00:00Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:04You are announcing today new money for mental health interventions in schools.
00:09I think it is broadly acknowledged now that teen mental health has worsened over the last 15 years,
00:14not just in this country but across the entire Western world.
00:17It is broadly acknowledged that one of the principal causes of that is social media and smartphone use.
00:22So why isn't the government tackling that cause?
00:24Why have you watered down the safer phones bill, not introduced a raised age of social media?
00:31Why aren't you tackling the causes of mental health?
00:36Hello, good morning. What we are setting out today is an expansion of mental health support teams.
00:41So up to a million more young people will be able to access that support in school,
00:45which I know is really important.
00:47In terms of the question you ask around the use of social media and smartphones,
00:51where it comes to schools that I am responsible for, I am clear that phones have got no place in schools,
00:57they are disruptive, they shouldn't be there and schools have my full backing in taking action.
01:02But as you suggest, I know that a lot of parents worry about what happens beyond the school gate
01:07and about what young people can be exposed to online.
01:10That is why with Ofcom we are taking action to make sure that dangerous content is taken down.
01:14And of course there is more that we are keeping under a view, more that we will need to do to protect young people online.
01:19But I mean a lot of people would look at this and say why focus on mental health and spend money on that.
01:26I mean I know it is important, but wouldn't people rather you are spending more money on teachers,
01:32more money on building schools, more money on those sorts of issues, proper educational issues
01:37and dealing with a mental health crisis, which I mean not everyone agrees is there,
01:42at least not to the scale it is being reported.
01:44We are doing all of that, but it is an important priority for parents to make sure their children are getting the support that they need,
01:53especially after the pandemic, which did have a big impact on young people's mental health.
01:57But mental health, you know, wanting young people to be happy and safe and well is an important thing in and of itself.
02:03But actually, when you look at the educational impact, the link between poor mental health and poor school attendance,
02:09I think it demonstrates why it is necessary to take action, because if you are not going to school on a regular basis,
02:14it has a lifelong impact, you know, there is clear evidence about the impact it has around getting good GCSEs,
02:21about how much you earn later on in life, and that is why it is important to take action around support for young people
02:26where it comes to mental health, because it makes a big difference to their educational outcomes.
02:30There are absolutely, there is masses of strong evidence linking attendance with success and also poor mental health
02:37with poor attendance, but there is not strong evidence on mental health interventions in school.
02:42And in fact, a report by the Department of Education in February this year, just a few months ago, on the effectiveness of
02:48mental health interventions in school said that they are not cost effective, they raise more issues than they solve, and that careful
02:54consideration should be given to unintended consequences. And in fact, a study from Cambridge University a couple of years ago
03:00showed that actually mental health interventions in schools can worsen teen mental health just because teens spend too long
03:07thinking about their internal problems, giving them labels. Why are you convinced that there is evidence that these
03:12kind of interventions will make things better and not worse, as the evidence suggests?
03:16The mental health support teams that we are expanding are NHS teams, so they use evidence-based interventions,
03:23where the evidence is clear about the effectiveness, and I think the other study that you're talking about...
03:27But I'm sorry to cut in, there is not strong evidence for these kind of interventions for mental health
03:33talking therapies with teens at full stop. There is not strong evidence that they improve the situation.
03:39So I think what you're also talking about in the second study I was just going to come on to say is what the kind of
03:45wider approach that can be sometimes taken where it's not quite so evidence-based, where the evidence-based
03:49isn't as strong around effectiveness. And in terms of the report that was carried out into the impact of
03:55previous waves of mental health support teams, there were challenges that were identified.
03:59It's why we do commission, why governments do commission research projects to understand the impact.
04:05And we've addressed some of that prior to wider rollout. So we've taken on board some of the issues that were flagged.
