Ruth Davidson MSP visits Tynecastle High School to discuss children's mental health

Ruth Davidson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, visited a Place2Be school in Edinburgh today to take part in a roundtable discussion about children and young people's mental health services in Scotland.

Pictured: Ruth Davidson MSP with Jonathan Wood, National Manager for Scotland, and Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery.

Today Ruth Davidson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, visited Tynecastle High School in Edinburgh to take part in a roundtable discussion about children and young people's mental health services in Scotland. The event was hosted at the school by leading children’s mental health charity Place2Be, which is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Place2Be began working in Scotland in 2001, with the first pilot schools in Edinburgh. We now work within 39 schools in Scotland, supporting over 13,000 children and young people and operating across the Central Belt (Edinburgh, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, North Ayrshire and Renfrewshire). Later this year we will extend our service into primary schools in Dundee and two high schools in South Ayrshire.

Ruth Davidson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, said:

“Adolescent mental health is an issue close to my heart and it was great to visit Tynecastle High School to see first-hand the excellent work Place2Be do.

Early intervention is absolutely crucial to help young people deal with mental health issues. The emotional and therapeutic services provided by Place2Be are making a real difference to children by helping them develop the life-long coping skills which all children should have.

Pictured: Representatives from Place2Be, People's Postcode Lottery and Tynecastle High School discussed the importance of early intervention, teacher supervision and everyone taking responsibility for children and young people's mental health.

There’s a vital need to support our teachers, who are facing more challenges with the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. This is something they’re not trained for. Place2Be is piloting support – called Place2Think - for students in Teacher Education establishments in Scotland and our research shows a high uptake and need for this service.

In Scotland we’re at the forefront of discussions on Teacher Supervision around the areas of mental health and wellbeing. We can offer support to deal with the impact of increasingly challenging and often disturbed children, on a teacher's own mental health.

We’re delighted that Ruth Davidson has visited Tynecastle High School to see first-hand the work we do in schools.”

Hazel Kinnear, Headteacher at Tynecastle High School, added:

“We were delighted to host this morning’s event. Place2Be is the ideal service for our school community due to the holistic nature of the provision. No other service provides support for the young person, their family and our staff. Place2Be is integral to our school community because we know that only by taking care of the whole person, can we support young people to achieve their potential.”

Place2Be is very grateful for the generous support of the players of People's Postcode Lottery. Over the last six years their funding has helped us to significantly increase our reach, growing from working in 200 schools to today providing mental health services in 327 schools reaching over 173,000 pupils across the UK. We have also developed and scaled innovative training programmes for school staff to develop their capacity to support children’s mental health – last year training 768 teachers and school leaders across 318 schools.

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