What are Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs)?
Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a new service designed to support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health and emotional wellbeing in education settings. They are made up of Children and Young People’s Mental Health Practitioners and Education Mental Health Practitioners.
MHSTs aims to:
- support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health problems through evidence-based interventions
- support schools in developing their whole school approach to mental health
- provide timely advice to school staff and to liaise with other services in order to help children and young people get the right help and stay in education.
MHST Primary schools animation
MHST Secondary schools animation
MHST college animation
In 2017, Government published its Green Paper for Transforming children and young people’s mental health, which detailed proposals for expanding access to mental health care for children and young people, building on the national NHS transformation programme which is already underway.
MHSTs are jointly delivered with Department for Education and NHS England. They are intended to provide early intervention for some mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, such as mild to moderate anxiety, as well as helping staff within a school or college setting to provide a ‘whole school approach’ to mental health and wellbeing. The teams will act as a link with local children and young people’s mental health services and be supervised by NHS staff.
They also link with mental health services within the community so that children with more severe mental health needs can get the support they need. The aim is to provide extra capacity to deliver evidence-based psychological interventions in schools and create better links with wider services.
Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership partner with NELFT to provide MHSTs. NELFT provides Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Service (EWMHS) which supports children with mild to more severe mental health needs across the whole of Essex. For support or advice please contact the single point of access on 0300 300 1600 or visit the NELFT website.
Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership have been part of the national rollout programme and have worked in partnership alongside stakeholders and partners to establish MHSTs.
Mid and South Essex MHSTs have established 3 teams across Thurrock, Southend and Further Education and work with 25 education settings as part of the national rollout programme identified as wave 1.
Schools with Mental Health Support Teams in place
| Chelmsford College - Moulsham Street Campus | Essex |
| Chelmsford College - Princes Road Campus | Essex |
| South Essex College of Further & Higher Education | Essex |
| Belfairs Academy | Southend |
| Milton Hall Primary and Nursey | Southend |
| Porters Grange Primary School & Nursery | Southend |
| Shoeburyness High School | Southend |
| Southend High School for Boys | Southend |
| Southend High School for Girls | Southend |
| Temple Sutton Primary School | Southend |
| Westcliff High School for Girls | Southend |
| Abbots Hall Primary Academy | Thurrock |
| Belmont Castle Academy | Thurrock |
| Benyon Primary School | Thurrock |
| East Tilbury Primary School | Thurrock |
| Giffards Primary School | Thurrock |
| Holy Cross Catholic Primary School | Thurrock |
| Lansdowne Primary Academy | Thurrock |
| Ormiston Park Academy | Thurrock |
| St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School | Thurrock |
| Stifford Clays Primary School | Thurrock |
| Thameside Primary School | Thurrock |
| The Gateway Academy | Thurrock |
| The Olive AP Academy Thurrock | Thurrock |
| Tudor Court Primary School | Thurrock |
Schools soon to have Mental Health Support Teams in place
Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership continue to implement MHSTs and have been successful with additional teams being put in place, which are due to be fully operational by September 2021. These new teams will be based across Basildon, Braintree and Maldon (as part of wave 4 2020/21 national NHS England programme) working across 33 primary and secondary schools.
| Beauchamps High School | Basildon |
| Cherry Tree Primary School | Basildon |
| De La Salle School | Basildon |
| Felmore Primary School | Basildon |
| Ghyllgrove Primary School | Basildon |
| Janet Duke Primary School | Basildon |
| Maple Grove Primary School | Basildon |
| Northlands Primary and Nursery School | Basildon |
| The James Hornsby School | Basildon |
| Woodlands School | Basildon |
| Alec Hunter Academy | Braintree |
| Bocking Church Street Primary School | Braintree |
| Great Bradfords Junior School | Braintree |
| Hedingham School and Sixth Form | Braintree |
| Honywood Community Science School | Braintree |
| Howbridge Church of England Junior School | Braintree |
| John Bunyan Primary School | Braintree |
| John Ray Infant School | Braintree |
| John Ray Junior school | Braintree |
| Rayne Primary and Nursery School | Braintree |
| Silver End Primary School | Braintree |
| Tabor Academy | Braintree |
| Burnham-on-Crouch Primary School | Maldon |
| Latchingdon Church of England Voluntary controlled Primary School | Maldon |
| Maltings Academy | Witham |
| Maylandsea Primary School | Maldon |
| New Rickstones Academy | Witham |
| Ormiston Rivers Academy | Maldon |
| Plume School (The) | Maldon |
| Southminster Church of England Primary School | Maldon |
| St Cedd’s Church of England Primary School, Bradwell | Maldon |
| St Mary’s Church of England Voluntary controlled Primary School | Maldon |
| St Nicholas Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School | Maldon |
| William de Ferrers | Chelmsford |
Announcement of further new MHSTs
In March 2021, the Government announced £79 million to boost mental health support for children and young people in England. This provides an opportunity to expand the support available, including increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges and improving access to services.
As part of the continued national rollout programme, we are pleased to announce that Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership have been awarded a further 7 MHSTs. This expansion will deliver ongoing mental health and emotional wellbeing support and benefit children, young people and schools as they face the challenges now and in the future. The new teams will be introduced using a phased approach with 2 teams being implemented as part of wave 5 (Sept 2021), 3 teams in wave 7 (Sept 2022) and a further 2 teams in wave 9 (September 2023).
Find out more about MHSTs
NHS England has more information about the establishing of MHSTs across England on their website:
New mental health support in schools and colleges and faster access to NHS care
MHST Newsletter
The Mid and South Essex Mental Health Support Teams produce a newsletter which provides the latest updates from the team:
MHST newsletter - first edition June 2021
Report examining development and early progress of MHSTs published
Findings from an early evaluation of the programme that is bringing MHSTs into schools has recently been published. This evaluation examines the development, implementation and early progress of the MHSTs in the 25 Trailblazer sites, which are working with more than 1000 schools and colleges.
The report from the Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Rapid Evaluation Centre and Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit reveals overwhelming agreement that the programme will lead to a number of positive outcomes, including:
- improved support forCYP with mild-moderate needs;
- More appropriate referrals to specialist services; and
- Preventing children from developing more serious mental health problems.
You can access the report – and ‘at a glance’ infographics, including on what the findings mean for schools and colleges, here:
Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme - University of Birmingham