Bradford Mental Health Senior Leads Training; Assured by the DfE until the end of Spring

Bradford Mental Health Senior Leads Training; Assured by the DfE until the end of Spring

Recommended requirement 

We recommend that prior to attending the course, you complete the Bradford Health Minds Chartermark Whole School Approach Audit. The course will then help you fill in the gaps you have found in the audit in a meaningful way. The audit is available on the Bradford Healthy Minds Chartermark page - it is in the SILVER AWARD PROCESS download on that webpage.

Overview of Senior Mental Health Lead Training - The Bradford Course coded SMHL003

This course continues to be quality assured by the DfE and can therefore be paid for using the senior mental health lead training grant. We are pleased to confirm that schools and colleges can still claim a grant for training that starts up to 31 March 2025 - this therefore includes our two suites of courses offered in the 24/25 academic year, before the grant draws to a close.  

In addition, we are now able to offer resources which are here: Mental health lead resource hub : Mentally Healthy Schools 

Essential information and documents

You can apply for a training grant and book courses commencing this academic year; please see below for the Bradford SMHL course new dates for 24-25. The gov.uk guidance page and conditions will also be updated, with the most current link being here: ESFA Fast Form (fasst.org.uk) 

Bradford SMHL003 Quality Assurance Policy Guidance 

Bradford SMHL003 Learner Handbook 

Finding the course on the web

  1. Go onto website smhl.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/SelectCourse 
  2. Choose the BEGINNER selection
  3. Go to the FILTER RESULTS 
  4. Tick 20+ hours, and, £401-£600 price range
  5. Press 'Apply filters'

The Bradford Course will come up. It is currently the only one under these two filters.

The grant is worth £1200

Booking the course

My name is Dr Kay Tasker-Smith and I am the Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist leading on the Bradford Mental Health Leads Training. In this Bradford based introductory training, each suite of seven courses will be delivered to up to 25 delegates, to strengthen your school or college’s offer on mental health and wellbeing, as well as providing a valuable space for peer support and reflection.

To book on:

1. Apply for your grant in the first instance through the DfE. You will need to give them the code SMHL003 which is the code for this course.

2. Then you need to book on to the Bradford course through our Bradford system. To do this you need to go to skills4bradford website  https://skills4bradford.co.uk/ 

3. You then select this course by inputting a couple of key words from the title such as Senior Mental Health

4. Press search 

5. All 7 sessions of the course come up, but select the first one: then you will see the course displayed in its entirety.

6. Book the course. If you are having a lot of trouble doing this then email Karen.Bickerton@bradford.gov.uk and she will help you.

In academic year 24/25 we will be having two 'suites' of courses rather than three, to ensure cost effectiveness and also prevent the crossover difficulties with funding. As stated previously, the grants have now been confirmed for  these courses. The dates are as follows:

Suite 1 - Booking facility available from on skills4bradford

  1. Week 1 Tuesday 5th November 9am to 12 noon
  2. Week 2 Tuesday 19th November 9am to 12 noon
  3. Week 3 Tuesday 3rd December 9am to 12 noon
  4. Week 4 Tuesday 17th December 9am to 12 noon
  5. Week 5 Tuesday 14th January 9am to 12 noon
  6. Week 6 Tuesday 28th January 9am to 12 noon
  7. Week 7 Tuesday 11th February 9am to 12 noon

Suite 2 - Booking facility available from on skills4bradford

  1. Week 1 Tuesday 24th February 9am to 12 noon
  2. Week 2 Tuesday 11th March 9am to 12 noon
  3. Week 3 Tuesday 25th March 9am to 12 noon
  4. Week 4 Tuesday 22nd April 9am to 12 noon
  5. Week 5 Tuesday 6th May 9am to 12 noon
  6. Week 6 Tuesday 20th May 9am to 12 noon
  7. Week 7 Tuesday 10th June 9am to 12 noon

Core aim of the course

The expectation of this government funded course is that schools develop a whole school approach, and to achieve that, schools must develop an action / implementation plan. Therefore, we expect that schools undertaking this course are doing one of the following Bradford projects, which automatically incorporates undertaking an audit that supports action planning;

This introductory course will be delivered in a supportive and practical way so that delegates feel at ease and can build up their skills and knowledge one step at a time. The delegate attending must be a member of the school SLT, as required by the DfE.

