Mental Health
Policy

Version |  September 2025

Revised: July 2025

Due to be updated: September 2026

Policy Statement

Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. (World Health Organization)

At Co-op Academy Swinton we aim to promote positive mental health for every member of our staff and student body.  We pursue this aim using both universal, whole school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable students.

By developing and implementing practical, relevant and effective mental health policies and procedures we can promote a safe and stable environment for students affected both directly, and indirectly by mental ill health.

This document describes the school’s approach to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing.  This policy is intended as guidance for all staff including non-teaching staff and governors.

This policy should be read in conjunction with our medical policy in cases where a student’s mental health overlaps with or is linked to a medical issue and the SEND policy where a student has an identified special educational need.

The Policy Aims to:

• Promote positive mental health in all staff and students.
• Increase understanding and awareness of common mental health issues.
• Alert staff to early warning signs of mental ill health.
• Provide support to staff working with young people with mental health issues.
• Provide support to students suffering from mental ill health and their peers and parents/carers.

Lead Members of Staff

Whilst all staff have a responsibility to promote the mental health of students.  Staff with a specific, relevant remit include:

• Aimi Coote -  Designated Safeguarding Lead
• Ebony Chadwick / Georgia Fildes - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads
• Charlotte Chambers -  mental health lead / PSHE lead
• Malcolm Dodd - SENDCO
• Heads and Assistant Heads of Year

Any member of staff who is concerned about the mental health or wellbeing of a student should speak to the mental health lead in the first instance. If there is a fear that the student is in danger of immediate harm then the normal child protection procedures should be followed with an immediate referral to the designated child protection office of staff or the head teacher. If the student presents a medical emergency then the normal procedures for medical emergencies should be followed, including alerting the first aid staff and contacting the emergency services if necessary.

Where a referral to CAMHS is appropriate, this will be led and managed by the SEND team.

Individual Care Plans

It is helpful to draw up an individual care plan for pupils causing concern or who receive a diagnosis pertaining to their mental health.  This should be co-produced with the pupil, the parents and relevant health professionals. This can include:

• Details of a pupil’s condition
• Special requirements and precautions
• Medication and any side effects
• What to do, and who to contact in an emergency
• The role the school can play

Teaching about Mental Health

The skills, knowledge and understanding needed by our students to keep themselves and others physically and mentally healthy and safe are included as part of our developmental PSHE curriculum.

The specific content of lessons will be determined by the specific needs of the cohort we’re teaching but there will always be an emphasis on enabling students to develop the skills, knowledge, understanding, language and confidence to seek help, as needed, for themselves or others.

We will follow the PSHE Association Guidance to ensure that we teach mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in a safe and sensitive manner which helps rather than harms.

Signposting

We will ensure that staff, students and parents are aware of sources of support within school and in the local community.

We will display relevant sources of support in communal areas and toilets and will regularly highlight sources of support to students within relevant parts of the curriculum.  Whenever we highlight sources of support, we will increase the chance of student help-seeking by ensuring students understand:

• What help is available
• Who it is aimed at
• How to access it
• Why to access it
• What is likely to happen next

Warning Signs

School staff may become aware of warning signs which indicate a student is experiencing mental health or emotional wellbeing issues.  These warning signs should always be taken seriously and staff observing any of these warning signs should communicate their concerns with Charlotte Chambers, our mental health and emotional wellbeing lead.

Possible warning signs include:

• Physical signs of harm that are repeated or appear non-accidental
• Changes in eating/sleeping habits
• Increased isolation from friends or family, becoming socially withdrawn
• Changes in activity and mood
• Lowering of academic achievement
• Talking or joking about self-harm or suicide
• Abusing drugs or alcohol
• Expressing feelings of failure, uselessness or loss of hope
• Changes in clothing, e.g. long sleeves in warm weather
• Secretive behaviour
• Skipping PE or getting changed secretively
• Lateness to or absence from school
• Repeated physical pain or nausea with no evident cause
• An increase in lateness or absenteeism

Managing disclosures

A student may choose to disclose concerns about themselves or a friend to any member of staff, so all staff need to know how to respond appropriately to a disclosure.

If a student chooses to disclose concerns about their own mental health or that of a friend to a member of staff, the member of staff’s response should always be calm, supportive and non-judgemental.

All disclosures should be recorded in writing and held on the student’s confidential file.  This written record should include:

• Date
• The name of the member of staff to whom the disclosure was made
• Main points from the conversation
• Agreed next steps

This information should be shared with the DSL who will store the record appropriately and offer support and advice about next steps.  

