Last week the government published a ‘green paper’ about improving mental health support for children and young people in England. In the green paper the government says that it wants to “put schools and colleges at the heart of our efforts to intervene early and prevent problems escalating” and argues that its proposals would “represent an ambitious new approach to helping all children and young people live happy and fulfilling lives”.
A green paper is a government publication that proposes new policies or laws. It isn’t a set of policies or laws in itself; rather, it’s intended to encourage discussion and offer people the chance to share their views.
Beat was one of several mental health charities invited to advise the government on what they should include in the green paper. We focused on:
Since the green paper was written with the aim of producing recommendations which would apply to all mental health conditions, there are only a few specific references to eating disorders. The main proposals in the ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health’ green paper are:
The Department of Health has also published a short version of the green paper and created a YouTube video describing the key proposals.
The green paper sets out several new initiatives that together the government believes will significantly improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. It focuses on key issues including early intervention and improving coordination between schools/colleges and NHS mental health services.
The green paper communicates a set of proposals, rather than finalised policies. Whether these proposals become government policy and, if so, how they will be implemented, will be influenced by the response to the green paper from the public and organisations like Beat.
On Monday our Policy and Research Officer attended a meeting of mental health charities and professional bodies to discuss the green paper. Beat will be submitting a response to the consultation, informed by the views of Beat Ambassadors and other volunteers. We’ll publish this response on our website.
Anyone can share their views on the proposals in the green paper by completing the government’s online consultation. The consultation is open until Friday 2 March. You can follow discussion about it on Twitter using #youngmentalhealth.