The course has a strong emphasis on psychological theories and models and the practical aspects of managing the process of change, alongside providing information on evidence based whole school approaches that can be used as a foundation to your whole school approach. 

Primary, Secondary, Specialist schools and FE Colleges are invited to take part.

For in depth information on this national initiative please visit Senior mental health lead training - on gov.uk 

This course is one of a number delivered nationally as an initiative to provide support in building a sustainable, whole school approach to emotional wellbeing and good mental health. 

Support to SMHLs and Schools from DfE

The Anna Freud Centre are developing two online tools that will be housed on mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk  

  1. One will be an online resource hub that will provide SMHLs with a dedicated area to access high-quality mental health resources from across the sector. The resources will be filterable by specific user-identified categories and mapped against the eight core principles of the whole-school approach. 
  2. The other is a pastoral support toolkit that will allow relevant education staff to develop their targeted offer for social, emotional and mental health needs within their setting. The toolkit will share information about mental health interventions, such as the evidence for efficacy, to help staff make an informed decision on the most suitable approach for their setting.  

Conditions of admission and accessing the DfE Grant

In your correspondence with the DFE, you may be asked to produce a code for this course. It is SMHL003

The criteria for admission on to the course, in order to be able to access the grant funding from the DfE, is that (a) you are a state funded schools (b) you have an identified Senior Lead (c) you are committed to the development of a whole school approach. The DfE has published its list of approved courses, along with further details on their opt-in DfE digital service to access a grant worth £1200 to pay for quality assured health lead training plus financial resources to pay for cover.

Getting your DfE Grant Funding 2023-24

The website www.gov.uk/guidance/senior-mental-health-lead-training  (please copy and paste) gives you everything you need to know about eligibility for the grant. Please read carefully!

Contact email: BradfordSeniorMentalHealthLeads@bradford.gov.uk

The virtual training, in the morning session, is targeted at delegates as 'managers' and reflects the 8 public health recommendations (included in the 7 morning courses) to build an effective whole school approach to mental health. You will receive a lot of documentation to read through for each session, as a support mechanism, plus a pdf of each of the courses.

  1. Leadership and management
  2. Ethos and environment
  3. Staff development
  4. Curriculum, teaching and learning
  5. Coordinated support
  6. Identifying need and monitoring impact
  7. Parents and carers
  8. Student Voice

The course will be as interactive as we can manage, and most importantly, it is very thorough so you will cover all the learning objectives required at beginner level. A lot of evidence based psychology is built into the courses, so they are theoretical as well as being practical.

Individualised tutor support will be offered throughout the course, on a time convenient to you. For colleagues undertaking the Healthy Minds Chartermark you wil be receiving EP support as part of that program, so it is unlikely you will need additional 1:1 time from the tutor. 

Contact Email: BradfordSeniorMentalHealthLeads@bradford.gov.uk

Learning outcomes

Course 1: Leadership and Management

  • Lead understands expectations of the role, how this fits with existing statutory roles and policies in an education setting, including the role of NHS, Local Authority and Voluntary Sector
  • Lead understands the benefits of a whole school/college approach, can advocate for this, influence others and deal with any resistance from colleagues and other senior leaders, governors, or the wider school community.
  • Lead has identified self-development to fulfil this role, including their own bias and how this can affect their approach to developing a whole school approach.
  • Lead can access available local/national support to implement a whole school/college approach.
  • Lead mutually supports other settings, accessing/sharing practical tools and support
  • Lead effectively plans for implementation of a whole school/college approach (Bradford Chartermark)
  • Lead improves wellbeing and mental health through whole school an evidence based program which is developed, embedded and sustained

