Designated Leadership
There is a designated mental health lead in school who is responsible for:
- Promoting positive mental health within school
- Monitoring SEMH intervention and deciding when it is appropriate to involve other services
- Being one point of contact for external support services, e.g. Educational psychology service, child and adolescent mental health
- Ensuring that mental health workers in schools have appropriate qualifications and accreditations (the professional standards authority for health and social care provides details of appropriate accreditations for different roles)
- Engaging parents in supporting young people’s mental health
- Maintaining awareness of relevant research and policy updates in this area
- Identifying the potential risk factors within the vulnerable groups in school
- Liaising with the governing body regarding SEMH
- Liaising with the mental health in schools teams if available
There is a designated teacher for Children Looked-After (CLA) and Children Previously Looked-After (CPLA) who is responsible for:
- Being the central point of contact within school and work with the Virtual School and other outside agencies
- Promoting the education of CLA and CPLA through the development and review of school policies, promoting a culture of inclusion in which staff are attachment aware and trauma informed and best able to support these highly vulnerable young people
- Ensuring there is a child advocate in school and to enable CLA/CPLA to share their views
- Supporting school staff in their understanding of how CLA and CPLA achieve, potential barriers to this and how to support the CLA / CPLA they teach
- Working directly with CLA/CPLA and the carers, parents to promote good home-school links and facilitate collaborative support
- Working with the school’s designated safeguarding lead to ensure any safeguarding concerns are dealt with appropriately (DFE Designated teacher for CLA guidance ).
- Leading on the development and implementation of the child’s Personal Education Plan within school.