Mr. Mark Smyth:

One of the things that has come up quite a lot is the impact of schools. However, we are also very mindful of the impact on the teachers and principals of carrying all of these mental health difficulties. They are under immense stress. They worry about things happening to their pupils and being unable to get access or communicate. I will echo what our colleagues in Jigsaw have been emphasising for many years regarding the importance of one good adult. For these children, we should be supporting those teachers, year heads and guidance counsellors so that they can be that one good adult but we are expecting them to be teachers, educators and mental health support workers without support. We need to move away from a model that emphasises the psychologist doing one-on-one therapy with the child. We need to support the environment and support teachers so that they can get timely access, know how to respond and feel safe and supported in doing the work when a child comes forward looking for that help.