Teachers accuse government of ‘placing low value’ on pupil mental health
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Government currently views the mental health of young people as a “low priority” following the reopening of schools after the third national lockdown, a study has found.
A survey of more than 10,000 school and college staff conducted by the National Education Union found that 62 per cent believe government is treating the poor mental health of young people as a low priority.
This is despite 78 per cent of respondents reporting that mental health issues among children and young people have increased in past year, with 34 per cent saying they had “increased greatly”.
Two thirds (66 per cent) of respondents said political pressure to prioritise “catch up” is at the expense of supporting students with mental health issues.
Schools were initially closed from late March 2020 until September 2020 due to restrictions designed to limit the spread of coronavirus, and then again from early January 2021 until 8 March – a total of around eight months.
Last month government announced a £79m funding boost for children’s mental health services. The funding, which is part of a £500m boost to all mental health services announced in the autumn Spending Review, will see mental health teams in schools grow from 59 to 200 by April 2023.
However, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was criticised last week for backing the use of exclusions and expulsions to tackle bad behaviour in schools, claiming children “lacked discipline and structure" in lockdown.
Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said that infrastructure to support young people with poor mental health was “under considerable strain before Covid”, but the survey shows that the situation has worsened over the past twelve months.
"We agree with the government's youth mental health ambassador, Dr Alex George, when he says that young people who have been at home during lockdown need time and patience to re-integrate with on-site learning,” she said.
“That is why our recovery plan has set great store on making transition the priority, to be properly resourced through additional staff and smaller classes, and by reducing the curriculum and excessive accountability to create the space for that work to be done effectively. Through this we can guarantee individual attention and identify the needs of every student.
"But it is not exclusively those who have been learning from home who will have been affected with mental health issues. The disruption to life, to play, to sport, to everyday social interaction, has been stark. The message from education staff is clear – government has got to recognise that the wellbeing of young people is just as vital as their learning, and that wellbeing impacts significantly on learning.”
