ASCL response to Mind survey

Commenting on Mind’s survey of 11-19 year olds about mental health, Anna Cole, parliamentary and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“Schools and colleges are doing their very best to provide mental health support for students in an extremely difficult financial climate caused by real-terms cuts to government spending on education. They desperately need an improved level of funding to meet the needs of their students and restore the counselling and pastoral support that has had to be scaled back over recent years.

“They also need to be able to access specialist mental health services beyond the school gates which is often hard to do because these services also lack the funding that is necessary. The government is aware of the need to provide better mental health support for young people and published a green paper over a year ago. But it is moving on this issue at a snail’s pace when it is clear that a much greater sense of urgency is required.”