Mental Health resources and guidance for schools

The Department for Education have produced a number of guidance and resource documents around mental health, wellbeing, behaviour and discipline.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources for Teachers and Teaching Staff

Click on the image below to open this guidance or click here to download the PDF file.

This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education.

It has been produced to help teachers and teaching staff in schools, colleges and FE providers with sources of mental health and wellbeing support to assist them to get the help and support they may need in response to any feelings they are experiencing as a result of COVID-19.

We know that children and young people may be experiencing a variety of feelings in response to the COVID-19 outbreak such as anxiety, stress or low mood. It is important to understand that these are normal responses to an abnormal situation.

We have put together some useful links and sources of support to help teachers and teaching staff to assist children and young people so that they can get the advice and help they need.

We have also developed a list for you to provide children and young people with sources of support to assist them to get the help they may need in response to any feelings they are experiencing due to COVID-19. You can adapt this list to suit individual needs.

Mental health and behaviour in schools

Click on the image below to open this guidance or go to the Mental Health and behaviour guidance PDF on the gov.uk website (opens link in new window).

This is non-statutory, departmental advice from the Department for Education (DfE). Mental health problems affect many people, and most schools will have pupils who need mental health support. This advice aims to help schools to support pupils whose mental health problems manifest themselves in behaviour. Schools have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children by developing whole school approaches tailored to their particular needs, as well as considering the needs of individual pupils. This advice:

• Sets out schools’ roles and responsibilities in relation to mental health and behaviour, within their existing duties;
• Outlines how schools can identify whether a child or young person’s behaviour –disruptive, withdrawn, anxious, depressed or otherwise – may be related to a mental health problem, and how to support them in these
  circumstances;
• Provides advice and guidance on working with other professionals and external agencies where appropriate; and
• Provides links to additional support available to schools, including frameworks, audit tools, evidence and resources

This advice sits alongside our non-statutory Behaviour and Discipline in Schools advice, which summarises the statutory powers and duties for school staff and approaches they can adopt to manage behaviour in their schools. It supports implementation of chapter 6 of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice, which sets out an expected process for identifying and responding to additional needs. It also reflects recent policy developments in other related policy areas, in particular alternative provision, exclusions, and safeguarding. We have updated this advice as part of our wider work to support schools and colleges to promote good mental wellbeing in children.