With school-related anxiety rising among children, local authorities hold the key to delivering early, preventative mental health support. Manjul Rathee, CEO and co-founder of BFB Labs, discusses how councils can lead the way in building resilience, improving attendance, and ensuring every child feels safe at school.

The summer holidays are nearly over and many children will already be anticipating their return to school. Whilst many will be excited to start the new school year, for others the new term will be a source of worry and fear.

My work is focused on building mental health interventions to help children self-manage anxiety. The NICE-approved digital service created by my team has supported over 13,000 children to overcome worries – analysis of this data shows that school-related worries dominate young people’s concerns. The fear of going to school and the fear of making mistakes are the most common triggers for anxiety children aged 7 to 12 choose to tackle.

The trends we’re seeing are backed up by national statistics. According to the Children’s Commissioner’s latest mental health briefing, one in five children in England now experiences a probable mental health condition. More than 900,000 children were referred to children and young people’s mental health services (CYPMHS) last year alone; and many children aren’t receiving timely help in school. More than half don’t have access to dedicated Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in their educational setting.

Promising Progress, But Major Gaps Remain

The Government’s ambition to expand Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools is a step in the right direction. But this still leaves millions of children without access to timely, preventative support right now.

In the meantime, we risk seeing even more young people disengage from learning, or drop out of education altogether due to stress and anxiety. The number of children at state schools classed as severely absent in 2022-23 was a staggering 150% higher than in 2018-19.

My message is clear: young children need meaningful, preventative mental health support in school, and they need it now.

Why Local Authorities Must Lead the Way

While the national agenda sets the tone, it is local governments who are best placed to translate ambition into action. Councils understand the specific challenges facing children in their communities – from pockets of digital exclusion, to local workforce shortages in CAMHS. They also know that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.

The mental health needs of a child in inner-city Manchester may look very different from those of a child in rural Lincolnshire. And geographical inequalities in service provision persist: waiting times remain a postcode lottery.

A Local Plan to Tackle Stress and Anxiety in School

There are three key actions local governments can take to help reduce school-related stress and improve outcomes for children in the new term:

1. Reward effort, not outcomes

Our data shows that even the youngest pupils worry about making mistakes in school. This is a symptom of a system that values academic achievement over effort and hard work, and it’s fuelling anxiety.

From the earliest age, we must empower children to learn through trying, failing and getting things wrong. Removing the shame and stigma associated with mistakes should form a key part of the Government’s approach to teaching children ‘grit’ in the classroom. It’s essential if we’re to tackle school-related worries early and prevent them from escalating as children grow up.

2. Dedicated funds for mental health support in every school

At the moment mental health support is seen as an add-on, which means there is no funding ring-fenced to tackle mental health in the classroom. If funding isn’t ring-fenced, it’s difficult for schools to prioritise this provision. But if we were to embed psychoeducation and emotional literacy into the curriculum, it would become a priority for children to learn to understand their feelings and build strategies for coping before issues escalate into crisis.

Mental health education should be as routine as learning times tables. Simple, evidence-based cognitive behavioural strategies like psychoeducation, worry time, journaling, and peer-led problem solving can be delivered in a non-clinical way to support children with school-related worries, as well as worries they face outside of the classroom.

Schools also need more funding for MHSTs. Local authorities should explore co-commissioning models or pooled budgets with schools and Integrated Care Boards to ensure every child has access to early help – not just those in MHST pilot areas.

Finally, we must assess capacity and ensure teachers have the skills and bandwidth to champion a whole-school approach to mental health. This is in contrast to the current model, where we expect stretched school staff to fit mental health provision around existing responsibilities.

3. Invest in preventative digital tools

Children today are digital natives. Rather than resist this, we can harness their comfort with technology to provide support on their terms. Some Tools use age-appropriate, game-based learning to teach evidence-based mental health strategies in an engaging, non-stigmatising format, via mobile phones. These interventions don’t replace in-person support, but they can fill critical gaps by meeting children where they are, particularly in areas where services are overstretched or staff are scarce. They can also keep support consistent over breaks and school holidays.

For schools, digital tools can help to increase mental health provision while reducing the demands on teachers and staff. Educators up and down the country are already facing immense pressures, with under-resourcing and challenging behaviour resulting in strike action in some areas. Building a layer of easily deployable, tech-led support can help us to effectively target children’s mental health, without piling additional responsibility on our teachers.

It’s also true that children do not want to be singled out in a school setting. Any intervention that pulls a child out of the classroom to access ‘special’ support makes them appear different to their peers. When children can use digital solutions at home, in the library or on their way to school, that support can be accessed in a way that is truly inclusive.

Rethinking Resilience

Supporting children through daily school anxieties isn’t about lowering expectations, it’s about building the foundations that help children thrive. Resilience is a learned skill, not a personality trait. It needs to be nurtured through a supportive environment, reinforced by trusted adults, and rooted in a community-wide commitment to children’s mental wellbeing.

Local authorities have a vital role to play. They can act now to fund, implement and scale solutions that build resilience, reduce pressure on NHS services, and – most importantly – help children feel safe, supported and seen in their school settings.

As the new term beckons, the wellbeing of our children must be treated as non-negotiable. If we want to improve attendance, attainment, and lifelong mental health outcomes, we need to start by making schools places where children feel mentally safe.