News story

Government proposals on children and young people's mental health

Ways for schools and colleges to support pupils' mental health are set out in a green paper, as well as plans for new mental health support teams.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Education, The Rt Hon Justine Greening and The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
• Published: 4 December 2017

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

The government has published proposals to improve mental health support for children and young people in England. Over £300 million has been made available to fund them.

The government is asking people for their views on the planned measures, which are set out in a green paper. The measures include:

• encouraging every school and college to have a ‘designated senior mental health lead’
• setting up mental health support teams working with schools, to give children and young people earlier access to services
• piloting a 4-week waiting time for NHS children and young people’s mental health services

This short video describes the main proposals in the green paper.

Children and young people’s mental health green paper video

Other proposals in the green paper include:

• a new working group to look at mental health support for 16 to 25-year-olds
• a report by the Chief Medical Officer on the impact that technology has on children and young people’s mental health, to be produced in 2018

The consultation on the green paper will run for 13 weeks until 2 March 2018.

Published 4 December 2017