Evaluating the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper programme: Findings from surveys of schools and colleges and Mental Health Support Teams (2024)

Jessica Mundy ORCID logo ; Ellie Moore ; Colette Soan ; Joanna K Anderson ; Ariadna Albajara Saenz ; Aslihan Baser ; Anne-Marie Burn ; Sarah-Jane Fenton ; Gemma McKenna ; Stephen O'Neill ; +4 more... Holly Platt ; Tamsin J Ford ; Jo Ellins ; Nicholas Mays ; (2025) Evaluating the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper programme: Findings from surveys of schools and colleges and Mental Health Support Teams (2024). Project Report. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. DOI: 10.17037/PUBS.04676423
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In 2018, the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper programme was launched. This funded the creation of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to work in schools and colleges across England, and specific training in whole-school/college approaches to mental health and wellbeing for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges. The MHSTs were designed to have three core functions: 1) to provide direct support, through evidence-based interventions (e.g., low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy), to individual children and young people with ‘mild to moderate’ mental health problems and/or their parents/carers; 2) to support schools and colleges with their whole-school/college approach to mental health and wellbeing; and 3) to work with education staff and liaising with external specialist mental health services to ensure that children and young people get the support they need. It was intended that each MHST would support approximately 8,000 children and young people across a selection of schools in their local area.

An early evaluation of the pilot wave of the programme (‘the Trailblazers’) found that the support from MHSTs was welcomed, and many schools and colleges were optimistic about what the programme could achieve. There were several initial implementation challenges, including those related to workforce and delivery, such as gaps in the training for the new Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) role and high staff turnover. Additionally, there were challenges relating to the scope of the support that MHSTs could provide in relation to the needs of children and young people and ensuring that the impacts of the programme were experienced equitably across all who needed support.

In 2023, the longer-term national evaluation of the roll-out of the programme (up to the seventh wave) began. This evaluation comprises several research components, including quantitative and qualitative work. This report presents the findings from the first part of this research – a survey of staff in schools and colleges that are supported by an MHST (n = 1,189), as well as a survey of individuals involved in the local delivery of MHSTs (n = 303) conducted in 2024.

The survey respondents indicated that the core functions of MHSTs were being delivered well, and the majority of schools and colleges were satisfied with the support provided by their local MHST. MHSTs spent around half of their staff time on provision of direct support through evidence-based interventions and splitting their remaining time equally between supporting whole-school/college approach activities and working with education staff and external specialist services. This was consistent with the pattern found in the pilot wave. There was variation in how MHSTs operate, including the number of schools and colleges that EMHPs work with as well as the number of children and young people they deliver interventions to; the time that MHSTs spend in schools and colleges; their way of working with schools/colleges. Both school and college staff and respondents in MHSTs reported broadly good partnership working and integration between the teams and local schools and colleges, although some schools and colleges reported lower levels of MHST integration.

Most respondents in MHSTs reported that their team accepted referrals for children and young people with needs that were outside ‘mild to moderate’ low mood, social anxiety and common behavioural issues at least some of the time, and in some cases, more frequently. Half of respondents in MHSTs reported that the interventions they used were not suitable for all children and young people, such as those with neurodiversity, special educational needs and disabilities, and those who have experienced trauma. The findings also show that staff turnover was still an issue within MHSTs, especially of EMHPs.

Overall, the two surveys provided a broad overview of how the Green Paper programme was being delivered across the country, including successes and challenges, and showed that there was considerable variation in how the service was delivered across teams and education settings. Inevitably, surveys are limited in depth as they balance participant burden with the volume of questions, and answers options are pre-specified. The ongoing evaluation will probe further with detailed research in six case study MHSTs and the schools and colleges that they work with, covering programme implementation, costs, and outcomes. The surveys will be repeated in autumn 2025, informed by the findings from the case study research. The evaluation will report its full findings from all packages of research in 2026.


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