Introduction

In the first part of this chapter I offer for discussion some ideas about how the Caplanian approach to preventive mental health – specifically the method of crisis intervention (explained in Chapters Six and Seven) – might be applied in state schools, a non-stigmatic site for primary prevention. Like the 2017 Green Paper, I envisage this as part of a developing programme to promote social and emotional wellbeing using a ‘whole school’ approach. Even so, I recognise that this, although gaining wider acceptance, is still a contentious concept since it challenges the traditional view of the purpose of education, namely, that its sole purpose is to pursue academic excellence and to control the school environment so as to manage disruptive pupil behaviour. There is a view that much of our existing public sector school system still largely operates on this basis. But that is increasingly open to question: is the purpose of schooling simply about gaining qualifications and preparing young people for adult working life? Or do schools have a wider purpose in supporting young people at critical moments in their educational journey from infancy to adulthood, so that as far as possible they can develop into well-rounded emotionally secure and resilient citizens able to develop their individual talents for the wider benefit of society?

As I will outline below, these basic questions underlie a vigorous social policy debate which developed throughout the Cameron government years (2010–16) and continued throughout 2016–17 under the Conservative administration led by Theresa May, up to the point when on 18 April 2017 she called a general election. It so happens that in the month following May's earlier announcement of 8 February that there was to be a Green Paper on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services published in the autumn, the House of Commons Education and Health Committee produced a report on children and young people's mental health and the role of education. I return to the proposals advanced by this committee when reviewing the policies adopted by David Cameron's administration, especially as in many ways they take a more progressive ‘whole school’ approach in which it should be possible to embed the preventive mental health crisis intervention method, given the appropriate preparation and training of school-based staff (see further below and Chapter Thirteen).