The Youth Assembly launched its ‘Big Youth Survey’ in January 2024. The survey was sent out to young people aged 11-21 years old in schools and youth organisations across Northern Ireland. The Youth Assembly debated the top ten topics from the survey during their second plenary in February 2024, and chose their committees based on a vote. This resulted in the formation of the Youth Assembly Education, Health, and Rights and Equality Committees.
After their plenary, the Committees met with Participation Officers from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) and held a planning day where they participated in capacity building workshops and activities. They decided on their chosen topic ‘Mental Health.’ In the months that followed, they examined research reports, frameworks and studies to help inform their understanding.
In August 2024, they held a Youth Assembly Committee Stakeholder Day during which they heard evidence from experts such as the Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland, officials from the Department of Health and the Department of Education, and a NI Assembly Research Officer.
Later in the year, they decided to take further evidence from the Education and Training Inspectorate and the Minister for Health.
In March 2025, the committee hosted a youth mental health stakeholder day in Parliament Buildings, to explore young people’s lived experiences of mental health stigma, mental health provision in schools, and the idea of a ‘mentally healthy’ school.
The Committee have developed the following recommendations:
The Youth Assembly was established in June 2021. The current 90 Youth Assembly Members took their seats in October 2023. At the time of recruitment, they were in school years 9-12 which is approximately age 12-16. They are a diverse group. Membership includes young people from every constituency and recruitment was designed to ensure proportionate representation of Section 75 categories including gender, religious background, race, sexuality, disability, and young people with caring responsibilities. In addition, there is proportionate representation of young people with care experience and those in receipt of Free School Meals.
The Youth Assembly was established to perform three functions:
The Youth Assembly Members established three committees for their focus in this mandate. These are Education, Health, and Rights and Equality.
The Youth Assembly’s Health Committee was formed in March 2024. There are also two other committees in the Youth Assembly – the Education Committee and the Rights and Equality Committee.
The Committees were formed following the Youth Assembly’s Big Youth Survey which asked young people aged 11-21 years old, about the issues which matter the most to them and what would they like the Youth Assembly to focus on during their mandate. The Big Youth Survey went live in January 2024 and overall, it received nearly 1800 responses from young people all across Northern Ireland. The Youth Assembly debated the top ten issues from the survey:
Members voted on their top three issues from this list and those topics formed their committees – Education, Health, and Rights and Equality Committees.
In May 2024, the Health Committee attended a committee planning day. They participated in workshops and discussion-based activities to decide what issues were the most pressing. They also looked back at the Big Youth Survey to see what other concerns young people had.
The issues they considered included:
They finally decided to examine mental health provision is schools across Northern Ireland due to the stigma still attached to mental health in young people. They felt that mental health support varied in schools across Northern Ireland, and they wanted to have the opportunity to learn more about mental health in school.
The Committee began their research by compiling summaries of reports and frameworks relating to mental health in schools. They shared their findings with each other during their monthly online committee meetings. Please see a list below of the research they compiled during this time:
Mental Health Framework, Department of Education, 2021.[1]
Independent Review of Education, 2023.[2]
Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031, Department of Health.[3]
Youth Wellness Hub, Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership.[4]
Being Well Doing Well, Education Authority.[5]
REACH, Education Authority.[6]
Text a Nurse, Public Health Agency and the Department of Education.[7]
Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools (EWTS), Department of Education. [8]
The Attach Programme (TAP), Education Authority.[9]
Healthy Happy Minds (Primary Schools), Education Authority.
‘Still waiting’ report from the Northern Ireland Commission for Children and Young People, 2018.[10]
‘Mental Health Matters’ report from the Secondary Students’ Union of Northern Ireland (SSUNI), 2021.[11]
NIA Public Accounts Committee on Mental Health, 2024.[12]
Elephant in the Room, Belfast Youth Forum, Belfast City Council, 2018.[13]
The Northern Ireland Assembly All-Party Group on Mental Health – Executive Summary Report of the Inquiry into Mental Health Education and Early Intervention in Schools, 2024.
These recommendations focus on making mental health services for children and young people more accessible, better funded, and more joined-up with education and community support.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child Concluding observations on the combined sixth and seventh periodic reports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, CRC/C/GBR/CO/6-7, 2023.[15]
In August 2024, the Committee hosted a Stakeholder Day in Parliament Buildings, where they took evidence from experts. They met with:
They listened to their presentations and asked questions to get a better understanding of mental health provision in schools across Northern Ireland. After this meeting, Members wanted to meet with other experts to further their understanding.
The Committee met with the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) in November 2024. During this session, they met with the following senior officials to discuss the inspection process for emotional health and wellbeing in schools:
The ETI’s Whole School Wellbeing Report 2018, presented by Faustina Graham, Chief Inspector, focused on the framework’s four key objectives: Integrity, Objectivity, Honesty, and Impartiality, all aimed at championing children and young people’s right to a good education. Ms Graham emphasised the importance of a positive KS4 curriculum that aims to make pupils “Happy, learning, and succeeding” while fostering individual development and contributing to society, the economy, and the environment.
