Child poverty levels have risen, yet again, and now stand at 4.3 million. The impact of this is severe, far-ranging and cruel, says Dr Mary Bousted

The pandemic has made children and young people’s mental health worse. Since the arrival of Covid–19 the prevalence of mental disorders in the young has risen to one child in six according to NHS figures – an alarming rate of mental ill-health.

At a roundtable held by the University of Manchester in March – entitled How can in-school provision better support children after Covid – researchers discussed the role schools can play in fostering and supporting pupil mental wellbeing. They made four key recommendations:

Teachers and leaders would readily agree with the first three. It is the last which will raise hackles – because they know that savage cuts to local authority funding have led to a drastic cull of the support services that schools used to work with and rely on.

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