Children’s Mental Health Week, created by Place2Be, runs from 8-14 February and this year’s theme is ‘building resilience’ helping children bounce back from life’s challenges.
A number of organisations and schools have offered their support and resources on Twitter, under the hashtag #ChildrensMHW
The week kicked off with research that revealed almost two-thirds of primary schools have no counsellor on site, and those that do provide support for one day a week or less. Russell Hobby, general secretary of NAHT, said this was largely down to funding.
‘Three quarters of school leaders say they lack the funds to provide the kind of mental health care that they’d like to be able to,’ he said. ‘Although increasingly common in secondary schools, almost two thirds of primary school leaders say that it is difficult to access local mental health professionals. This new study should remind the government that while we have a better acknowledgement of the extent of mental illness amongst children and young people than ever before, the services that schools, families and children rely on are under great pressure.’
Liz Bayram, PACEY’s Chief Executive, says schools are integral to supporting students’ mental health. “We are supporting Children’s Mental Health Week and applaud the work it is doing to highlight the important role schools play in supporting the emotional wellbeing of students,’ she said. ‘At PACEY, we know that the groundwork for positive emotional wellbeing starts much earlier which is why we launched our Early Minds Matter campaign at our conference last year. PACEY offers a wide range of member resources on the subject and has also joined forces with MindED and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to provide members with free online training focused on understanding child mental health.”
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