refer to other specialist services.

You didn't see the previous thread about the threshold for being seen by CAMHs being a suicide attempt, leading to some teens attempting suicide just to access support?

My school has a hundred teachers. One trained in mental health first aid? For 1500 kids? If you assume that this training is beneficial, then don't you think more teachers should have it?

Woefully in adequate! But that £1Billion they just spent on bribing the DUP might have helped - I guess Mental Health doesn't matter as much as the Tories hanging to to power.

Nobel I presume you would not know what to do with yourself in the evening if Labour get in at the next election!

This being because presumably when the great 'messiah' becomes Prime Minister after giving all 16 year old's £10 P.H he will enable every single problem in education mental health and housing to vanish ..

I'm not a fan of Corbyn or his education policies, but to be any better than the Tories they've got to clear a pretty low bar.

£200? One teacher? I bet that's our lot, too. What about when that teacher quits, as an awful lot of teachers are doing at the moment? Proper first aid training has to be updated regularly.