My Lords, I thank everyone who has taken part in this short debate. Before I respond on Amendment 88, I want to offer my support to the noble Lord, Lord Woolley, for his Amendment 171E, which would require Ofsted to ensure that schools take account of the public sector equality duty to tackle discrimination, promote equality and assess extracurricular activities at the school. It may seem obvious but, at the moment, there seems to be some confusion about that duty and various parts of our public sector; it is good to see the amendment there.
I am grateful for my noble friend Lord Addington’s helpful comments, further to mine, on Amendment 88 and how essential it is to ring-fence mental health funding to ensure that education staff are effectively trained, as well as being supported by CAMHS.
The noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, talked about some excellent initiatives, such as Place2Be. She echoed my concerns about the patchy nature of CAMHS provision and how long severely affected children can wait. Just last week, I heard of a family friend with a daughter who shows clear signs of serious clinical mental health problems. However, the queues at their local CAMHS are such that they have been told that she will be seen only if she is suicidal. She is eight. That is just too late. It also places unacceptable pressure on a little girl, her family and her school. I recognise that this is an NHS problem—I applaud the Government for trying to join some of this up—but it is why we must have some ring-fenced funds: to make sure that the school side of this, the mental health partnership, will actually work.
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I thank the Minister for her response but I confess that I am a little disappointed by it. She talked about the designated lead targets. It is good to hear that there is progress on that, and I really hope that it will be achieved by 2025. However, the other key elements
that I quoted from the Green Paper absolutely must be there too; without them, the designated lead will not manage. We must ensure that staff across the board in schools are changed at the same time and that the training is refreshed.
The Minister said that we have record mental health funding for children’s health. There is only one reason for that: it is a record because it has been for far too long a Cinderella service, and we are desperately playing catch-up with our children’s mental health.
I am grateful for the Minister’s response and the contributions of all other noble Lords. I beg leave to withdraw this amendment tonight, although I may bring it back on Report.