The Telegraph has an article this morning that features the combined thoughts of Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who are noted as saying, whilst announcing a new initiative to support the mental health of children in school:
By deploying NHS-led, evidence-based intervention during children's formative years, we will not only halt the spiral towards crisis but cultivate much-needed grit amongst the next generation – essential for academic success and life beyond school, with all its ups and downs.
As the Telegraph then notes:
More than a fifth of eight to 16-year-olds had a probable mental health problem in 2023, according to the latest NHS data, an increase of seven percentage points since 2017.
As explanation of what is happening, they said:
Deteriorating mental health is driving record school absences, Department for Education data published last week showed, with the knock-on effects having an influence on pupils through to adulthood.
Under the government drive to improve mental health in schools, children will be offered sessions to “tackle anxiety and low mood”, with struggling schools receiving extra support through “attendance and behaviour hubs”.
The classroom interventions mark Labour's latest effort to crack down on worklessness, which in part has been fuelled by a surge in mental health problems since the pandemic.
There is no mention here, or in what Streeting and Phillipson have to say in their commentary, which shares the same link, that suggests that they realise that the issues they are supposedly trying to address might come as a result of:
- Poverty. 31% of all children in the UK live in poverty. Solve that, and you might solve most of the mental health conditions many children face.
- Poor diet. In another article in the Telegraph today, this data is noted:
- As is apparent, as a poor area, Hartlepool has a massive obesity problem, but so too does the UK as a whole. Poor mental health might well be fuelled by excessive sugar in diets, creating the inability to engage in school. Prioritise wholefoods throughout education, as Japan does, and obesity will tumble, and I strongly suspect mental ill health will as well, whilst attainment rates will rise.
- The reality of neurodivergence, whether that be autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia or any other related condition. Up to 14% of children might, based on the latest data, have these, and in an education system that tries to force these square pegs into round holes, of course there is education system-generated mental ill-health. The system, and not the children, has to change to alter this. There is no hint of recognition of that.
- When children are taught what appears to be meaningless to them in a world without hope, in which they see their parents living and to which neoliberalism has consigned them, of course, they have mental health issues, as well as major problems engaging with materials that appear almost irrelevant to them. It still seems that schools suffer the same problem as many university teachers do, which is in explaining why it is important to master some subjects, as a prerequisite to securing the attention of young people in learning them. I very much doubt that either Streeting or Phillipson come remotely near to understanding this.
And what is the solution these two neoliberal wannabe success stories have to offer? It is to deliver more 'grit'. Apparently, what our children lack is the determination to succeed in the face of all the adversity that a society that is stacked against them, as they can see in their parents' lived experience, puts in their way. What they need is the 'grit' to overcome them.
My suggestion is quite different. Why don't we stop stacking adversity in these children's paths?
Why don't we redistribute income and wealth?
Why don't we create social housing for people to live in with dignity?
Why can't we improve social, health, education and other services in these areas - because most of the wealth of mostly local economies is based on the wealth that the people living in them create for each other, and that requires the catalyst of government investment in places like those that need most syoport to tackle mental health crises created by social adversity?
Why is it impossible to create jobs using local energy, as I described yesterday?
But why, most of all, do we have a government that refuses to understand the reality of life, and not least that one in seven will always be neurodivergent and suffering stress in a system that refuses to even recognise who they are?
Are Labour politicians really stupid enough not to get this? It seems they might be.
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Thank you and well said, Richard.
Bridget Phillipson: “By deploying NHS-led, evidence-based intervention during children’s formative years, we will not only halt the spiral towards crisis but cultivate much-needed grit amongst the next generation – essential for academic success and life beyond school, with all its ups and downs.”
That sounds suspiciously like the minister (and her colleagues) have been listening to City types, American or Americanised, who reckon we “should man up, toughen up” etc.
Twenty years odd ago, I was shocked to hear colleagues at HSBC HQ in Canary Wharf complain that colleagues were slow to return to work after an earthquake in Istanbul and a hurricane in the Cayman islands. People outside the City have no idea of the sociopaths there. These sociopaths have the ear of the government. The likes of McFadden, in politics all their lives, are easily impressed by these types and seek their approval. All of them are dangerous.
