Demonstrate commitment in your development or improvement plan

On this page you can find information about:

Including mental health and wellbeing in your school improvement plans
Examples of school improvement plans

Context

Improvement plans identify a school or college’s priorities and the key actions to make improvements across your setting, the resources dedicated to each action and its intended outcomes. These plans are an opportunity to put mental health and wellbeing at the centre of school and college planning. Including a whole-school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing would show commitment and help to make sure that progress is monitored.

Basing your plans on evidence

Contributions to the school improvement plan should be evidence based, drawing on the school’s performance. If there is limited data on mental health, this may offer an opportunity to start monitoring pupil and staff wellbeing and to embed this within the improvement planning process. Other measures that could be included are the number of staff who have training opportunities.

Our 2020 survey of teachers found that 22% said their school carried out regular surveys on pupils’ health and wellbeing, and around a quarter do the same for staff. Many more secondary schools (43%) have a staff wellbeing policy compared to primaries (27%). 29% of primary school respondents and 34% of secondary staff said their school provided training opportunities to help identify pupils who may be struggling with their mental health.

Once you have an understanding of the mental health and wellbeing need in your school or college – and an understanding of what you already have in place and how well it is working – you can include mental health and wellbeing targets in the school improvement plan. It’s a good idea to include mental health and wellbeing in your school improvement planning cycle, so you can monitor progress and revisit and revise activities.

Including mental health and wellbeing in your plan

When developing your plan, you may want to consider:

outlining the key changes that you intend to make to support mental health and wellbeing across the whole-school or college community. For example, what support do you have in place for pupils, parents and carers, and staff and how will you build on this annually?
measuring and monitoring pupil and staff wellbeing
seeking advice and guidance from individuals or groups that represent parents and carers and pupils – like a Mental Health Action Group – and incorporating this in your improvement plan.
making your improvement plan or mental health and wellbeing statement publicly available on your school or college website to show your commitment to mental health and wellbeing.

Resources

Tapton School’s mental health and wellbeing statement

Tapton School recognises that poor mental health undermines educational attainment. They have published a mental health and wellbeing statement on their school website. The statement outlines the school’s commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of the whole school community – including staff, pupils and parents – and how it is fundamental to its philosophy and ethos of ‘valuing everyone, caring for each other, achieving excellence’.

Ormiston Victory Academy’s wellbeing strategy

Ormiston Victory Academy has created a wellbeing strategy that demonstrates their commitment to the ‘development of the whole child’ and outlines the tangible ways in which they support their students’ wellbeing. Support mechanisms in their school include a dedicated academy mental health lead, mental health first aid trained staff and a Wellbeing Change Team, made up of staff, parents and student representatives.