Confidentiality

We should be honest with regards to the issue of confidentiality.  If it is necessary for us to pass our concerns about a student on then we should discuss with the student:

• Who we are going to talk to
•  What we are going to tell them
• Why we need to tell them

We should never share information about a student without first telling them.  Ideally, we would receive their consent, though there are certain situations when information must always be shared with another member of staff and/or a parent.

It is always advisable to share disclosures with a colleague, usually the DSL, this helps to safeguard our own emotional wellbeing as we are no longer solely responsible for the student.  Appropriate sharing of information also ensures continuity of care in our absence and provides an extra source of ideas and support.  We should explain this to the student and discuss with them who it would be most appropriate and helpful to share this information with.

Parents/carers must always be informed if there is an immediate risk to the student and students may choose to tell their parents themselves.  If this is the case, the student should be given 24 hours to share this information before the school contacts parents.  We should always give students the option of informing parents for them or with them.

If a child gives us reason to believe that there may be underlying child protection issues, parents should not be informed, but the child protection officer Aimi Coote must be involved immediately.

Working with Parents/carers

Where it is deemed appropriate to inform parents, we need to be sensitive in our approach.  Before disclosing to parents we should consider the following questions (on a case-by-case basis):

• Can the meeting happen face to face? This is preferable.
• Where should the meeting happen? At school, at their home or somewhere neutral?
•  Who should be present? Consider parents, the student, other members of staff.
•  What are the aims of the meeting?

It can be shocking and upsetting for parents to learn of their child’s issues and they may respond with anger, fear or upset during the first conversation.  We should be accepting of this (within reason) and give the parent time to reflect.        

We should always highlight further sources of information and give them information to take away where possible, as they will often find it hard to take much in whilst coming to terms with the news that we are sharing.  Sharing sources of further support aimed specifically at parents can also be helpful too e.g. parent helplines and forums.

We should always provide clear means of contacting us with further questions and consider booking in a follow-up meeting or phone call right away as parents often have many questions as they process the information. We should finish each meeting with an agreed next step and keep a brief record of the meeting on the child’s confidential record.

Working with All Parents

Parents are often very welcoming of support and information from the school about supporting their children’s emotional and mental health.  In order to support parents we will:

• Highlight sources of information and support about common mental health issues on our school website.
• Ensure that all parents are aware of who to talk to, and how to get about this, if they have concerns about their own child or a friend of their child.
• Make our mental health policy easily accessible to parents.
• Share ideas about how parents can support positive mental health in their children through our regular information evenings.
• Keep parents informed about the mental health topics their children are learning about in PSHE and share ideas for extending and exploring this learning at home.

Supporting Peers

When a student is suffering from mental health issues, it can be a difficult time for their friends.  Friends often want to support but do not know how.  In the case of self-harm or eating disorders, it is possible that friends may learn unhealthy coping mechanisms from each other.

In order to keep peers safe, we will consider on a case-by-case basis which friends may need additional support.  Support will be provided either in one-to-one or group settings and will be guided by conversations with the student who is suffering and their parents with whom we will discuss:

• What it is helpful for friends to know and what they should not be told
• How friends can best support
• Things friends should avoid doing/saying which may inadvertently cause upset
•  Warning signs that their friend help (e.g. signs of relapse)

Additionally, we will want to highlight with peers:

•   Where and how to access support for themselves
• Safe sources of further information about their friend’s condition
• Healthy ways of coping with the difficult emotions they may be feeling

Training

As a minimum, all staff will receive regular training about recognising and responding to mental health issues as part of their regular child protection training to enable them to keep students safe.

We will host or signpost relevant information on our virtual learning environment for staff who wish to learn more about mental health.

Training opportunities for staff who require more in-depth knowledge will be considered as part of our performance management process and additional CPD will be supported throughout the year where it becomes appropriate due to developing situations with one or more students.

Where the need to do so becomes evident, we will host twilight training sessions for all staff to promote learning or understanding about specific issues related to mental health.

Suggestions for individual, group or whole school CPD should be discussed with Charlotte Chambers who can also highlight sources of relevant training and support for individuals as needed.

Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed every 2 years as a minimum.  It is next due for review in September 2026.

Additionally, this policy will be reviewed and updated as appropriate on an ad hoc basis.  If you have a question or suggestion about improving this policy, this should be addressed to Charlotte Chambers our mental health lead via phone 0161 794 6215 or email Charlotte.Chambers@coopacademies.co.uk.

This policy will always be immediately updated to reflect personnel changes.