I have been in meetings with McFadden.
He has one agenda. It is shrinking government by imposing balanced budgets. That is is the only idea he has.
He has an idea?
🙂
I assume he wants all government spending to balance taxes. Well if all savings were banned then there would be a chance this of being achieved.
Can’t bear to listen to Streeting Philips, on and co anymore, as apparently with most of the electorate.
Of course they wont look at whether increased poverty has caused stress in children, nor whether the crashing of the NHS with 7 million waiting to be diagnosed or treated might have something to do with it.
Clean air in school would lower winter viruses and absence – also among teachers.
But all this would mean them having to spend money – to employ doctors and nurses and put filters into classrooms – so carry on blaming people instead of acknowledging the real causes and solutions.
The narrative is now fixed – there is no real illness – its all ‘mental’, or workshyness, and that of course has nothing to do with allowing people to be infected with covid multiple times – with possibly 2 million still having long covid.
Thousands of research papers show this, – but no it was all due to ‘lockdown’.
When I saw the title I’d thought you might be referring to an article about Richard Tice and the article that linked to about his partner and kids moving to Dubai to escape VAT on school fees. In that article (also on the Telegraph) she complained about spending over £100k on school fees while perfectly able to run multiple properties including paying a year’s rent in Dubai up-front. Meanwhile, she suggested that the lack of welfare for some groups like immigrants meant there was a constant hussle, blithely dismissive of the catastrophic impact of such precarity if someone should be unable to ‘hussle’.
That parts of Labour are concurrently sounding like a just slightly less affluent version of the same is disappointing to say the least.
It should also be noted that the Times Rich List indicated that there a 9 fewer billionaires in the UK compared to a year before. Since GDP has not fallen off a cliff (and instead seems to be slightly exceeding expectations), one might reasonably conclude that the departure of such ultra-wealthy individuals due to things like non-dom status or school fees is not the catastrophe papers like the Telegraph would have you believe.
Thanks
There is no redeeming feature to Tice that I can find.
“Grit”? I’ll show them “grit”! But I bet they don’t like it. It’s time these idiots left office. Not a helpful response I know but for Heaven’s sake!
Why don’t we
Why can’t we
Why is it impossible
Because those ostensibly “in-charge” are working to make sure that the existing system continues to function. The “why” questions are indicative of “the system” functioning normally & its aherents and servants (Streeting et al in LINO) will be duly rewarded for ensuring that it continues to function as planned. I note that Sir Starmer is in the Gulf states, offering on a platter more of the Uk to assorted murderers and dictators. The system, functioning as planned.
Much to agree with
All to agree with here. I would add another factor: Covid. There are two primary school teachers in my extended family, who both note that some children now in school are having quite obvious problems in socialising because they missed out on school and pre-school experiences due to lockdowns. So kids who are now 8 and up to, say, 12 were aged 3 to 6/7 and 7 to 10 during the pandemic. There may have been effective alternatives to class teaching (or not, of course) but learning the social skills through play and mixing with other children of the same age will have been hit and miss. This will undoubtedly have consequences for their mental health, in the widest sense. Teachers are now doing their best to make up for this lost time but they do not have the resources – especially time and staff in the classrooms – to do as much as they’d like.
We’d hope that this is a passing phase, but nevertheless the repercussions will ripple out for quite a while. They need to be seen, and treated, as an acute problem issue in parallel with the other social factors you point out.
Agreed
The fact that our current crop of children get up, go to school, do homework, socialise and live anything even vaguely approximating a normal life in the current environment displays far more ‘grit’ than any of our lords and masters will ever muster…. the patronising, clueless b*****ds.
Agreed
I have no trust in this cabinet to deliver anything “evidence-based”. Any sort of study put forward will have massive restrictions in its scope that make any findings meaningless, and that’s disregarding any potential political bias that will no doubt be forced into this as to fit in with the Cabinet’s narrative (as we saw blatantly happen with the Cass report).
