Blogs

Statutory PSHE key to mental health fight

The on-going battle to protect young people’s mental health would be bolstered by the DfE making PSHE and SRE statutory subjects, argues Pete Henshaw

In this editorial column last week, I pledged to continue SecEd’s campaign to spread best practice and encourage an increasing focus on the mental health of our young people (see the article here).

Themes of wellbeing and mental health crop up almost every week in SecEd’s pages, both in our news articles and best practice and opinion pieces. This week, this has been particularly the case.

First, the children’s commissioner Anne Longfield reminded us all of the “urgency around mental health”. Giving evidence to the Education Select Committee, she discussed her views about the need for improved, statutory PSHE in schools, including a focus on mental health and the “anxieties children are facing” (see the article here). These are “mainstream issues”, she added.

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