This is a joint submission by Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and the Partnership for Well-being and Mental Health in Schools. Membership of these two coalitions includes leading charities, professional and provider associations from across the education, health and social care sectors, and the voluntary and community sector.
Our members overall welcome the proposed changes to the Education Inspection Framework and the handbook. The reduced focus on performance data and outcomes is a step in the right direction and ‘attainment’ is considered more broadly across the whole of the framework. We also welcome the shift towards evaluating education providers’ approach to preparing pupils beyond the ‘academic, technical or vocational’.
This will allow for more opportunity to recognise the different factors that form a child’s experience of education. CYPMHC and PWBMHS are supportive of the proposed separate judgements of “behaviour and attitudes” and “personal development”.
We believe that these will enable a greater focus on the positive factors that support the wellbeing and development of learners, such as the need to keep both physically and mentally healthy.
We strongly believe that the promotion of wellbeing and mental health in schools is not an objective that conflicts with academic attainment but should boost children’s learning and development.