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Schools (Mental Health Professionals) Bill [HL]

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A bill to Make provision to require every school to have access to a qualified mental health professional; and for connected purposes.

Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Duty of school governing bodies in England in relation to mental health provision

(1) The governing body of a state funded school in England has a duty to make arrangements for provision in the school of an education mental health practitioner or a school counsellor.
(2) In subsection (1)—
(a) “state funded school” means a school funded wholly or mainly from public funds, including, but not limited to—
(i) an Academy school, an alternative provision Academy or a 16 to 19 Academy established under the Academies Act 2010;
(ii) community, foundation and voluntary schools (within the meaning of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998);
(b) “education mental health practitioner” means a person with a graduate-level or postgraduate-level qualification of that name earned through a course commissioned by NHS England; and
(c) for a school with 100 or fewer pupils, the duty may be satisfied by collaborative provision between several schools.

2 Duty of the Secretary of State in relation to mental health provision in schools in England

(1) The Secretary of State must give, or must make arrangements for the giving of, financial assistance to any person for or in connection with the duty in section 1.
(2) There is to be paid out of money provided by Parliament—
(a) any expenditure incurred under or by virtue of this Act by the Secretary of State, the Treasury or a government department, and
(b) any increase attributable to this Act in the sums payable under any other Act out of money so provided.

3 Extent, commencement and short title

(1) This Act extends to England and Wales only.
(2) This Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed.
(3) This Act may be cited as the Schools (Mental Health Professionals) Act 2024.