Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL)
Training - Education

£800 per attendee.

This training is funded by the Department for Education (DfE). Each setting can apply for a fixed value grant of £1200 to train one person. The funding consists of £800 for full training and a contribution to backfill the lead attending the course.
The funding is offered on a first-come-first-served basis, with grants available to train a senior lead in a third of state schools and colleges in England until May 2022 and beyond. For more information on how to apply for funding please visit the SMHL information page. Please apply for funding asap as it is limited.

Our Course Reference is SMHL117.

This is an introductory course aimed at new senior mental health leads, or those with no previous experience in mental health leadership.

Using a mixture of introductory e-learning, followed by a 2 day online course, you will be supported to develop and review your strategy through 1-2-1 coaching and group coaching sessions over a 12 month period.

By identifying the challenges faced by an individual school, leaders will be able to improve on and facilitate change in:
•             Pupil attendance, attainment, and behaviour
•             Recognition of need
•             The School and Community relationship and referral connection
•             Staff wellbeing and resilience

Throughout this course you will:
•             Work through and develop a targeted Action Plan specific to your school
•             Implement tools to assess need
•             Identify interventions and measure pupil and staff outcomes
•             Map community based mental health provision for your school area and engage with providers
•             Embed change within the school community
•             Implement strategies that will lead cultural change for the future of your school, staff, pupils and parents/carers

Peer support via our dedicated app, as well as resources to support your learning will be provided to all participants. 

The learning outcomes align with Public Health England’s eight principles for promoting children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing, these are:

• Leadership and management that champions efforts to promote emotional health and wellbeing
• Creating an ethos and environment that promotes respect and values diversity
• Curriculum, teaching and learning to promote resilience and social and emotional learning
• Identifying need and monitoring impact of interventions to meet pupils wellbeing needs
• Targeted support and appropriate referrals to ensure that pupils receive timely mental health support
• Working with parents, families and carers to ensure shared aims and strategies in the school community
• Enabling the pupil voice to influence decisions
• Staff development to support their wellbeing and that of pupils and students

Day 1

The role of a Senior Mental Health Lead, a whole school approach
Your school – the context
The range of mental health issues in school and causes for both staff and pupils
Identifying need, understanding targeted support and appropriate referrals
Creating a whole school ethos and introducing the action plan

Day 2

Understanding the task
Crossing the Chasm
Building the Plan

Post Course

Hour long 121 with one of the course deliverers
Follow up group sessions with peers from your cohort
Access to our bespoke SMHL community App