Transforming mental health in schools and colleges: The impact of COVID-19

Dr Jacqueline Phillips Owen is a member of the RSM Psychiatry Council and Chair of the steering group for this conference and webinar series. She is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). She is also a member of the Academic Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, King’s College London, and editor of the mental health e-learning platform, MindEd. She has an academic background (a PhD from University College London) and her research explores the impact of neurodevelopmental disorders in low-income countries, and digital innovations for improving children and young people’s mental health in schools and colleges. She also has research interests in methods to support young people with mental illness to make important decisions about their futures.  She is a school governor in Lewisham and this role gave her insight into how schools can struggle to obtain appropriate help and advice to support the wellbeing and education of children with mental health difficulties. With this in mind, Jacqueline has put together this series of conferences "Transforming Mental Health in Schools and Colleges" at the Royal Society of Medicine in an effort bring health and education professionals together and spur on public engagement and debate.

Vicky Ford was elected in 2017 as the Member of Parliament for Chelmsford. In February 2020 she was appointed as Minister for Children and Families in the Department for Education, with responsibilities for vulnerable children.
The minister’s responsibilities include:

• children’s social care including system and funding, workforce, child protection, children in care, adoption, care leavers and local authority performance
• special educational needs, including high needs funding
• early years policy and childcare, including funding, providers, workforce, children’s centres, home learning environment and childcare entitlements
• alternative provision
• disadvantage and social mobility (including links to the Social Mobility Commission)
• school food including free school meals
• children and young people’s mental health, online safety and preventing bullying in schools
• policy to protect against serious violence
• coronavirus (COVID-19) response for children’s services and childcare

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006. Paul is Chair of the NHS England Independent Oversight & Advisory Group which brings together health and care leaders and experts to oversee the current mental health long term plan for the NHS in England. He co-authored ‘Thriving at Work’ for the government, setting out how to transform mental health in work places. Paul is a Commissioner at Historic England. He has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

Cathy is a Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford. She is an Honorary Consultant Psychologist and leads The Oxford Psychological Interventions for Children and adolescents (TOPIC) research group https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/research/topic-research-group.  Cathy’s research focuses on the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders and she has published several books for parents and clinicians, including ‘Helping Your Child with Fears and Worries’.

Emily Simonoff is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, where she is also head of the Department. She is also academic lead for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Clinical Academic Group at the South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust (SLaM). Within SLaM she has focussed on how digital innovations can address clinical and research challenges. She in a UK National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator and Senior Clinical Advisor to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Her clinical and research focus is on autism ad ADHD. Her policy work in autism includes being a member of the Strategy Board for the UK National Autism Project, a member of the Westminster Commission for Autism and has given evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Autism and the APPG on ADHD. Internationally, she chairs the European ADHD Guidelines Group. Emily receives research funding from the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute of Health and Research EU Innovative Medicines Initiative, amongst other organization. She is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in the Maudsley-based Service for Complex Autism and Associated Neurodevelopmental Disorders, funded by NHS England to see children and young people across the southern region with complex presentations.

Amanda Spielman has been Ofsted Chief Inspector since January 2017.Between 2011 and 2016, Amanda was chair of Ofqual, the qualifications regulator. From 2005 she was a founding member of the leadership team at the academy chain Ark Schools, where she became Research and Policy Director and an education adviser to Ark, the education charity. She previously spent more than 15 years in strategy consulting, finance and investment at KPMG, Kleinwort Benson, Mercer Management Consulting and Nomura International. She has previously served as a council member at Brunel University London and on the boards of a number of organisations including the Institute of Education, STEMNET and Wales Millennium Centre, and has been a governor of two schools.

Paula is the Executive Headteacher of the Leathersellers’ Federation of Schools in Lewisham and is also the Headteacher of Prendergast School.  The Leathersellers’ Federation of Schools serves almost 3000 students and comprises of two all-through schools to GCSE and a secondary school with a sixth form. Prendergast School has recently achieved the Wellbeing Award. Paula has worked in education across the country and in Japan.  Paula is passionate about improving education in Lewisham.  She strongly believes that we need to support our students to make good progress in their academic studies, but more importantly that we ensure that all of our students are happy, safe and have a wide range of opportunities both within and outside of the classroom. She believes that we are stronger together and that through collaboration we have greater success.

