What does the next 12 months look like for mental health in education in the UK?
The UK is poised for significant transformation in the sector over the next few years, driven in no small part by the growing understanding of the crucial link between wellbeing and academic success.
With new research showing the link between school absences and poor mental health (1, 2), the Department for Education are providing access to mental health support to reach up to 900,000 more pupils. Under government plans, all pupils will have access to mental health support in school by 2029/30, delivering on its Plan for Change to improve children’s life chances and tackle the root causes of poor attendance and behaviour.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson emphasises the urgency of breaking the “vicious cycle of poor mental health, low attendance and bad behaviour,” framing the expansion of mental health support as a significant step towards improving children’s life chances and ensuring they can maximise their school experience.
Change across the sector: The frontline
In 2024, we interviewed a small pool of those working on the frontline about their views on what the future was for mental health in education in the UK. The changes being announced by the Government have supported some key initiatives suggested by our sector experts to support the mental health and wellbeing of pupils/students in education. But there is a crucial element that is not being delivered – Staff Wellbeing and Support.
The success of these Government-led initiatives relies wholly on the ability of staff teams across the sector to deliver the required engagement; will they be able to access funding, will they have flexible working options, will they have the ability to train?
Funding: “Schools’ costs are expected to rise by 3.4% next year, but mainstream funding will increase by just 2.2%. This leaves a gap of £700million that the Government would need to increase school funding by to fully fund staff pay awards.
This cut in funding will see overall per pupil funding drop to the lowest levels in England in real terms for at least 15 years. Every local authority in the country will see a reduction in real terms per pupil funding, with an average cut of 1.2%. (3)”
Flexible Working: The current statutory entitlements offer minimum flexible working rights for those working in the sector. “Flexible working has a vital role to play in helping schools and colleges recruit, retain and motivate teachers. There is a significant body of evidence that shows the benefits of flexible working, such as increased productivity, a more motivated workforce, greater employee engagement and greater diversity among the workforce. (4)”
Staff Training: The ability to take time off-the-job and attend training is vital in supporting the rollout of these mental health initiatives. There are increasing reports from The Teachers Union that “schools are taking the ‘opportunity’ to place more workload demands on teachers – using the pandemic to insist that teachers work harder and longer in order to assist pupils to catch up with lost learning. (5)”
What did our members say about the future of mental health in education?
Symon Dewsbury:
“Well that’s a very open question and it’s very difficult to predict the future especially given the fact that skill numbers are increasing, young people’s needs have become more and more complex and the demands on skills are increasingly stretched.
However I think AMHIE’s role will be significant with the free support they can give to be a very viable tool to schools and colleges across the country especially as we become more embedded and our community grows once our community grows there’s more people we can call upon for help.”
Nicola Bailey:
“I think there needs to be a better understanding and I think there needs to be improved funding. I think organisations such as a AMHIE are saying is look this is what’s needed, we can provide training, we can provide resources but we also need the funding because a lot of schools aren’t in the position that they can afford to be part of organisations.
It’s difficult to release staff to networking events if there’s no cover no back in the schools that makes it difficult. So I think the Government needs to be giving funding so that schools can attend events such as the ones that AMHIE run.
There is more training needed not just for mental health and but that also connects to things like mental health first aid training or just mental health training. Until that happens we’re going to have the increased numbers of students and young people who are going to be facing crisis and I think it’s unfair to schools, although we want to help we sometimes just don’t have the training to help.”
Claire Cannon:
“I think that we have we’ve already come a long way, the fact that the conversations are happening even if you look back two or three years they weren’t happening as they are now. I think people have realised that it’s gone past having yoga on an inset day or you know making bread all of these kinds of things that were happening and again they have their place they’re nice to do I’m not knocking the fact that people try those things because we have to try things to make progress. We have to try, we have to find out things that don’t work to know then what is going to be more effective. I think for me the key is sustainability it’s not just what do we do now but what can we plan for in the long term because these issues are not going away.
I know lots of people were kind of hoping the change of Government was going to bring about some quite quick change and yes there are changes happening but we have to kind of do that for ourselves from within as well. So making education sustainable by supporting well-being in a more strategic way and it’s nice to see some of the things around PPA off site becoming more normal I think flexible working is definitely something that schools can look at and it is certainly is doable.
I think we need to get our heads out of the sand and say oh you know schools can’t run you know this not going to work dragging our feet because it absolutely can! Flexible working is definitely something that schools can look at and it is certainly doable. They are recognising the value that a break in your week, time to reset, particularly at those high pressure leadership levels that recognising the benefits that can have and that is about building your sustainability.
If you give someone a half day every 2 3 weeks for example and they stay for years I mean look at the experience you get there just off of that one thing so for me that’s where things are going and quite rightly so!”
