Leading Edge Day - Supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing: Mental Health Support Teams. An update on research, policy and practice

Supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing: Mental Health Support Teams.  An update on research, policy and practice

Tuesday 1st April 2025 at 26 Bedford Way, UCL in the Lower Ground Lecture Theatre, and via a Zoom Webinar livestream

Children and young people’s mental health has long been an important element of the work of educational psychologists. It is now seven years since the government published ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper’. Given continuing concerns about children’s wellbeing and mental health and the societal changes we have experienced since its publication (the pandemic, the growth of social media and AI, the continuing context of austerity and the SEN crisis to name a few), a focus on this topic is timely.

The day will provide educational psychologists with updates regarding the government’s vision and policy for supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as reflecting on developments relating to Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs). We will also hear about cutting edge research and consider what that can add to our knowledge base and practice.

The afternoon will focus on educational psychology practice with examples of the role EPs have played in MHSTs. Finally, we will hear about two pieces of work where EPs have developed tools for schools to use to gather the views of children and young people about the support provided to them.

The speakers are Professor Peter Fonagy, UCL; Professor Jessica Deighton, UCL; Dr Lucy Foulkes, University of Oxford; Mo Bham and Davinder Singh Dhesi. City Psychology Service, Leicester City Council; Dr Dave Damon, MindWorks, Surrey; Colette Soan and Ellie Moore, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham; and Annabel Wheeldon-Clarke, Essex Local Authority