Government mental health reforms for young people welcome
The British Youth Council welcomes the Government’s proposal to focus mental health reforms on young people but we recognise more is needed to ensure parity of esteem for children and young people’s mental and physical health.
On Monday 9th January 2017, Prime Minister, Theresa May announced measures to transform mental health support in our schools, workplaces and communities. In a speech at the Charity Commission, May set out measures which would see additional training for teachers, an extra £15m for community care, online self-checking and mental health first aid training.
The British Youth Council’s Youth Select Committee published a report on young people’s mental health in the winter of 2015. The Committee found a range of issues facing young people’s mental health, including the absence of support and signposting in schools, bullying online, stigma around the discussion of mental health and the growing pressures and decreasing funding.
Youth Select Committee oral evidence session on young people’s mental health in June 2015
The Government have since taken on a number of its recommendations and we’re pleased to see the Prime Minister reaffirming their commitments. In our recommendations, we made it clear all teachers should receive mandatory minimum training on young people’s mental health as part of their initial teacher training and we’re looking forward to seeing what this works in practice in the coming months.
Rhys Hart, Chair of the Youth Select Committee on Young People’s Mental Health said: “I’m delighted that the Government have reaffirmed their commitment to young people’s mental health. The Youth Select Committee’s comprehensive investigation discovered some important and serious issues around the current state of young people’s mental health services and although we have stressed the importance of mandatory training for teachers on young people’s mental health it’s imperative a whole school approach is taken to ensure we really tackle the issues at hand.”
Read the Youth Select Committee’s report on ‘Young People’s Mental Health.
Download Government Response to the Youth Select Committee’s Report on ‘Young People’s Mental Health’.
