Promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-14)

Find resources to help you develop a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing.

The importance of promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing

The government’s Plan for Change (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-change) aims to break down barriers to opportunity. A key element of this plan is to improve support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools.

Good mental health and wellbeing improves standards in schools and helps pupils achieve and thrive in education, setting them up well for life and work.

Good mental health and wellbeing helps pupils:
- attend school
- develop key life skills, particularly social and emotional skills
- engage in learning
- achieve academically
- have better longer term outcomes, such as future employment
Embedding an evidence-based, holistic, whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing helps to achieve this.

Principles of a whole school or college approach

The Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities published guidance on the 8 principles of a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-children-and-young-peoples-emotional-health-and-wellbeing). These are:
- an ethos and environment that promotes respect, and values diversity
- leadership and management that supports and champions efforts to promote emotional health and wellbeing
- staff development to support their own wellbeing and that of pupils and learners
- curriculum teaching and learning to promote resilience and support social and emotional learning
- enabling student voice to influence decisions
- identifying the need for and monitoring the impact of interventions
- targeted support and appropriate referral
- working with parents and carers
Schools and colleges can appoint a mental health lead to develop and oversee their setting’s whole school or college approach.

Identifying your senior mental health lead

Schools and colleges decide who is best placed to take on the role of senior mental health lead. Every setting’s circumstances are different.

Your lead could be a:
- headteacher
- deputy headteacher
- member of the senior leadership team (SLT)
- member of staff who can develop and oversee your setting’s whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing
If your senior lead is not a member of your SLT, consider whether they have the authority, capacity and support to influence and lead strategic change.

If you are already working with an MHST (https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/#_Mental_Health_Support), your nominated senior lead can also be:
- your MHST coordinator
- responsible for liaising with the team
- a different member of staff
A list of senior mental health lead training courses (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686be47710d550c668de3bf7/Senior_mental_health_lead_training_courses_March_2025_Updated_23.06.2025.pdf) (PDF, 246 KB, 21 pages) is available. As of February 2025, we do not quality assure courses and cannot guarantee their availability.

Senior mental health lead learning outcomes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6875024371b773f60c9c1f62/Learning_outcomes_for_senior_metal_health_leads_in_schools_and_colleges.pdf) (PDF, 173 KB, 9 pages) outlines the knowledge and skills that a mental health lead might develop, enabling them to embed an effective whole school or college approach to promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-children-and-young-peoples-emotional-health-and-wellbeing).

Senior mental health leads may benefit from joining a peer support network, which can provide resources, and share knowledge and good practice. Peer support networks for school and college mental health leads (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6874fd7092691289bdb7d396/Peer_support_networks_for_school_and_college_mental_health_leads.pdf) (PDF, 187 KB, 3 pages) has further information and a list of nationally available networks.

Senior mental health leads might wish to access training to:
- develop or refresh their knowledge and skills in specific priority areas
- get more advanced training
- get a relevant qualification
Resources for developing a whole school or college approach

The mental health lead resource hub (https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/) was developed by DfE in partnership with education representatives and mental health experts to help mental health leads in their role. It includes evidence-based practical resources and tools for schools and colleges.

The targeted support toolkit (https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/targeted-support-toolkit/) helps schools and colleges review, refresh and develop targeted support for learners with mental health or social and emotional wellbeing needs.

Resources are available for staff, parents and carers to support attendance and mental wellbeing in schools and colleges (https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/attendance-and-mental-wellbeing-school-college/).

Teaching blog (https://teaching.blog.gov.uk/?s=mental+health) includes posts from teachers which can be filtered to find information about student and staff mental health.

Psychological first aid training (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/psychological-first-aid-for-children-and-young-people) supports children and young people’s mental health during emergencies and crisis situations.

Mental health support teams

Mental health support teams (MHSTs) provide additional capacity to promote and support mental health and wellbeing in primary, secondary and further education settings.

