The ACP has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social care and the Secretary of State for Education directly in response to the Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health Provision green Paper.
The ACP supports the government's intention that schools and colleges should be at the heart of efforts to identify mental health problems in children and young people and as a way for them to access high-quality mental health and well-being support. The experience of our members working in and with schools is that such services can prove highly effective and can provide a graduated approach to mental health difficulties. However, given that the Prime Minister had previously announced plans to transform mental health support, starting in childhood, and the government has committed to partity of esteem, we are surprised by the limited scope and ambition of the green paper.
See our letters to both the Secretary of State for Health and Social care and the Secretary of State for Education below, which highlights our concerns in more detail, and offers proposed amendments to the green paper proposals.