Minutes:
The Chair announced that one question had been submitted jointly by Councillors E and L Mavin.
The subject matter was very important but also very sad, which some may find upsetting.
Councillor L Mavin said that suicide was the biggest killer of all people under the age of 35 and three quarters of these were male. The North East had the highest rate of suicide in England. Three months ago, our 19-year-old nephew took his own life. The three Dads walking came together after their daughters took their own lives and had walked hundreds of miles over the last year across the UK to raise awareness of suicide and to ensure the topic was spoken about in schools in a safe and age -appropriate way. She asked Cabinet member for Children and Young People and the Cabinet member for Adult and Health Services to write to the Secretary of State for Education to request that she ensured suicide awareness and prevention was a compulsory part of the RHSE curriculum, to raise the profile and reduce the stigma of suicide? People don’t die from talking about suicide, they die because we don’t talk about it.
The Chair passed on condolences on behalf of the Council to this young man’s family and friends in these very tragic circumstances.
The Chair would not usually allow any further speeches or discussion in relation to questions from Members, however, felt it appropriate to allow Councillor E Mavin to say a few words.
Councillor E Mavin reflected on the devastating loss and said that if his nephew had shared his burden that we may not have been here talking about this today.
Councillor C Kay reflected on his own journey and the help that had been given to him by the Crisis Team and that by talking about it did help. He offered his condolences to the family.
The Chair invited Cabinet Portfolio Holder of Adult and Health Services, Councillor Chris Hood, to respond to the question.
Councillor Hood passed on his sincere condolences to the family while they were mourning their loss and that they were right when stating that people died when not talking about suicide. He thanked them both for their courage in bringing this forward for the Council’s attention.
Despite the work of partners across the system, County Durham continued to experience one of the highest rates of suicide in the country and behind the statistics each individual was a tragic loss of life with a profound impact on all those left behind. Good mental health, wellbeing and resilience were key protective factors to support suicide prevention. This area was one of the four priorities for the Health and Wellbeing Board, identified in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy, published last year. Whilst suicide in children was thankfully rare, every case was one too many, and it was known that promotion of effective resilience mechanisms and positive mental wellbeing at a young age provided a sound foundation as children move to adulthood. It was therefore vital that young people received appropriate information guidance and, where needed, individual support. Teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing was a requirement as part of statutory Health Education, ‘to enable pupils to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, to understand the links between physical and mental health, to recognise problems in themselves or others and to seek support when needed.’ Within County Durham a tailored whole school approach around the mental wellbeing of children and young people, based on self-assessed need was promoted. Over 75% of schools in County Durham now had a Senior Mental Health Lead as part of their senior leadership teams. A range of interventions were available to schools including Youth Aware Mental Health (YAM), The Durham Resilience Programme, Anxious about schools and Critical Incidents Loss & Bereavement. Every school had Resilience Nurse provision which included the delivery of a number of group and 1:1 sessions within schools for low level mental health. Schools also had access to the Educational Psychologist teams and school counselling service. In addition, schools were encouraged to sign up to R;pple which identified young people who searched for methods of suicide using school computers signposting them to help and support that was available. Support to upskill school staff was also in place through the implementation of the RSHE quality framework, a whole school approach to delivering RSHE, alongside measures such as peer mentors and Emotional Health and Wellbeing Forums.
Councillor Hood added that from May 2024 and July 2024, the Department for Education held a public consultation on proposed changes to the statutory Relationship, Sex, Health, and Education (RSHE) guidance. The consultation sought the views on how sensitive and complex subjects were taught in an age-appropriate way and proposed the addition of new subjects to the curriculum, including suicide prevention. The outcome of this consultation and subsequent revised guidance for education settings had not yet been published. As the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people was of great importance to us all, he confirmed that he would write to the Secretary of State requesting a further update on the outcome of the consultation, and urged her to ensure that suicide prevention was added to the statutory curriculum as an outcome of the review.