The presentation highlighted the five core questions used to inspect schools:
These questions are supported by nine contributory areas including curriculum, health, wellbeing, safety, and learner participation. Ms Graham also discussed the role of learner participation through pupil questionnaires and focus groups, mentioning that 2,000 responses had been collected from 11 schools this year, and 14,500 responses to a survey on new RSE guidance.
During the Q&A session, Ms Graham and her team stressed the importance of mental health in learning, noting that poor mental health impacts learning outcomes. She also discussed the challenges of measuring mental health, highlighting that each school is unique, and suggested using initiatives like the Schools of Sanctuary Award or a “happy schools” index as potential tools to measure and foster school happiness.
The meeting with the Minister of Health focused on discussing the state of mental health provision in schools across Northern Ireland. Key points included the growing recognition of mental health as a critical factor influencing student well-being and academic performance. The Minister acknowledged the increasing demand for mental health support services within schools, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced by children and young people in accessing timely and adequate care.
The discussion highlighted current initiatives aimed at addressing mental health needs, including the integration of mental health education into the curriculum and the availability of school-based counselling services. However, concerns were raised regarding the inconsistency in mental health service delivery across schools and the lack of specialised resources in some areas. The Minister recognised the need for a more coordinated approach and better training for school staff to support students’ mental health.
Additionally, the importance of early intervention and prevention was emphasised, with calls for more funding and a streamlined referral process for students requiring external support. The Minister confirmed that improving mental health provision in schools is a priority for the department and committed to exploring further strategies, including collaboration with local health services and other educational bodies, to enhance support for students.
Overall, the meeting highlighted the need for more comprehensive, accessible, and consistent mental health services in schools to ensure that every child and young person has the support they need to thrive.
References
[1] Children & Young People s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework (final version).PDF
[2] Investing in a Better Future | Independent Review of Education
[3] doh-mhs-children-and-young-people-version_0.pdf
[4] International Indicators of Social Determinants October 2024 FINAL.docx.pdf
[5] Being Well Doing Well Programme | Education Authority Northern Ireland
[6] REACH Programme | Education Authority Northern Ireland
[7] New Text-a-Nurse advice service for young people | Department of Education
[8] Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools (EWTS) – DOH/HSCNI Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG)
[9] The Attach Programme | Education Authority Northern Ireland
[10] ‘Still Waiting’ – A Rights Based Review of Mental Health Services and Support for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland – Niccy
[11] Website expired.
[12] Public Accounts Committee – Report on Mental Health Services in Northern Ireland
[13] EITR Background – Northern Ireland Youth Forum
In March 2025, the committee hosted a Mental Health Stakeholder Day for young people to explore their experiences of mental health in general and in school. They constructed a day of workshops to be able to enhance their understanding. There were 47 young people aged 12-18 in attendance from across Northern Ireland from the following organisations:
The following icebreakers and workshops were held in order to achieve this:
The following report will examine each icebreaker and workshop to help understand the responses from the young people who attended on the day.
To start off the day, all young people were split into groups and given an envelope with possible causes of mental health for young people. Their task was to rank the possible causes of mental ill health on a large sheet of paper and add any that were not included that they felt were important to them.
The main findings highlighted the top issue for each group (Table of results in Appendix 1):
The only other different potential causes that were listed in their top three that were different were:
In this activity, Youth Assembly Members had a list of reports, frameworks, and programmes in schools that they discovered from their research and speaking to the experts.
They read each one out and explained a little about them and asked their groups to say whether or not they were aware of them. See below for results:
Examining the table (Appendix 2), the majority of young people in attendance were not aware of most of the reports, frameworks, and programmes of support that are available. This may be understandable in some cases, such as the ‘Independent Education Review,’ however, others could be made more available and awareness could be higher, such as ‘Text a Nurse’ or the ‘Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools.’
In this workshop, there were large pieces of flipchart paper positioned around the walls of the room and on each page, there was a statement. Please see below for the series of statements posed to the young people:
The statements were carefully constructed by Health Committee members and had a mixture of positive and negative statements, in order not to sway their opinions.
Once the young people were made aware of the statements around the room, they were handed an envelope with coloured dots inside. Their task was to walk around the room, read the statements and place a dot on each page. If they placed the dot towards the top of the page, they agreed with it. If they placed the dot towards the bottom of the page, they disagreed with the statement. Therefore, their responses became a spectrum.
Statement 1: There is still stigma around mental health.
Most young people in attendance agreed with this statement.
Statement 2: Young People suffer more stigma around mental health than adults.
Most young people agree that young people suffer more than adults, though some did disagree suggesting that young people felt that mental health affects all regardless of age.
Statement 3: Stigma is caused by social media.
The young people’s responses were quite mixed on this statement as the young people could see the positive and negative aspects of social media use and the effects on their mental health. They portrayed this through writing some of their reasons for this on the paper:
Statement 4: Most young people are scared to talk about mental health with their peers.