Fiona Wilkins:
“I went to The Inclusion Conference, it’s first time I’ve been and it was really interesting for me because it just showed the landscape at the moment. Where schools are at, where different settings are at and where they’re headed.
Things are difficult because we’re in this sphere I think, our perspectives are a bit skewed and we think that everybody thinks in the same way that we do and they don’t. So schools are doing their absolute damnest to try and include all our young people. They’re doing that in more creative ways in my opinion than I’ve ever seen before, working together as MHST’s and working to have internal exclusion units amongst themselves.
The way in which some of the teachers were talking inclusion made me think that actually mental health is right up there it’s becoming prioritised but I see that there’s still a long way to go. One of the talks I went to was from a school in Leeds and he was giving examples of different types of leadership. The leadership at his school was really quite different to any other you would normally expect it was it was very much about putting the children’s mental health first and it’s nearly always as an aside.
I think it’s things are moving in the right direction.”
Lucy Hall:
“Well we’re in a real time of change of course and I think we all know, all those working in education a couple of decades know that it goes in cycles and initiatives come and go. At the moment we seem to be in a place where mental health is high upon the agenda, funding constraints mean of course that most schools and indeed the Department for Education are unable to do the things that we all know need to be done. Like providing effective mental health support in schools and early stage when children need it. So I think the way things are going, is going to be schools trying to deal with the outcomes of poor mental health in students such as low attendance or school refusal, emotionally based school avoidance and also staff ill health.
I think schools will have to start prioritising those more than they have done, some schools do a fantastic job and pay from their core budget for multiple full time counselling staff but others are still trying to get the NHS to do that or trying to refer students out to other providers that don’t have the capacity to help them.
I believe that schools will over the long term will start to dedicate more of their core budget to staff training and mental health. As someone who for many years was head of PSHE what I hope is going to happen is that PSHE will be taken far more seriously and so we suffered from not by and large being assessed in any way that puts it on a par with say English maths and science. I’m not entirely sure what the answer is but I do think PSHE needs a much higher priority perhaps some more elements of it relating to mental health need to be made statutory in the way that PSHE has been and that means a lot of staff training because there are very few specialist teachers and leaders in this area.”
What will AMHIE do to support the Government and the Sector?
In conjunction with the school-focused initiatives, there are broader efforts to strengthen mental health services, including the recruitment of an additional 8,500 mental health workers, as well as 6,500 more teachers (2).
As one of the key providers of DfE approved Mental Health Lead training for schools, AMHIE have been at the forefront of this development of support for educational settings. Identifying the barriers to those working in education to access training, resources and support we have worked closely with our National Steering Group to create a future-proof organisation to offer just this.
AMHIE offers:
- Up to date resources, live support sessions, webinars, presentations and news.
- Free awareness training.
- Free In-Person CPD (RRP £129+VAT).
- Networking with other settings and professionals.
- Training and Development opportunities.
- Advice line; speak to our team when you need advice.
- Support; members badges, Live support events and regular engagement with your team.
- Services; coaching, supervisions, therapy, counselling and more.
This latest announcement signifies a substantial push towards integrating mental health support within the education system and tackling the intertwined issues of attendance and behaviour. The expansion of MHSTs, coupled with targeted support for struggling schools and a broader investment in mental health services, represents a significant step in addressing the mental health needs of young people in the UK and aiming to create a more supportive and conducive learning environment. We will continue to provide education and support to those working on the frontline to deliver these initiatives to the whole of the UK.
References:
- Arnot, Dr Megan. “Relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16: Results from the longitudinal study of young people – cohort 2” Department for Education. 11/5/2025. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/681b676c9ef97b58cce3e518/The_relationship_between_mental_ill_health_and_absence_in_students_aged_13_to_16.pdf
- GOV.UK. “Almost million more pupils get access to mental health support” Department for Education. 16/5/2025. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/almost-million-more-pupils-get-access-to-mental-health-support?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=cdc81b50-97f8-458a-bf70-0eadc06357bc&utm_content=immediately
- National Education Union. “Vast majority of schools to face funding cuts next year” 20/1/2025. https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/vast-majority-schools-face-funding-cuts-next-year#:~:text=This%20cut%20in%20funding%20will,an%20average%20cut%20of%201.2%25.
- NASUWT. “Flexible Working (Great Britain)”. 2025. https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/conditions-of-service/flexible-working/flexible-working-great-britain.html
- NASUWT. “Tackling Excessive Teacher Workload (England and Wales)”. 2025. https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/conditions-of-service/workload/tackling-excessive-teacher-workload-england-wales.html
Lily Blakeledge
The Team at AMHIE
support@amhie.com