Place2Be presents evidence to House of Commons Education Committee and Health and Social Care Committee

This week, Place2Be presented evidence on the impact of the pandemic on children and young people’s mental health.

Our Chief Executive, Catherine Roche, joined Emma Thomas of YoungMinds, Dr Bernadka Dubicka of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and Dr Alex George, the UK Government’s Youth Mental Health Ambassador to discuss the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on education and children’s services.

The Education Select Committee is a group of MPs from different parties. They investigate issues facing children and young people and make recommendations to the Government.

Answering questions from the Committee, we emphasised the importance of:

• Early intervention and prevention
• A whole-school approach to mental health
• Training for teachers and school leaders
• ‘Catch-up’ being about much more than just academia.

As a panel, we also discussed the gaps in the children’s mental health workforce and the need for more routes into counselling, particularly for diverse or underrepresented communities.

Watch the video below to see the full session, or read this live Twitter thread from the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition.

We also recently submitted written evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee Inquiry into children’s mental health in England.

In this evidence, we recommend a cross-government strategy on children’s mental health and wellbeing, focusing on prevention, early intervention, workforce capacity, and long-term sustainable funding.

We also recommend a focus on whole-school approaches to mental health that reduce stigma, intervene early, prevent mental health problems from arising or escalating, and ensure that positive mental health is embedded in the culture of every school.

Our full submission is now available online for those who would like to read more.