Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza found school bosses are having to ‘fill the gap’ because youngsters cannot get the mental health referrals they need
England’s schools are facing a mental health crisis which is piling pressure on headteachers and their staff, an alarming report warns.
A survey of primary and secondary schools found the top concern is access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Long waits mean teachers are having to “fill the gap”, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza’s report said.
She wrote: “Schools are increasingly dealing with more pupils with mental health difficulties and being asked to fill the gaps where children face long waiting lists for community services.” The survey found online safety was a worry for more than half of schools, with poverty and housing also causing concern in more than a quarter of schools.
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Dame Rachel said: “Good teaching alone can’t keep children safe at home, can’t mitigate the impact of living in temporary accommodation, can’t make living with domestic abuse easier.
“And without that additional support, the gap between them and their peers will continue to grow. Their challenges lie not only in the classroom but beyond it, from housing and health challenges to having a parent in prison, bereavement, needing a social worker, or being at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation, or having caring responsibilities.”
The Commissioner said 18% of secondary schools and 58% of primaries have a mental health counsellor. Paul Whiteman, who heads school leaders’ union NAHT, said while “school leaders desperately want to do their best for all pupils and provide them with everything they need to thrive”, the survey shows that “far too many feel they are frustrated by lack of resources”.
Calling for “significant investment”, he added: “Problems with behaviour and attendance are often driven by issues outside the school gates and largely outside schools’ control – for example, poverty and the impact of the cost of living, plus mental health concerns.
“Schools need to be able to refer the most severe cases on to experts who can provide support to those children and families, but in so many cases that support either isn’t available, or is so delayed that things get worse.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “We’ve inherited a system that has failed generations and left teachers carrying the weight of society’s broken safety net.
“But we are changing that – with mental health support in every school, expanding free school meals, and overhauling children’s social care through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Through our Plan for Change and our upcoming Schools White Paper, background will no longer determine destiny. We’re putting children first and delivering the transformation they deserve.”
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