Mental health and wellbeing support in Highland schools

Mental health and wellbeing support for staff and young people across Highland has been discussed at today’s meeting of the Council’s Education Committee.

Chair of the committee, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The mental health and wellbeing of our school communities across Highland remains one of our top priorities. Our pupils, staff and their families have demonstrated their resilience time and time again, especially when faced with the challenges and impact of the pandemic. However, we must make sure that support is available and accessible to all individuals who need it.”

A whole systems approach to mental health and wellbeing is in development and will be a key part of building upon the integrated approach that has grown during the joint response of communities and partners during the pandemic.

Within this approach work has already been implemented in schools, focussed on staff training and pupil wellbeing as an immediate first step.

In Highland the following supports have been provided for our school community:

• In November 2020, sessions on mental health and wellbeing were provided to all head teachers. A detailed information sheet and power-point were provided as reference documents for future use.
• Information on staff and pupil health and wellbeing can be found on a dedicated wellbeing section of the school’s digital hub.
• Training and information are available on a number of topics relating to building resilience, maintaining positive wellbeing, and good mental health for staff and parents to access.

In addition, all primary and secondary schools across Highland have access to Treehouse; a high quality online learning platform by Tree of Knowledge, for use at home or in schools, which addresses the immediate support for emotional wellbeing identified by the many parents and staff during engagement with schools and the Council in the last 9 months.

As an employee of The Highland Council, school staff also have access to a free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service after we partnered with the organisation Spectrum.Life in March 2020. The service allows Council staff members (and their families) to access online support 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.