The Department for Education does not know when additional funding for children’s mental health will be provided, a senior civil servant has suggested.

Tom Goldman, deputy director of the DfE funding policy unit, said that more funding for mental health would have to wait for the next government spending review - but he said the department did not know when this would take place.

Speaking at the Schools and Academies Show in Birmingham today, Mr Goldman said: “I would like to be able to stand up and say when the next spending review will occur and which years it will cover.

“Unfortunately our good friends at the Treasury have not yet vouchsafed that information to me - I’m pretty confident that’s because they don’t know themselves at this point.”

He suggested the Treasury had not worked it out because “the impact of Brexit” was “playing heavily on their minds”.

Mr Goldman said he would be “surprised” if any discussions about the spending review began this year.

Demand for mental health support

“My guess would be that we will have an answer either by the summer or potentially not until autumn next year.”

Asked about funding for children’s mental health - amid warnings that schools are struggling to cope with rising demand for support services - Mr Goldman said this would have to wait for the spending review.

“I’m not aware and nobody has promised me some additional funding in the short term which is suddenly going to come over the hill on this,” he said.

“I’m not going to pretend that I think that’s particularly likely. Anything we’re going to get in terms of extra money to deal with mental health or other issues is going to come through the spending review.”

Mr Goldman also said that children’s mental health was “a particular area that governments finds difficult to deal with well”, because “responsibilities cross government departments”.

“That’s only going to be tackled well when we get education and health hand in hand,” he added.