(CAMHS) and Schools - London Health Programmes

pastoral support for children who need it. Teachers had to balance the value of the
input that the health professional could offer a child against the need to have them in
the class for their academic progress.
‘The national curriculum has a lot to answer for; it forced children into sitting
behind a desk doing Science and French. It doesn't suit many kids.’ (Head Teacher)
‘One of biggest restrictions has been the severity of the curriculum. We have to make
the choice of how important is it for the child to complete the curriculum and what
(worker) can do for them. Greater flexibility is needed. There is pressure on schools
for exam results - key stage 3 or 4 even. Teacher won't want to lose them from the
class. As long as schools are only judged on their academic achievement it is less
easy for schools to work in this way.’ (Deputy Head)
‘There are changes in education system. Teachers are skilled but the whole ethos has
changed - performance tables, league tables - schools are more of a pressure cooker.
You've got literacy hour and I've seen children sitting on the carpet who cannot sit
still in such a high state of anxiety. And they are expected to sit there for an hour.
Kids need playtime.’ (Advisory Teacher)
There is significant restructuring going on in both NHS and education services. All
the case study services were either in the process of boing, or had just recently been,
restructured into Primary Care Trusts. In education a key change is the increased
devolution of budgets to schools rather than in LEAs, and schools bidding into the
support services.
Although the policies were not referred to explicitly, at least three schools visited in
the case study areas were accessing support to work alongside the CAMHS workers.
In a secondary school in North Shields, the CPN based in the school was being linked
to an onsite Learning Support Centre which was linked to Excellence in Cities
initiative. This provided learning mentors for students. In a secondary school in
Cornwall they had set up a Social Inclusion Support Worker, called a partial support
worker, who runs a small unit to teach children who exclude themselves from lessons
by disruptive behaviour or missing classes. This is funded by DfES Social Inclusion
funding, and this worker has been providing one of the key links to the Child and
Family Service (joint Education/ CAMHS service). In one of the Portsmouth
Schools, there were Excellence in Cities learning mentors who worked closely with
the Ontrack CPNs working with the school, and had Healthy Schools Initiatives in the
area. The linkages with these initiatives is clearly strong. However, there was some
signs of confusion and overlapping roles with these different workers.
Interviewees also identified the problem of short term funding and sustainability.
Many of the case studies did have some form of input from various initiatives
including Education Action Zones, Health Action Zones, On Track, SureStart,
Standards funds and modernisation funding. These were providing funding for staff
and a facilitating role in setting up new projects. Some workers and managers
expressed concern about the longer term sustainability of the work.
Concerns were also expressed about the number of Tier 1 services being set up and
overwhelming Tier 2 resources to respond (from the health side) and lack of co-