Most teachers are getting little or no help for pupils from mental health support services, according to a new analysis.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said schools were providing wider support to pupils on their own, but could not continue to “shoulder the burden”.
The key findings include:
- Pressing support needs in schools. Schools continued to report high levels of additional needs among pupils, though with slight improvements since 2022/23. Senior leaders estimated that nearly a quarter of pupils required extra support for general wellbeing, mental health, and to access learning and social and extracurricular activities.
- Access to support via public services is uneven among teachers, highlighting disparities across the system. At least seven in 10 teachers say they received less than a good level of support for their pupils across key support services including local authority education services, physical health services, external SEND team/specialist expertise and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
- Mental health services for pupils are reported as widely inaccessible. More than half of classroom teachers reported little or no help from CAMHS/Mental health services, more than for any other service.
- Widespread reliance on external services where needs are unmet by the wider support system around schools. Four in five secondary senior leaders report commissioning external counselling services for pupils, and more than three in five did so for teaching staff, during 2024-25. This was lower in primaries where three in five commissioned external counselling for pupils, and half of them for teachers.
- Schools under pressure to fill gaps in pupil support. Commissioning external services to fill these gaps may not be sustainable in the longer term as financial pressures on school budgets and wider public services stretch resources further.
Jenna Julius, research director at NFER, said: “Schools are taking significant steps to support pupils’ and staff, but they cannot shoulder the burden alone.
“As financial pressures on school budgets and wider public services stretch resources further, there is a real risk that children’s wellbeing and learning will be affected by the strain on support services.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: “Schools, many of which are facing budgetary pressures, do their best to support children.
“Funding to support pupils with special educational needs has also failed to keep pace with increased demand.
“More investment is needed for all these services, alongside reform of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, and tangible action is needed to tackle child poverty. There should be no expectation on any school to provide health or social care services funded from the school budget.”
The research drew on responses from more than 350 senior leaders and 800 classroom teachers surveyed in the NFER’s Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey in June 2025.
