'Rated top 10 in England for teaching excellence'

You see this plastered across every high achieving school, college and university website and prospectus in England. But do you ever see 'Rated top 10 for mental health & wellbeing'? Never. It sounds ridiculous, right?

Across the UK, children and young people are struggling at school, college and indeed university from mental health problems, there is an epidemic and there is subsequently not enough support. 

When I was first diagnosed with severe Anxiety and OCD, I was referred to CAMHS and was later told I would have to wait 40 weeks to get support. Very fortunately, my parents could send me privately and so started my 3-year road to recovery. 2 weeks before my 18th birthday I got a call from CAMHS saying they could help me. This was 2 years later. When I recovered, I wondered what on earth happened to the young people not in that position? So I set out to help them.

I now give speeches in schools, colleges and universities around the country about my story, encouraging young people to open up and talk about their mental health as there is nothing to be ashamed of. I am a 22-year-old male. At the end of my speeches, I hear a lot from the students telling me about how they are going through the same thing and I am always left wondering why on earth they aren't getting the help at school and saddened by the fact that they can talk to me about their mental health and not the school itself. 

The stresses and pressures of school are now unbelievably high, something I would have really struggled to manage if I was still studying and when it hits breaking point, there is no one around for the fallout. Another "We'll refer you to CAMHS" which is putting yet more pressure on them. 

So why am I asking Ofsted to step in? Well, Ofsted goes to schools to mark and grade them on how well they are 'teaching' the students, how the school is performing in the academe area but nowhere are the schools actually inspected on how well they are looking after their student's mental health and wellbeing! 

Children and young people do not achieve their maximum potential when being pressured and pushed to hit results that have been set, purely so the school [college & university] can say they have an 'outstanding Ofsted report' It is a tick-boxing exercise and it needs to change. To illustrate: I was recommended to get in touch with a particularly high achieving college in Winchester, after approaching said college about talking to the students about mental health, I was met with a response to the tune of 'We believe we already have enough support for our students' after receiving this information I later found out that many of the students studying there felt that the way their mental health was treated was absolutely below par. But they have an outstanding Ofsted report.

Let's add 'children & young peoples mental health & wellbeing' to the Ofsted inspection criteria so we can start tackling mental health problems at schools, early intervention and prevention is a necessity to helping our younger generation get the desired grades and future they want with positive mental health. There is no hope if they are pushed so far that they suffer severe mental health problems. The time to change this is now.

#Ofstedwellbeing