The Role of the School Mental Health Lead

Course introduction

The Government Green Paper ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’ plans for every school and college to have a designated lead in mental health by 2025. The designated lead will be a trained member of staff who is responsible for the school’s approach to mental health.

This Mental Health Lead training course is designed to meet this requirement by providing you with a clear understanding of the role of the school mental health lead. This step-by-step course will take you through essential skills needed to develop a multidisciplinary, whole systems approach through effective practice procedures to ensure the improvement of wellbeing and mental health in schools. This course also includes a free copy of the Mental Health Lead Toolkit*.

Following the course you will be asked to complete a school-based audit on mental health and wellbeing which is analysed, assessed by our expert consultant who will give feedback and advise on a way forward.

The Mental Health Lead Toolkit includes:
• Clearly define the mental health lead role within the school
• Create a school mental health policy;
• Record student concerns and interventions;
• Engage effectively with parents to support their child’s mental health;
• Coordinate, record and document meetings.
Mental Health Lead Toolkit worth £49.99+VAT*

Would you like to book in-house training?
Contact us today and speak to one of our team.

What we will cover throughout the day

• Understand the current expectations of the designated mental health lead role;

• Provide framework for developing an action plan;

• Help staff to identify students who show signs of mental health issues;

• Ways to up skill staff regarding the importance of mental health and wellbeing;

• Create effective communication with external agencies including CAMHS to ensure successful referrals and support;

• Understand the importance of the Mental Health Lead’s supervision, health and well-being;

• Gain knowledge of key CPD training essential for the role;

• Understand the key elements of an effective toolkit to improve student mental health and wellbeing.

Target audience

Aimed at anyone who is interested in becoming the school’s designated mental health lead.
If you have attended the mental health first aid course or similar courses this is a potential next step in your training.

Trainers for this course

Karen Ferguson

BSc (Hons), QTS, MEd, MA

Karen is currently working part-time in a mainstream Primary School as SENDCO, while the remaining part of her week is spent supporting and training. Karen started teaching science at a... mainstream secondary school in 2000 but moved into the SEND environment, working with children and parents to help them overcome their barriers to education to give them the skills to achieve their full potential. The majority of her training was on the job, which showed the need for training in this area. She was appointed as a Specialist Leader in Education for Autism, and this allowed her to disseminate good practice and deliver training in the field of SEND. Karen offers various SEND, Neurodivergent and condition specific training, including Autism, ADHD and Dyslexia. She has continued her professional development throughout the years, including a Master in Arts, Master in Education, Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism and PDA formal qualifications. She is currently working towards her NPQSEN. Karen believes that a better understanding of SEND, Neurodivergence and complex needs can be achieved through information sharing, and she is committed to ensuring that education is developed and delivered to as many people as possible.Read more

See what others have to say about us

The training has been informative, helpful and provides comprehensive guidelines regarding what to do after the training. I was poorly prepared, due to not actually having knowledge of school polices and practices, but I now have somewhere to start. The trainer was especially friendly; a wealth of knowledge and experience. I feel that she promoted the role of mental health lead as being do-able despite the sometimes challenging and overwhelming elements that it can bring. The training has left me with tools to help me start communicating with staff and pupils in order to make positive changes in our primary school regarding mental health policies and practice, Thank you.

Excellent! I found this role so daunting but this has given me clear aims to help me tackle becoming the Mental Health Lead head on!

Excellent from start to finish – excellent toolkit I can fully utilise within my organisation.