Course 2: Ethos and Environment

  • Lead understands how culture might impact on wellbeing and mental health in a setting, and how relationship between staff and young people are critical in promoting a sense of wellbeing and a sense of belonging to and liking of school
  • Lead is aware of wider interventions that some children might access such as the justice system or social services
  • Lead is able to effectively communicate a positive values-based approach and to promote openness and understanding to normalise mental health and its fluctuations through life
  • Lead knows how to use local services/resources to enhance their school knowledge and messaging, and develop social emotional and mental health partners in the community

Course 3: Staff development and training

  • Lead is confident to work with staff to raise mental health awareness, and able to promote and support a positive culture of staff wellbeing and mental health
  • Lead is equipped to support staff understand their own mental health and resilience, including signposting / arranging appropriate supervision for staff dealing with mental health issues and incidents in the school/college
  • Lead has a plan and is able to support staff to develop a wider understanding of the use of different evidence based approaches for promoting their own, and pupils and students, wellbeing and mental health, appropriate to the needs of their school/college
  • Lead is able to facilitate development of school staff, ensuring any critical training offered on mental health and wellbeing is attended, and that all staff understand the process for managing mental health concerns 

Course 4: Curriculum teaching and learning

  • You will have considered how the curriculum and teaching and learning in your setting promotes resilience and supports social and emotional learning
  • You will be aware of the mental wellbeing content in the statutory health education curriculum
  • You will have considered ways of working with the PSHE/RSHE Lead in your setting to ensure that the curriculum features appropriately in the setting’s whole school/college approach to wellbeing and mental health  

Course 5: Coordinated support

  • Lead is aware of the statutory and independent mental health service provision in your area
  • Lead knows how to make best use of the provision available
  • Lead has a plan in place for working in partnership with local services and mental health professionals (including Mental Health Support Teams where applicable) to provide the right support to CYP
  • Lead understands the threshold for making referrals to CYPMHS (formerly CAMHS) and know how to work with CYP and families to make appropriate contact with the service
  • Lead knows what support is available for CYP who do not meet thresholds but who still have significant needs
  • Lead can use (and be able to adapt as required) relevant tools to assess need, and monitor interventions to support pupil and student progress.
  • Implement a process to identify those who may need additional support, working with other staff across the school to use pre-existing documents, such as Education Health Care Plans, where appropriate.
  • Lead can make a decision about whether a health or education intervention is more appropriate and access this support with reference to the Local Offer.
  • Lead can seek feedback from and give feedback to staff, pupils and parents, to ensure those experiencing poor mental health get the support they need to be able to engage in all aspects of school/college life and participate in lessons and extra-curricular activities.
  • Lead can work with staff, families and local services to understand the mental health and wellbeing issues that could be impacting on behaviour and attendance to improve outcomes for pupils/students, and ensure that all school policies reflect this.
  • Lead can Monitor the impact of interventions provided to individuals or small groups and adapt the approach as needed.

Course 6: Working with parents and carers

  • SLT Lead is able to engage and include parents, carers, families, virtual school heads and the outside community in promoting a culture of which the college is trying to create within and outside school hours

Course 7: Student / pupil voice

  • Have considered how to involve the whole student body in the co-production and embedding of your whole school approach
  • Have considered how you could involve your pupils in peer-led wellbeing support

Accessibility Issues

We are aware of some accessibility isues with our powerpoints used for this course. We are working to fix these.

The issues are:

 - Issues have missing alternative text

 - Tables have missing header rows

 - Slides have missing titles

 - Some text is hard to read as the text and background do not have enough contrast

Feedback from Delegates

"The course was informative and engaging, it was delivered well and had all the up to date and current information required plus much more. The support offered was plentiful. I feel able to take the lead and create real change in my setting. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity."

Alison Pierce, Poplars Farm Primary School, July 2023

"Fantastic, detailed course. I look forward in implementing the knowledge and skills learnt from the course in becoming a mentally healthy school. Thank you."

Sobia Sabir, St Stephen’s C of E Primary School, July 2023

"I found this so useful in providing me with the tools required to start the whole school approach to mental health. I also found it useful to have time to discuss ideas with the other school leads. Kay Tasker-Smith was so supportive and so encouraging. I would highly recommend this course. Thank you!"

Trudy Tetley, Eldwick Primary School, July 2023

 

 

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