MHSTs have 3 core functions:
- provide early, evidence-based interventions for common mental health issues
- support mental health leads to develop and embed a whole school or college approach
- give timely advice to staff, and liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education
DfE, DHSC and the NHS are working together to roll out MHSTs.

MHSTs include a new workforce of education mental health practitioners (https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/psychological-therapies/roles-psychological-therapies/education-mental-health-practitioner) who work alongside senior clinicians and other professionals. They integrate with the existing mental health and wellbeing support in and around schools and colleges provided by:
- counsellors
- educational psychologists
- school nurses
- school and college pastoral care teams
- educational welfare officers
- the voluntary and community sector
- local authorities
- NHS children and young people’s mental health services (https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/mental-health-support/mental-health-services/)
- the voluntary sector
NHS (https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/) has more information.

Mental health and wellbeing resources for pupils, parents and teachers

Staff wellbeing and development

School and college teachers and leaders can access support for their own wellbeing and to address challenges around workload.

The education staff wellbeing charter (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter) is a declaration of support for, and a set of commitments to, the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education. It directs education staff to mental health and wellbeing resources.

Guidance developed with school leaders to improve workload and wellbeing for school staff (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff) is available. It has free resources including a workload reduction toolkit and resources to help track and evaluate the impact of workload reduction measures.

DfE is funding the charity, Education Support to provide free, professional supervision to school and college leaders. Professional supervision enables leaders to work with qualified and experienced supervisors to develop strategies to support their mental wellbeing.

Other relevant, professional development available includes:
- national professional qualifications (NPQs) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-professional-qualification-npq-courses) - funded courses for state schools and state-funded 16 to 19 organisations
- NPQ for leading behaviour and culture (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/leading-behaviour-and-culture-national-professional-qualification) for teachers who want to create and maintain a culture of good behaviour and high expectations in which staff and pupils thrive
DfE is undertaking a formal review (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/national-professional-qualifications-framework-review) of the existing NPQs. It is expected to take approximately 18 months. The existing suite of NPQs remains until the review is complete.

Information for parents, carers, teachers, pupils and learners

The education hub (https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/09/03/mental-health-resources-for-children-parents-carers-and-school-staff/) provides links to organisations that offer mental health support.

Mental health, behaviour and attendance

Mental health and behaviour guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2) is available to help schools support pupils whose mental health affects their behaviour.

To support the working together to improve school attendance guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance), DfE has produced guidance for schools on when a mental health issue affects attendance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-issues-affecting-a-pupils-attendance-guidance-for-schools).

A collection of resources on improving behaviour in schools (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/improving-behaviour-in-schools) is available to support schools and trusts in developing, implementing and maintaining a whole-school behaviour culture.

Statutory guidance

When developing your whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing, make sure you understand the statutory responsibilities in the following guidance:
- Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) code of practice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25)
- Keeping children safe in education (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2)
Keeping children safe in education outlines the statutory duty for all schools to promote the welfare of their pupils. This includes:
- preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- taking action to help all children have the best outcomes
Local support

Schools and colleges should be aware that their local authority has responsibility for:
- promoting and protecting public physical and mental health
- safeguarding children and young people
- assessing and supporting children with SEND
Your local authority may be able to:
- offer support through routine school improvement, health promotion or educational psychology functions
- direct you to other relevant training and services in your local area
Curriculum teaching and learning

The government conducted an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-curriculum-and-assessment-review), covering ages 5 to 18. The review group will publish an interim report early in 2025.

All pupils are taught about issues related to mental health as part of the relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education curriculum. The department is reviewing the RHSE statutory guidance before confirming next steps later in 2025.

The PSHE Association (https://pshe-association.org.uk/) has published advice for teachers on teaching about mental health and wellbeing as part of the RSE and health education aspects of the curriculum.

A mental wellbeing training module (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing) is available to support the teaching of mental wellbeing as part of this curriculum.