Most teachers get little or no help for pupils from mental health support services, a new survey suggests.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) warned that schools “cannot shoulder the burden” of providing wider support to pupils alone, after seven in 10 teachers that it polled said they lack the support they need from key services.
Schools continue to report high levels of additional needs among pupils, the research found, although there has been a slight drop since the 2022-23 academic year.
Senior leaders surveyed estimated that nearly a quarter of pupils required extra support for wellbeing, mental health, access to learning and social and extracurricular activities.
Mental health services inaccessible
More than seven in 10 teachers surveyed said support for their pupils from key services such as physical health services, mental health services, external special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) advice and local authority services was less than good.
Of these services, mental health provision for pupils was reported as being the least accessible, with 67 per cent of primary teachers and 55 per cent of secondary teachers saying they received little or no help from child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs).
However, secondary teachers were nine per cent more likely to report a good level of access to mental health services for pupils compared with the previous two years.
The researchers warned that further pressure on school budgets and the lack of availability of wider support services risks affecting children’s learning and wellbeing.
Jenna Julius, research director at NFER, said: “Schools are taking significant steps to support pupils’ and staff, but they cannot shoulder the burden alone.
“As financial pressures on school budgets and wider public services stretch resources further, there is a real risk that children’s wellbeing and learning will be affected by the strain on support services.”
School budgets stretched
Around 80 per cent of senior secondary school leaders and 60 per cent of primary leaders responding to the survey said they had commissioned external counselling services for pupils that were not available through their local authority or trust. More than three in five senior secondary leaders had also commissioned external counselling for teaching staff, as had 50 per cent of primary leaders.
Schools reported that this situation is not sustainable and will put further pressure on budgets and wider public services. Two-thirds of the leaders surveyed said they expected their school to return a deficit budget for 2025-26.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Schools, many of which are facing budgetary pressures, do their best to support children.
“However, where the support required lies outside education, it can be difficult for them to access help from community services, including social care and mental health, which have been under-funded over the last decade.
“Funding to support pupils with special educational needs has also failed to keep pace with increased demand.
“More investment is needed for all these services, alongside reform of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, and tangible action is needed to tackle child poverty. There should be no expectation on any school to provide health or social care services funded from the school budget.”
The Department for Education said in May that it will invest to ensure that six in 10 pupils will have access to a mental health support team by March 2026. The plan is for these teams to reach all pupils by 2029-30.
The research drew on responses from more than 350 senior leaders and 800 classroom teachers surveyed in the NFER’s Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey in June 2025.
You can now get the UK’s most-trusted source of education news in a mobile app. Get Vlog magazine on and on
