Mental health funding approved for schools across Mansfield and Ashfield

It comes following an announcement by education secretary Damian Hinds, who has promised extra funding for a trailblazer pilot transforming children's mental health in schools.

Nottinghamshire County Council and NHS commissioners will receive the extra funding for the area, with the grants coming as a result of an initial pilot of the scheme in Rushcliffe and Gedling last year.

The extra funding is for two years and it will enable a mental health support team to be set up which will cover 20 schools across the Mansfield and Ashfield areas, offering increased access to emotional and wellbeing support.

The teams, which will be staffed by mental health professionals from Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, will work with children and young people with mild to moderate emotional, mental health and well-being problems.

More schools will also have the opportunity to attend free mental health workshops. These will bring together education and mental health staff to discuss how they can support young people in schools.

Dr Gavin Lunn, clinical chairman of Mansfield and Ashfield CCG, said: “This scheme is a great opportunity to focus on early intervention.

"We know young people and their parents and carers want to be able to access mental health services quickly and that the earlier mental health problems are identified the better the health outcomes.

"Having mental health support teams in schools will provide additional support for well-being and mental health directly to children and young people and offer an easier and more familiar setting for them to access care when they need it.”

Julie Attfield, interim director of mental health at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, said: “We are delighted at this extra investment in the health and wellbeing of young people in Mansfield and Ashfield areas.

"The mental health of young people is of the utmost importance and if we can help and support young people in a timely manner then we can prevent them using mental health services in the future.

"That’s good for the young people, their families and society in general.”

Councillor Philip Owen, county council chairman of the children and young people’s committee, said: “We are delighted that we have been successful in getting this additional support, which will benefit young people from Mansfield and Ashfield and their carers."

Further funding was announced by the government for the Nottingham City area, which will be used to develop mental health support teams across 40 schools in the area.

The teams in the city, Mansfield and Ashfield areas will all be operational from September 2020.