Ela is the Principal at Ark Victoria Academy, a large all-through school, serving the local community in Small Heath, Birmingham. The school is part of the Ark network of 38 schools, who aim to transform children’s lives. The school’s values of ambition, resilience and kindness are at the heart of the curriculum, school and community. Ela has worked in education for the last 23 years, working in and across schools locally and internationally too. Ela is passionate about providing an excellent education for those who most need it. She believes it is important to provide students with a range of experiences and opportunities to secure their growth and development and give them a rich experience of life. Ela believes strongly in equity, in celebrating diversity and in giving a voice to the students in her school. The character education programme at Ark Victoria includes service, as well as an important focus on virtues and ethics. The community at Ark Victoria works hard together to ensure all children are safe, happy and healthy and enjoy coming to school.

Michele Reilly is a governor at a Lambeth school (link governor for both EAL & SEN), with a special interest in a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing.  She founded the Lambeth Parent ADHD Support Group nearly 10 years ago, which works closely with parents and Lambeth health and educational professionals to further the understanding of neurodiversity in the wider community. The support group also collaborates with academics involved in neurodiversity research. She volunteers at, and is a board member of the neurodiversity charity ARCS (ADHD & Related Condition Support).  She is passionate about promoting genuine co-production between young people, parents, and health and educational professionals. She has a BSc Psychology, University College London & MA Japanese Studies.  She worked for 12 years on a Japanese daily broadsheet before freelancing. She has published research on human rights in the Japanese mental health system.

Dr Milavić  is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, London, UK.  She is currently Chair of  the Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, UK.  She is a member and President Elect of the Psychiatry Council of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK. Dr Milavić has over 40 years of experience in clinical work alongside being a teacher and trainer of junior doctors and mental health professionals.  She lectures in the UK and abroad in her specialist areas of mood disorders and service organisation.  Throughout her working career she has managed child and adolescent mental health services; she was Service Director and Clinical Director in Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust in London (1997 - 2005) and hospital HopClinical Director at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (2006 to 2012). She was Co - Chair of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section of the World Psychiatric Association (2011 to 2017). She is a Trustee and medical advisor of a number of mental health UK registered charities in the UK and internationally including the ‘British Serbian Medical Association”, ‘Nip in the Bud’, and ‘Concern for Mental Health’.

Emily Frith is Head of Policy and Advocacy for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Prior to this she was Director of Mental Health for the Education Policy Institute, where she authored seven reports on children and young people’s mental health. Emily was Special Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, with responsibility for Health and Welfare policy from 2013 to 2015, where she was responsible for coordinating work on improving standards of mental health provision.

Edmund Sonuga-Barke is currently Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Kings College London. He is Honorary Skou Professor at Aarhus University School of Medicine, Denmark. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Motivated by his own experience as a child growing up with learning difficulties his research focuses on improving the lives of children and adolescents with neuro-developmental disorders. To this end, his work aims to develop new therapeutic approaches by employing basic developmental science approaches to study the pathogenesis of such conditions, their underlying genetic and environmental risk and resilience sources and their mediating brain mechanisms and developmental and mental health outcomes. Prof Sonuga-Barke is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2016) and The British Academy (2018). Since 2018 he has been included in the Clarivate list of “most influential scientific minds” in Psychology/Psychiatry for the high impact of his work.

John is the headteacher and educational psychologist at a psychiatric hospital school. 

Steve Chalke founded the Oasis Trust back in 1985 with a vision to build inclusive local communities. Oasis is now one of the largest charities in the UK, as well as working in a host of other countries. It provides housing, education, healthcare, various other community-building initiatives and is now working with the Ministry of Justice to create the UK’s first Secure School.  Steve is also an author, speaker, former UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking and a Baptist minister. He holds an MBE and various honorary fellowships, all awarded for his work in social inclusion and justice. He still leads Oasis and is also the senior minister of Oasis Church Waterloo in central London – a place of inclusion where all are welcome.

Shirley Graham has been a qualified social worker since 1990.  Shirley has worked in a variety of social work roles; this includes working as a Manager, Independent Reviewing Officer and Child Protection Chair. Shirley currently undertakes work as an Independent Social Worker and acts as  a Children’s Guardian in Public Law Proceedings.