04:09We are addressing them. But these are trained NHS professionals using evidence-based approaches to
04:15support young people. And I think the important question around mental health, and you both talk there
04:21about labels and how we approach this, it's about, I think, all of us being able to be open about the
04:26struggles we might sometimes face. You know, life has its ups and downs. It's why today I've been talking,
04:31alongside the health secretary, about how we build up a sense of resilience and grit in our young
04:36people so that they are, you know, really well placed to navigate what can be quite a complex and
04:41difficult world sometimes for young people. Yeah, but it's no more difficult and complex than it was
04:46than it has ever been. I mean, the challenges have changed, things have changed, but it's always been
04:51difficult for young people. So why is it now that people had a bit of determination, a bit of resilience, a bit of
04:58grit in the past, and they don't now? Because, I mean, the way you talk about it and the way other
05:03people talk about it, sounds like anyone under the age of about 18 is, frankly, falling apart.
05:12No, far from it. I think it's a good thing that adults and young people alike can be more open about how
05:17we feel, where we might be struggling about life's ups and downs. That is, you know, part of the human
05:21condition. But it is important to put support in place around that. And we did go through the
05:26pandemic that had a really profound and lasting impact on many young people who missed out on some
05:31quite big and important milestones in their lives and spent lots of time away from friends, a lot of
05:36time out of school, not able to do many of the normal things associated with childhood. And I think
05:40that has had an impact. So you ask, you know, what's changed? What's the difference? You know, I think
05:44there are differences. And, you know, we were just talking there about social media, about the online
05:48world, again, another, you know, very big difference to how things were when I was growing up.
05:52Indeed, things have changed enormously. One of the big things that's changed is the
05:56levels of family breakdown. Britain is now has epidemic levels of family breakdown
06:00compared to even other Western countries. And that is one of the causes of poor
06:05mental health for teens. What is the government doing about that?
06:11Yeah, I understand the pressures it can cause. I just tried with a bit of care in terms of
06:17making judgment around people's family and their circumstances. I was brought up by
06:22my mum on her own. We were a single parent family. We were a very happy and loving family.
06:27And families do come in different shapes.
06:29Actually, nobody is denying that many, many single parents do an absolutely brilliant job.
06:32I do recognise that family breakdown... Well, I do recognise that family breakdown can have a
06:38serious impact on young people. It's why we are putting more support in place as a government to back
06:43families. But I do think fundamentally it is a question of people making decisions about
06:48family shape and size, about what is right for them. And I just do tread with a bit of
06:53care in sounding like we are making, you know, I would not want to sound like I am
06:56making a judgment and what people determine is the right thing for them.
07:00All right. Can we ask you a question before you have to go about Albania? The
07:04Prime Minister is there. There is a European meeting today. There is a big Brexit reset on
07:08Monday. All of this. It was heralded, at least on the QT to the media, that these
07:13return hubs might be something that we would see happening with Albania. And of
07:18course, that has fallen flat on its face. So what is the government's plan when it
07:22comes to dealing with illegal migrants? We are in discussions with a number of
07:27countries about return hubs. Albania was not one of those countries. That was never on the
07:31table for discussion. Because we know the long-standing position of the Albanian
07:33government, which is a big part of the government, which is a big part of the
07:35Albanian government, which is that they have an agreement already with Italy and that is
07:40exclusive. But return hubs are only one part of what we are doing. We are seeing record
07:44levels of deportations of those who have no right to be in this country and it is right
07:48that they are returned. We are also deporting more foreign national offenders. Again, people
07:51who have served their time, have committed crimes and have no right to remain here in the
07:54UK. So all of that is up. We are taking action as a government. But we have inherited a
07:58system where people were being left for years on end without their cases being processed.
08:03Instead, we had the Rwanda gimmick that did absolutely nothing. We have put that
08:07money into more enforcement and on processing cases much more quickly so that if
08:11people have got no right to be here, they are removed from this country. Can I
08:15just ask you briefly, because you mentioned returning offenders once they have
08:18served their sentence. Why wait until they have served their sentence? Because it
08:22would clear out about 10,000 prison spaces, which we desperately need, wouldn't it?
08:28We do need more prison spaces and we are going to build more prison spaces because the
08:32prisons are pretty much almost a bursting point. There is a balance here because equally
08:36I think victims would want to be confident that offenders are doing this.
08:40There is a balance here with the L.D.
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