Publish date: 16 May 2025
The Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, heard first-hand the work our experts do in schools to support children with their mental health in Ealing today.
Dr Roya Afsharzadegan, Principal Clinical Psychologist at West London NHS Trust met Ms Phillipson at Drayton Manor High as part of a visit to mark the government announcement of a nationwide rollout of mental health support in schools. The rollout aims to transform how young people access emotional and psychological care across the country.
The visit to the Trust's team at the school, was to highlight a beacon of where good mental health and wellbeing support is already being delivered to children and young people in mainstream schools. Ahead of the visit, the government announced further funding of up to £49m for mental health support in schools.
Dr Afsharzadegan spoke to Ms Phillipson about the work of the Ealing Mental Health Support Team (MHST), which offers mental health support to children and young people who have mild-to-moderate needs. The team provide guided self-help interventions for children and young people, as well as a specialist offer of Learning Disabilities and Autism Practitioners (LDAP) as part of their MHST.
Since 2020, the Ealing MHST have steadily expanded its reach with practitioners now placed in nearly all mainstream schools in Ealing, and more teams in the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Hounslow.
Dr Afsharzadegan said: “Having our mental health support teams embedded in schools across Ealing has been vital to supporting children to get ahead in life.
“There are lot of children who attend school full time but quietly struggle to go because they might be really anxious about it. These are the young people that we need to help, because they are very much at risk of dropping out further down the line.
“Being able to identify difficulties early and intervene is essential to equip children with the tools to manage life’s ups and downs, and helps to prevent conditions becoming severe.
“The feedback from children and their families who have used our service has been great, and we know schools are calling for more support. I'm extremely proud of what our team does to support our local communities and build young people’s resilience.”
The Ealing MHST also offer term-time workshops to help families and carers to recognise when their child might be struggling with their mental health. The workshops also provide an opportunity for the team to gather feedback from parents and learn from families, to then be able to better support children and young people.