Yesterday Tim Loughton MP (East Worthing and Shoreham) attended the launch of Wise Up, a new campaign by mental health charity YoungMinds, in collaboration with the National Children’s Bureau, which calls for schools to prioritise the wellbeing of their students.
The event comes after YoungMinds wrote to Theresa May last week along with 2,500 teachers, 1,000 mental health professionals, 5,000 parents and 1,200 young people urging her to rebalance the education system and prioritise wellbeing alongside academic achievements. The letter was also signed by 18 other mental health charities, including Samaritans, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Rethink Mental Illness, the Mental Health Foundation, the National Children’s Bureau and the British Youth Council.
The campaign is calling for greater recognition for the good work that schools do on wellbeing, proper funding for wellbeing initiatives, and mental health to be an integral part of teacher training. This week YoungMinds published a survey which found that:
- 92% of young people aged 11-18 think that schools should be accountable for the wellbeing of students
- 87% of young people aged 11-18 think that all teachers should have basic training in mental health.
- 67% of young people aged 11-18 think that their school should place more importance on mental health [1]
Tim said:
“I’m delighted to have attended the launch event for YoungMinds’ Wise Up campaign which aims to address the crisis happening in our classrooms.
“At the moment three children in every classroom will be struggling with a mental health problem, and the situation only seems to be getting worse.
“This is an issue that affects all of us and must be addressed.”
Sarah Brennan, Chief Executive of YoungMinds, said:
“It is crucial that the new government makes the mental health of our children an absolute priority. But at the moment the education system is so heavily skewed that it’s hard for schools to focus on the wellbeing of students rather than their academic achievements.
“Many schools are doing excellent work to promote good mental health. But funding constraints, coupled with the lack of prominence given to wellbeing in legislation and the Ofsted inspection framework, mean that when schools face tough decisions about which services to cut, they are under pressure to prioritise other areas.
“At a time when rates of self-harm are skyrocketing, and when teachers are seeing a sharp rise in anxiety and stress among their students, this cannot be right. We urge all candidates to commit to addressing this crisis in our classrooms.”
Tim Loughton attended the event alongside over 40 other Parliamentarians, as well as teachers, parents and young people. They heard speeches from Neil Carmichael MP, David Rutley, MP, Sarah Brennan, CEO of YoungMinds, and a young activist who spoke about how excessive pressure on exams and grades meant that her wellbeing was overlooked.