Councillor Halden introduced the report and stated he felt a lot of hard work had gone into its creation. He described how one in ten young people suffered from a mental health issue and how many of these ended up in the adult social care system which had a significant impact on their lives and money spent on their wellbeing. He discussed that a young people’s survey had been commissioned which had received over 1000 responses, and a mental health summit had also been held. He stated that the outcome from these had been that too much emphasis had been placed on crisis clinical intervention, and although this was important there were other aspects to mental health, and these could be tackled by looking at the causes of mental health issues such as bullying. Councillor Halden then discussed the need for additional resources and team members as he felt the current wait time of 12 weeks was too long, and this should be reduced to 4 weeks. He described how the new team would have 6.5 practitioners that would work to create an improved mental health system in schools. He commented that as this was non-statutory work it could only be achieved because the budget was in surplus, and described how the scheme would be paid for as detailed in the report. He finally thanked officers, Public Health and the Osborne Trust for all their help in preparing the scheme.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

1. Approved the strategic direction of travel for implementing a School Wellbeing Service as a preventative offer to improving Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health.

2. Approved the funding required to implement a School Wellbeing Service in Thurrock.