The liberal intelligentsia love blaming phones, social media, and sometimes lockdown for all the mental health problems, and while certainly those have all had negative impacts (though also some positive impacts, I would like to note), they are often used to erase issues like poverty, neurodivergence, and sickness, as you and other commenters have brought up.
Of course young people (such as myself) will struggle with ‘low mood’ when the country is collapsing around us and the government is more worried about fiscal rules. Labour could be bolder and try to offer some hope, but that might upset The Market™ and so shall never be done.
Go well.
A recent report showed that the 22 districts with the highest social mobility for disadvantaged pupils were all in London.
So the region that has the greatest wealth produces the best outcomes.
In the early 2000s London schools were failing,so they appointed Sir Tim Brighouse,the succesful overseer of Birmingham’s schools,and invested in his plans.
As an ex Birmingham schoolteacher,it pains me when I see the increasing deprivation in Birmingham and in my nearby local town.It is also disturbing to hear how we treat so badly our youngsters,the future of this country.
Absolutely bang on RM.
Would add Covid impacts, and social media. Our children live in an X rated world that teaches them how to harm and kill themselves, a third live in poverty mostly with a working parent, and they know their future is to be treated like a tool.
And the government do nothing except locate the problem in our children. The children are defective, not enough grit, they are the problem whereas neoliberalism is infallible, beyond criticism.
The only conclusion I can draw is they hold nothing but contempt for us and our children
‘Scuse me mate. Is this Whitehall? I’ve got 10 tons of grit here, 5 for DfES and 5 for DH&SC. Where do you want it put?
🙂
We are raising a generation of children who are burdened with the appalling reality that the climate emergency means they are expected to thrive in a collapsing world. Add the pressure of smartphone tech, online bullying, the aftershock of Covid, no hope of ever owning even a small home, no hope of a secure job- that is the dreadful daily reality for young people. All politicians have utterly failed to even begin to address that reality. Denial and blaming seems to be their only “policy”. That a so called Labour Government’s answer is “more grit” is beyond parody. Most of my family are teachers and educators and I wept reading this. I keep asking the same question- whose agenda is this? Who is setting Labour’s policy and approving press releases like this? There seems to be almost nothing I can do as a lifelong Labour voter to influence any of it. I’ll never despair, but feel powerless. Onwards- but to where? Clare Higgins
Thanks
You could make a start Clare by stop being a lifelong labour voter. No progressive or left wing or, indeed, intelligent voter should waste their time on this pathetic joke of a party anymore.
Vote green. Not perfect of course but they do actually have some proper left wing policies and actually believe in redistribution of wealth, the primary importance of tackling climate change etc.
My relative ia the head of an infants school. They have been told if the teachers want a pay rise, it will come out of the school budget.
The other point is that there is a massive discrpancy from the reality that the media put across and actual lived experience. But the gap between the tripe they come out with to day to day life ia getting as far as from the earth to mars. Imagine being told lie after lie after lie knowing the truth? This way madness lies.
Agreed
There’s something else going on here too. Labour has been fixated on behavioural nudging since Blair’s government. It’s why relational psychotherapy and counselling (always in short supply in the NHS) was more or less obliterated by the introduction of low-grade, one-size-fits-all, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. NICE has always claimed that it’s ’evidence based’ – a highly controversial claim, based on data from patients asked to fill out forms at the beginning and end of sessions, and based on highly questionable performance data (which ignores high drop out rates). Right now, many schools employ decent counsellors, who get to know and work with the kids in front of them – and yes, the factors everyone has listed here are in the picture, but so is catastrophic parenting (often caused by the social determinants – and often generational). One way to read the Telegraph comments is that the intention is to replace these counsellors with prescriptive CBT.
I can think of a word that rhymes with ‘grit’ that describes this government and people like Streeting and Phillipson.
Bridget Phillipson isn’t my MP but represents a constituency in the city I live in. Her mother was prominent in the city’s women’s refuge. I don’t think her daughter has inherited her compassion.
Parents, kids and teachers are stressed out about SATs, maybe that contributes to mental health issues? SATs are a waste of time as well.