Establishing high quality training provision for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges

The Department for Education (DfE) is offering a grant of £1,200 for eligible state-funded schools and colleges in England to train a senior mental health lead before the end of the 2023 to 2024 financial year to develop and implement a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. This is part of a government commitment to offer this training to all eligible schools and colleges by 2025.

Further information on our offer to schools and colleges can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/senior-mental-health-lead-training.

To deliver training that schools and colleges can pay for using senior mental health lead grant funding, you will need to have your training course(s) assessed against DfE quality criteria and learning outcomes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995681/Learning_outcomes_for_senior_mental_health_leads_in_schools_and_colleges.pdf). You can find further information about training course requirements in the application pack.

Courses that meet the required quality criteria following the application process will be published on DfE's list of quality assured courses (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/senior-mental-health-lead-training#providers-of-training) and the course selection tool (https://smhl.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/SelectCourse) for schools and colleges to access.

Applying to have your training course quality assured:

Training providers wishing to offer grant-funded senior mental health lead training to schools and colleges are invited to submit an application to have their course quality assured.

The application process is comprised of 2 stages:

• Stage 1 - initial application form: Training providers must submit the stage 1 application form to provide an outline of their course.
• Stage 2 - course content review: Training providers that are successful at stage 1 will then be invited to submit a sample of course content and materials, for review against the quality criteria.

Your course(s) will be quality assured by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools, working on behalf of DfE. Please ensure you submit the stage 1 application form to the Carnegie Centre of Excellence by midnight on the dates provided below.

Application submission dates:

Applications will be received on a quarterly basis. The next submission deadlines are:

• 17 July 2023
• 16 October 2023
• 15 January 2024

For courses that are not successful, feedback will be provided and there will be an option to re-apply in the next application window.

Further information about what happens after submitting the stage 1 application form can be found in the training course application pack document (attached below).

Below you will find:

• Application pack, containing a blank application form and guidance to assist you in completing your application