Paul Jackson is the Headteacher of Manorfield Primary and an accredited Local Leader of Education. Paul joined Manorfield Primary School as Interim headteacher in January 2016, taking on the role of permanent headteacher in July 2016. Prior to joining Manorfield, Paul was headteacher at Gallions Primary School in Newham for just over seven years and an Executive Headteacher across a group of primary schools in Essex. Both Gallions and Manorfield achieved the SAPERE P4C Gold award with Paul as their headteacher. During this time, Paul has worked on several other projects, including working as a consultant for ‘We are what we do’ during the production of a range of materials for children, co-authoring materials for Cambridge University Press's Cambridge Maths Direct Scheme and being seconded to Newham LA as a Primary Maths Consultant. Alongside his role as Headteacher at Gallions, Paul previously project managed the Askit strand of the Helen Hamlyn Trust-funded Open Futures initiative, working with 50 schools across the country in partnership with SAPERE to introduce Philosophy for Children into their schools. Paul has also volunteered as a mentor to several undergraduates at Middlesex University, and has been involved in several voluntary organisations, including the Scout Association and CCHF.  Paul was a founding trustee of The Gallions Music Trust, and has previously also been a Trustee at Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford, Newham and a Trustee of the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain.  Paul is currently chair of The Manorfield Charitable Foundation.  Paul has also been a governor at his children’s primary school. Paul is passionate about creative education and ensuring that all children have the very best creative and inspiring learning experiences. Paul has written several articles for publications including the Times Educational Supplement, has spoken at a variety of conferences to audiences of teachers, educational professionals, policy-makers and members of the creative and cultural industries and has made several appearances on television and radio as an educational ‘expert’. Paul’s favourite children’s book is Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. https://www.innovatecreateeducate.co.uk/about-us/paul-jackson-educational-resources-london

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE is a medical doctor and neuroscience researcher working as Consultant psychiatrist in Addictions leading two national clinics in the UK. She was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year’s Honours for Services to Addiction Treatment and to Research. Honorary Senior Visiting Research Fellow in Psychiatry, Cambridge University. Immediate Past President, Medical Women’s Federation. Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spokesperson on Behavioural Addictions. Honorary Professor, UCL, Faculty of Brain Sciences. Psychiatry President, Royal Society of Medicine (2020-2022). Psychiatrist of the Year 2020 Award. Royal College of Psychiatrists. Founder and Director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic,the first NHS treatment centre in the UK for the treatment of problem gamblers which she set up in 2008. Founder and Director of the National Centre for Gaming Disorders, the first NHS clinic in the UK treating Gaming Disorder. Regular expert advisor to both Westminster and the House of Lords on matters pertaining to gambling disorder, gaming disorder and mental health. Recipient of many national and international prizes and awards. As well as graduating in Medicine and specialising in Psychiatry with a CCST in Addiction Psychiatry, Henrietta also pursued a research career and a Medical Doctorate in Neuroscience from Imperial College (Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex impairment in Alcohol Dependency). Founder and joint Chair of the National UK Research Network for Behavioural Addictions ( NUK-BA) based at Cambridge University and comprising of several researchers from leading universities.

Executive Board member of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Addiction (ISSBA)

She has published several books and has an extensive publication list in a whole range of peer reviewed journals. 

Follow her on twitter @HBowdenJonesOBE

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. Her group runs behavioural studies in schools and in the lab, as well as neuroimaging studies, with adolescents and adults. You can read more about the group and their research here. Professor Blakemore's publications can be found on Google Scholar.  Professor Blakemore is Chair of the Royal Society of Biology Education and Science Policy Committee. She has been awarded national and international prizes for her research including the British Psychological Society (BPS) Doctoral Award 2001, the BPS Spearman Medal for outstanding early career research 2006, the Swedish Neuropsychology Society Award 2011, the Young Mind & Brain Prize 2013, the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award 2013, the Klaus J Jacobs Prize 2015 and the BPS Presidents' Award 2018. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Association of Psychological Science. Full biography can be found here. Professor Blakemore teaches a final year Natural Sciences paper on Adolescence in Lent term.

Geoff studied English and Linguistics at the University of Lancaster, then trained to teach at Leicester University. From 2002 to 2017 he was headteacher of King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, a comprehensive school of 1650 students. He is a Founding Fellow of the English Association and writes for a range of newspapers and journals. He has worked with various organisations, including the Department for Education, on leadership and literacy. Geoff was a longstanding member of ASCL Council, former chair of its Pedagogy Committee, is Patron of the English and Media Centre, and a ‘Leading Thinker’ for the National Education Trust. He became General Secretary of ASCL in April 2017.

Lucy is Director of Projects at the Helen Hamlyn Trust (HHT). HHT is an independent grant making trust which initiates major projects focussed on nurturing innovation to effect lasting change and improve quality of life. Projects span the fields of Medicine, Arts and Culture, Education and Welfare, Healthy Ageing, International Humanitarian Affairs and Heritage and Conservation in India. With Helen Hamlyn, Lucy collaborates with beneficiaries to extend opportunities, reach and ultimately impact of the Trust’s portfolio of projects. She led the Trust’s flagship education initiative Open Futures involving 164 primary schools and reaching over 80,000 children in England and 28,000 in India. She then helped to establish the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years) at UCL’s Institute of Education. Before joining the Trust, Lucy spent 15 years as Artistic Director of Bouge-de-là Theatre, early exponents of Physical Theatre, cited in the Guardian as, “…gurus of this form.” A producer, performer, designer and teacher working internationally, her teaching led her to work with young offenders, in forensic psychiatric units and with children and adults with profound and multiple learning difficulties. She sits on advisory boards for the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11years) at UCL’s Institute of Education, the Royal Society of Medicine ‘Transforming Mental Health in Schools’ Conference series and The Design Age Institute, part of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the RCA. Using her expertise in social justice, the arts, education and children’s mental health and wellbeing, Lucy has served as trustee for a number of charities and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Principal of Ashcroft Technology Academy since April 2017, previous Deputy Principal at the Academy.

