We will intervene early to help struggling children

By Bridget Philipson and Wes Streeting

A lot has changed since we left school more than 20 years ago.

Children today, who have been brought up in an increasingly digitised 21st century, are facing new and complex challenges in their childhoods that simply didn’t exist when we were younger. Negotiating your school days in the face of this is having a serious impact on some children’s mental health.

It’s a problem that has been getting worse in recent years. Around 20 per cent of young people experience some type of mental health issue in any given year, up from 14 per cent in 2017.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg – there are likely to be many thousands more struggling with their wellbeing who don’t meet the threshold for a clinical diagnosis.

Much as it might be tempting to dismiss the issue as something that children will grow out of, the evidence tells a different story.

New research published by the Government last week proved the direct, escalating impact that poor mental health has on children’s school attendance. The worse your mental health, the worse your school attendance and vice versa.

These aren’t small effects either. A little absence quickly accumulates devastating impact: pupils missing merely 10 days more than peers have half the odds of achieving good GCSEs. They earn £10,000 less at age 28 on average, compared to pupils with near-perfect attendance.

Early interventions in mental health support for young people can have positive ramifications for the rest of their lives. The same is true in lots of different areas of public policy. This Government is embarked on a public service reform agenda focused on intervening early to prevent greater problems mounting up down the line.

We know this approach delivers better outcomes for patients and pupils, and better value for taxpayers. It is the key to breaking out of the doom loop where the costs of public services continually rise, while the quality of services declines.

As Education Secretary and Health and Social Care Secretary, we are also taking action to improve the mental health of the country’s children.

We will deliver on our manifesto commitment to get every child who needs it access to mental health support within school – and over the course of this year we will roll that support out to nearly a million extra children. Supporting teachers to identify which children need support. Running group sessions to tackle anxiety and low mood. One-to-one support for those who need it but don’t meet an NHS referral threshold.

By deploying NHS-led, evidence-based intervention during children’s formative years, we will not only halt the spiral towards crisis but cultivate much-needed grit amongst the next generation – essential for academic success and life beyond school, with all its ups and downs.

Already on the school attendance front, we are seeing encouraging signs in the months this Government has been in office. Children have clocked up 3.1 million more days in the classroom this year compared with last year.

But it is from now that we will see a real step change, as we really start to tackle the triple threat of attendance, behaviour and mental health in a joined-up way.

We are following proven methods that work. Led by data and guided by best practice. We are launching innovative new attendance and behaviour hubs, led by the highest-performing schools in the country, that alongside the mental health support teams, will drive the highest standards in how schools get more children in the classroom, engaged in learning.

Once at scale, the hubs will provide intensive one-to-one help and advice to 500 schools with significant attendance and behaviour problems, challenging and supporting them to turn this around. A further 4,500 more schools will get support through practical resources and training days.

Today we supercharge a co-ordinated effort to address the root causes of issues resulting in disruption and chaos in classrooms.

Through our Plan for Change, this Government will give every child the chance to thrive in classrooms where brilliant teachers have the time, tools and support to deliver an outstanding education.

Bridget Philipson is the Education Secretary and Wes Streeting is the Health Secretary