[Alasdair]

The Socialist Party

Preamble:

-Suicide is the third leading cause of death amongst teenagers.

-A national survey of children and adolescents carried out in the community found that 5 per cent of boys and 8 per cent of girls aged 13-15 said that they had, at some time, tried to harm, hurt or kill themselves

-A study in Oxford found that approximately 300 per 100,000 males aged between 15 and 24 years, and 700 per 100,000 females of the same age, were admitted to hospital following an episode of self-harm during the year 2000.

-A 2007 study in Scotland suggested that one in five fifteen and sixteen year old girls has at some point self-harmed.

-It is believed that the vast majority of self-harm goes unreported/unnoticed.

-There are numerous other horrendous facts that could be quoted to paint a dire image of the state of our teenage population's mental health. The situation has become intolerable.

-Few schools currently employ a full time counsellor of any kind.

-Although there may be a financial incentive for using the mass-produced treatments Cognitive Behavioural Therapy this house believes in putting people before costs and will strive to get the best for all our young citizens.

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same (and 'cause I fooking said so), as follows:-

1) A) All secondary schools shall have a full-time, trained counsellor or psychologist, who works on site, dealing with issues of teen depression and other mental or social dysfunctions.

B) LEAs shall receive additional funding to cover the cost of this requirement.

C) The requirement applies to all schools, not just those funded by the state.

D) Where the size of up to three schools in close proximity to each other does not exceed 1,000 students, LEAs may choose to allocate only one mental health professional, who would then be shared between the schools. In such cases, the aforementioned professional shall have office space in all schools, and should aim to flexibly divide his/her time between them. For the purposes of this Bill, "close proximity" shall be defined as within 10 miles.

E) Where the number of students enrolled at a school does not exceed 300, and there is no other school within 10 miles, a counsellor may be employed part time – for no less than 2 days a week. Where the number of students does not exceed 500, the counsellor may be employed for a minimum of 3 days a week.

F) Private sector schools shall be expected to fund the counsellor themselves in accordance with the guidelines set out in the rest of this bill.

G) State-funded schools with 3000 or more students shall receive funding for two full-time counsellors.

H) Ofsted, Estyn, HMie and the ETI will have responsibility for enforcing this requirement in all schools – though in the case of private sector schools it may be devolved to a third party inspectorate such as the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

2) A) The counsellor shall be available to:-

-provide all students with appointments on request;
-advise staff;
-approach students about whom staff have expressed concern in order to offer support;
-liaise between individual students, staff, parents, external healthcare providers, and the student body at large on issues of depression and mental well-being.

B) He/she should aim to raise awareness of mental health issues within schools. Moreover, with the help of teaching staff, he/she should attempt to remove or reduce any social stigma attached to mental health difficulties.

C) He/she will oversee funds set aside to provide Peer Support training to aid the effectiveness of the pastoral infrastructure. This can include staff development and utilising volunteer students.

3) No student’s rights to medical privacy should be compromised. Neither schools nor counsellors shall be required or permitted to turn information about the mental health of a child over to any individual or organisation -- including parents and guardians – unless that child is judged to be a credible danger to themselves or others.

4) A) In accordance with ‘2B’, new criteria shall be added for school inspections:-

-schools’ provision of education about mental health
-how effectively issues such as depression and social difficulties are tackled
-how strongly schools promote tolerance to mental health issues.

B) The ‘PSE’ curriculum will be amended to place strong emphasis on mental health issues – especially late primary school education and the early years of secondary school. This emphasis should aim to educate students on the symptoms, effects and causes of mental health illnesses, as well as how they can be treated and managed, and how others should behave towards people with mental health difficulties.

5) The duty of care which schools have towards students shall be extended to explicitly include issues of mental health. Where there is knowledge serious of self-harm, suicidal intentions or serious depression, a school shall henceforth have a duty to try to support and protect that child both in school and by liaising with healthcare providers, social services and parents.

6) The above changes apply to the whole of the United Kingdom.

[ThePants999]

Bah... just cos you're all depressed teenagers!

[Grape190190]

Crap turnout, great result.

[Alasdair]

Eh? It's not done yet...

[Grape190190]

Oh, someone on the sub-forum got ahead of themselves and confused me.

[Nothos]

It could all shift in three days. Let's hope.

[Grape190190]

Yes, let's hope there are a load of MPs who don't care about the well-being of our young people!

[UniOfLife]

Most votes of the last few weeks haven't got many MPs and there seems to be a tendency of those who are going to vote voting in the first couple of days. So probably will pass.

[smalltownboy]

Huzzah!

[Nothos]

Shame! Shame!

[SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian]

Originally Posted by Grape190190

Yes, let's hope there are a load of MPs who don't care about the well-being of our young people!

****.

[Grape190190]

Originally Posted by DanGrover

****.

You're hard.

[AnythingButChardonnay]

A victory for nice yet utterly unworkable ideas over sensible ones. Joy.

[NDGAARONDI]

Originally Posted by AnythingButChardonnay

A victory for nice yet utterly unworkable ideas over sensible ones. Joy.

That's because of the virtual nature of this Parliament I guess. We don't have the functions of real life politics to help shape policy and we cannot see the effects of policy change either. That said, I introduced a Bill ages ago to disestablish the Church of England but ended up disbanding it because it was such a headache sorting it out on the technical level, even though most people in the House agreed with the disestablishment in principle.