A mother of four teenagers and young adults, who have ADHD and ASD diagnoses (two with a dual diagnosis), Maggie is also the Director of ARCS – a charity set up by parents to support families and young people in Lambeth affected by ADHD and other neurological conditions.  ARCS works with the clinicians and practitioners who make up the Lambeth ADHD Strategy Group, ensuring that the voices of young people and families are represented and heard.  With the strategy group, ARCS provides training and resources for Lambeth schools, youth and family services and the Metropolitan Police.  ARCS has recently been commissioned by Lambeth to develop a schools' pathway for neuro-diverse young people transitioning to secondary school.  A qualified Social Worker with a first degree in psychology, a masters in addictive behaviours, and a post graduate qualification in Autism and Education, Maggie has extensive third sector and social care and health and early intervention experience.  She also has many years of youth and community outreach experience. She has published research into drug-related early Intervention and developing services for young people and families (SCODA). A member of several SEND and Mental Health Strategic Working groups in Lambeth, Maggie is also an associate school governor, a trustee of a community led housing project, and a longstanding member of the Lambeth ADHD Parent Support Group.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely is Professor of Psychological Medicine and Regius Professor of Psychiatry at King’s College London and a Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist at King’s College and the Maudsley Hospitals. Simon Wessely studied medicine and history of art at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and finished his medical training at University College Oxford, graduating in 1981. He obtained his medical membership in Newcastle, before moving to London to train in psychiatry at the Maudsley. He has a Master’s and Doctorate in epidemiology. He is a Foundation Senior Investigator of the National Institute for Health Research, past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society of Medicine and is also chairing the Independent Review into the Mental Health Act. In 2020 he was appointed to the Council of the ESRC. He has over 800 original publications, with an emphasis on the boundaries of medicine and psychiatry, unexplained symptoms and syndromes, population reactions to adversity, military health, epidemiology and others.  He founded the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, which is now the main source of information on the health and well-being of the UK Armed Forces past and present and has been Civilian Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army since 2001, He has co-authored books on chronic fatigue syndrome, randomised controlled trials and a history of military psychiatry, although sadly none of them are best sellers. He is active in public engagement activities, speaking regularly on radio, TV and at literary and science festivals. He is a trustee of Combat Stress and his contributions to veterans’ charities include cycling (slowly) eight times to Paris to raise funds for the Royal British Legion.

Dr Jo Casebourne joined EIF as chief executive in August 2017. Previously, Jo served as director of development at the Institute for Government, leading the institute’s work on public services and English devolution, after earlier stints as director of public and social innovation at Nesta and director of research at the Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion. Jo has spent the last 20 years conducting research on public services, social innovation, disadvantaged groups in the labour market, welfare-to-work, employment and skills, work-life balance and childcare. Jo’s PhD examined the impact of welfare reform in the US and the UK on work and poverty for lone-parent families.

Stephen Scott is Professor of Child Health and Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He works as a consultant psychiatrist specializing in two areas, conduct problems and adoption & fostering. He enjoys carrying out trials of parenting interventions to improve child outcomes in both the attachment and antisocial behaviour domains. He is an author of the bestselling introductory textbook, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Goodman and Scott, 3^rd edition) and an author and editor of the large, authoritative textbook, Rutter’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2014 he was made a Commander of the British Empire by the Queen; and in 2017, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is President of the charity the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH).

Kathryn Pugh was Deputy Head of Mental Health in NHS England, leading the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Transformation Programme. She was the programme lead for CYP IAPT and worked on the development and implementation of Future in Mind, the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health – Green Paper and the NHS Long Term Plan. She was previously a member of the National CAMHS Support Service and the National Mental Health Development Unit where she led the national implementation of the children and young people’s programme following the amendments to the Mental Health Act in 2007. This followed on from her role as Head of Policy at YoungMinds, where she led the Stressed out and Struggling Project and for the Mental Health Coalition to deliver amendments to the Mental Health Act 2007 regarding age appropriate environments and consent. Before that, she worked in primary care, commissioning primary, secondary and specialist care in both acute and mental health for all ages. In 2015, she was awarded an MBE for services to mental health.