Good mental health is fundamental to thriving in life. I knew it from the other side of the tracks. My dear, late mother suffered greatly with mental health throughout her life, so I grew up and grew old trying to deal with it. It made me much more aware of what it means. I always used to say that if my mother came into school or wherever wearing a plaster cast on her arm, they would know that she had a broken arm. However, they did not know that she had a broken mind. At times it was extremely challenging. It made me a better person, more understanding and very aware of mental health issues.
More than one in 10 children aged 10 to 15 say they have no one to talk to or would not talk to anyone in school if they felt worried or sad. This is the same proportion of children who have a diagnosable mental health problem. Research shows that 50% of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 and 75% are by the age of 24. Young people in the UK today are dealing with high levels of stress due to a variety of issues.
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The DfE’s state of the nation annual report that draws upon children and young people’s mental health, well-being and experiences over the previous academic year, found that evidence indicated lower well-being in December 2020 and February 2021 when schools were closed to most pupils compared to the previous months in the academic year. Reductions in average levels of well-being occurred most clearly in February 2021 when schools were closed to the majority of children before recovering towards the end of the academic year when restrictions were eased.
Of Ofsted’s eight strategic priorities, one is called “keeping children safe”. Ofsted notes that it has
“seen an increase in the complexity of children’s needs”.
No area has seen such a growth in complexity than mental health issues. In this context we have introduced three amendments. Amendment 145 asks that schools’ new attendance policies must consider
“the extent to which mental illness has contributed to truancy, and how mental health will be considered in developing the policy”.
In Amendment 170, during a school inspection Ofsted must assess
“the mental health of the student body”,
which easily sits alongside its current strategic priority of “keeping children safe”. Thus schools with an inadequate mental health rating cannot be rated good or outstanding. In Amendment 171M we ask that
“The Secretary of State must report each year on … how the physical health of children in schools in England affects and is affected by their schooling”.
Some shocking and disturbing research from UCL has found that nearly five times as many children died from suicide compared to coronavirus during the first year of lockdowns. There were more than 1 million referrals made to specialist mental health services in 2021, up 15% compared to before the pandemic.
I draw noble Lords’ attention to the fact that mental health is not mentioned in this Bill. What we have debated over the past four and a half days is that this Bill tinkers with school structures while one in six children aged between six and 16 has a probable mental health issue. This is a priority area for Labour. We would guarantee mental health treatment for all who need it within a month and hire at least 8,500 new mental health professionals. But a creaking NHS cannot do this alone and the focus should be on prevention.
I have noted previously when talking about attendance matters that schools play a vital role in these areas, with the maintenance of general welfare and resilience throughout a child’s time in education rather than acting on it only in times of crisis, when it is often too late. One of my favourite mantras—anyone who has worked with me or for me in schools would say this—is “head it off at the pass”. It is what I always tried to do: stop it becoming a bigger problem. My other was always “less is more”, so I am going to finish now by saying that it is an absolute, acute crisis and one that needs recognising as essential to learning and welfare. We need to understand the drivers of the problem and we must give targeted support to tackle it.