18 July 2019

Extra mental health support announced for schools and colleges in Liverpool

Liverpool has secured funding for children and young people’s mental health, as part of the next wave of funding from a national trailblazer programme.

This follows the announcement in December 2018 that Liverpool would be one of 25 national trailblazer sites for children and young people’s mental health support.

In total, the programme will see an extra £1.1m invested into children and young people’s mental health across the city during 2019-2020. This will be used to support the development of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in local schools and colleges.

The MHSTs provide early intervention for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, such as anxiety, behavioural difficulties or friendship issues, as well as providing support to staff within school and college settings.

The extra funding will also support the development of a further team which will specifically focus on providing extra support to vulnerable children and young people during the transition from primary to secondary education in Year 6 and 7, and at the end of secondary school in Year 11.

The new transition team will build on this work, providing more targeted support for children and young people at risk of developing poor mental health around the transition to secondary school or further education, training and employment. They will do this through one-to-one support and group sessions focused around managing anxiety and emotional distress.

The programme will be overseen by NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), working in close partnership with Liverpool City Council, Education (through Liverpool Learning Partnership) and the Liverpool Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) partnership.

This partnership has been closely supporting a whole schools approach to Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing across the city, which has been developed over the last 2 years, and this additional funding will help to strengthen that.

Dr Fiona Lemmens, Chair for NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:

“We’re delighted by the announcement that Liverpool is to receive this additional mental health support. We know that there is an increasing demand for the provision of mental health services for children and young people across Liverpool, and this additional programme will bring together education and mental health professionals to help ensure that some of our most vulnerable children and young people are able to access the support they need, when they need it most.”

Elaine Rees, CEO for Liverpool Learning Partnership said:

“Liverpool Learning Partnership and all its member schools are delighted that another MHST has been awarded to Liverpool. Our work as part of the trailblazer to date has highlighted the need for more focused support around transition and this announcement is a welcome addition to that support becoming a reality.”

Cabinet member for education, Cllr Barbara Murray, said:

“I very much welcome this announcement as it will enable us to do additional work with our partners around key times of change for young people when they leave primary school and secondary school. We have to offer our young people the help and support they need to help them tackle the challenge of growing up in an increasingly complex world, which is why it has to be a priority for central and local government.”