The Department of Education tried to stop its own independent mental-health champion from criticising the government, before finally removing her from the post, official documents reveal.
Internal DfE emails released to Natasha Devon, the government’s mental health “tsar”, reveal that the government repeatedly tried to stop her from speaking her mind.
They show how DfE advisers and officials monitored her Twitter account, criticised her public comments as unsuitable for a government mental health champion, and talked of the “need to take ND down a peg or two”.
They eventually resolved to remove her from the role - while attempting to make sure that it did not look as though they were doing so because she had criticised them.
‘Remain impartial’
Ms Devon was appointed the government’s mental health champion in July last year. She says that, during a phone call with a DfE civil servant, she was told the role would be unpaid, “because it’s important that you remain impartial”.
However, on 4 May, the story broke that Ms Devon had been sacked as mental health champion, suggesting that it was because she was critical of government policy.
A DfE spokesperson pointed out that the emails were sent by advisers working for the previous education secretary.
They said: “Natasha did a great job of helping us to raise the profile of young people’s mental health. Since that time, the independent NHS Taskforce report has been published, which recommended that a cross-government mental-health champion be created. For this reason, we had to reconsider the Department’s own role.”
This is an edited version of an article in the 9 September edition of TES. Subscribers can view the full story here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. You can also download the TES Reader app for Android or iOS. TES magazine is available at all good newsagents.
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