Radical reform of mental health support in schools and more funding is needed to support pupils after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new coalition of major multi-academy trusts and leading private schools.

They warn that catch-up efforts will be “blocked” unless government tackles a mental health crisis enveloping young people and schools.

The Coalition for Youth Mental Health in Schools has used its report launched today to call for an overhaul of counselling and PSHE in secondaries and a step change in the provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

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The group, which includes private schools such as Eton College and some of the country’s biggest multi-academy trusts, have also produced new findings about young people’s experiences of life under Covid-19.

The research, which included a poll of more than 1,000 young people, found that almost two-thirds felt anxious and worried more frequently than they did before the Covid crisis and almost half reported not getting any enjoyment out of life more frequently than they did pre-pandemic.

The report makes a series of recommendations to address the mental health crisis in schools to create a minimum entitlement for students.

This includes:

• The introduction of a nationally standardised framework for measuring and tracking outcomes for CAMHS across the country alongside increased funding.
• A call on the government to accelerate its ambition to ensure every school has a designated mental health leader by 2023 by bringing forward the funds allocated for training by two years.
• The government should introduce a statutory requirement for every school staff member to receive appropriate mental health and wellbeing awareness training as part of annual safeguarding training.
• Schools should restrict mobile phone use during the academic school day and educate students on how to be safe online.
• All schools to teach at least one properly timetabled lesson of PSHE education each week.
• The government to invest £11.6 million a year from 2023 into a new ITT route to ensure every secondary school in England has a specialist trained PSHE teacher by 2030. 
• The government should centrally fund a school counsellor in every school.

Coalition chair Jane Lunnon, the headteacher of the Alleyn’s School in London, said: “All of the recommendations reflect something exciting; the drive and energy which can be generated by teachers and school leaders when they come together, with a shared purpose and a strong mutual aim, to make a real difference.  

“So, perhaps, out of the darkness of Covid, has come an important and energising opportunity, not only to turn on the light around teenage mental health - but to shine it brightly across the educational sector in this country.

“In doing that, we will help our young find ways to combat and defeat mental illness, to bolster and nurture their mental health and to emerge from these challenging times, all the stronger, full of self-belief, determination and agency and ready to switch on their own lights in the years ahead.”

The coalition’s research found that:

• 71 per cent of young people surveyed reported feeling like they had no motivation more frequently than pre-pandemic.
• 62 per cent reported feeling anxious or worried more frequently than pre-pandemic.
• 46 per cent reported feeling a continuous low mood or sadness more frequently than pre-pandemic.
• 38 per cent reported feeling hopeless or tearful more frequently than pre-pandemic.
• 18 per cent reported having suicidal thoughts more frequently than pre-pandemic.

The report adds: “Children in England have lost an average of 115 school days over the past eighteen months with disruption likely to continue for at least another year.

“The scale of the catch-up challenge facing schools is therefore immense.

“However, less spoken about is the mental health crisis enveloping young people and schools, ready to blockade progress being made to support academic catch up.”

We spoke with teachers, parents and young people across England as part of our work for this report and the large majority said the same thing: the pandemic has had a significant impact on children and young people’s mental health, and fixing it should be a key priority for schools and government.

“This extraordinary coalition came together because we believed that something needed to be done from within the sector, both independent and state.”

Stuart Burns the chief executive of David Ross Education Trust said: “Those of us in the frontline see the long shadow that Covid has cast over the mental health of our young people - never has there been a more important time for us to come together to find a sector-wide response that will help us support our students through the challenges they face.

“The Mental Health Minimum Entitlement will give us the investment and the tools to provide that additional support in a way that allows our students to not just cope, but to flourish and thrive.”

The coalition is comprised of Alleyn’s School London; Lady Eleanor Holles School; City of London School for Girls; David Ross Education Trust; Eton College; Oasis Community Learning; Outwood Grange Academies Trust; Reach Academy, Feltham, Star Academies; St Paul’s School; Wellington College; Westminster School and Wycombe Abbey. 

It came together in the second lockdown in response to the challenge the coronavirus placed on the lives of young people and has produced today’s report with the policy consultancy Public First.