Once again, the young people’s responses were rather mixed on this statement. They stated that they have had different experiences of talking with their friends or peers about their own mental health.
Statement 5: We could talk more about mental health, if there were more spaces/ places to talk about it.
Most agreed with this statement. During a debrief, some young people spoke about their positive experiences of a dedicated place within school, such as a mobile classroom, specifically designed as a space for mental health. There is also a comment on the sheet, which states ‘well-being hub,’ which indicates a need or want for this space for some young people.
Statement 6: Stigma around mental health is caused by our peers.
This statement was rather mixed in response again. During a debrief, the young people spoke about the effect of bullying and the pressures on young people from their peers at times.
Statement 7: Some young people would worry if people found out if I was seeing a counsellor for my mental health.
Most young people strongly agreed with this statement, which relates to the first statement about stigma and mental health in young people. We can intimate that young people still worry about how other people would view them if they knew they were attending counselling in school.
Statement 8: Young people feel comfortable talking about mental health in school.
Most young people strongly disagreed with this statement, and some were undecided suggesting that young people don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health within the school environment. Also, two young people commented on the page: ‘It’s my Maths Teacher,’ meaning they taught Personal Development in school and did not feel they felt equipped to talk about it. Another comment states, ‘Teachers/ schools make no effort.’ Albeit it is one young person’s experience, but they felt strongly enough about it to comment.
Statement 9: Young people are not afraid of being judged by having a mental health problem.
Most young people either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement implying that stigma still surrounds mental health for young people.
Statement 10: Stigma can be caused by not knowing about mental health issues.
The majority of young people agreed with this statement. There was also a comment written on the top of the page that states: ‘lack of awareness or talks given about mental health in schools.’ This comment and the result suggest that young people may not know enough about mental health issues, therefore contributing to the stigma surrounding mental health for young people.
Statement 11: Teachers take mental health seriously.
This statement resulted in a mixed response, as most were either unsure or disagreed to some level. We might intimate that this response was based on their own experiences. There were also a few comments written on the sheet: 1. Is it a teacher’s responsibility? 2. Well-being team? 3. Mental health impact on education – being flexible with it – maybe a training need? 4. School refusing.
Statement 12: Young people feel awkward going to see a counsellor in school.
Most young people with agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. It could suggest that this also relevant to the question on stigma attached to mental health for young people. There were also a few comments written on the sheet: 1. Don’t know the person 2. Self-refer vs seeing teaching first 3. No confidence as the information is shared.
The Members of the Youth Assembly Health Committee wanted to hear about young people’s experiences of services within schools. In this workshop, they decided they would like to create anonymous responses, so that young people would not feel stigmatised in responding among their peers. Therefore, they created a Mentimeter quiz, where they would pose questions, and the young people would answer on their phones. The results were shown in real time.
For reference purposes, the scale below is as follows: Strongly disagree = 1; Disagree = 2; Don’t know/Not sure = 3; Agree = 4; and Strongly Agree = 5.
In the above answer, we can see that the majority of young people were aware of a school counsellor in their school. However, 11 young people had a mixture of answers ranging from strongly disagree, disagree and don’t know/not sure.
In contrast to the first question about school counsellors being on school grounds, we can see in this question, about whether those services were good, there was a mixed response. 22 young people strongly disagreed or disagreed with this statement. Whereas 13 young people were not aware, and this is possibly that they may not have any experience of counselling in school, or we could intimate that they have nothing else to compare it to. Finally, only 11 young people either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.
The response to the statement that waiting lists are too long was mixed. 19 young people either strongly agreed or agreed with this statement, whereas 15 young people did not know or were not sure. This could suggest that they have no experience of counselling in school. Lastly, 12 young people disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement.
Regarding the ease of getting out of class to see a counsellor, the response was mixed. Only 16 young people agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. 23 young people disagreed or strongly disagreed suggesting that they do find it difficult to get out to see a counsellor during class time.
We asked the group of young people about spaces within schools to talk about mental health as our committee felt this was an important part of adequate mental health support. The majority of young people either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this. A low number of 7 young people were not sure which may suggest that they have no experience of this kind of support. Only 9 young people either agreed or strongly agreed with that there are adequate spaces in schools to talk about mental health.
Less than half of the young people agreed or strongly agreed that there are supports other than counselling in their school and 18 young people either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. 5 young people were unaware of any other supports in their school besides counselling services. We wanted to find out the different types of supports in schools. Therefore, we asked the group of young people the following question: What additional supports are in your school, if any? Please see below for a summary of their responses:
Well-being groups/prefects/Well-being groups – 14
Teachers/Pastoral Support Teams – 13
A dedicated room/area – 17
Nothing – 5
SENCO – 3
Poster – 1
Sports Teams – 1
Youth Workers – 1
Drop-in Mental Health Sessions – 1
This question gave a very mixed response from the group. 14 young people either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement and 11 young people were unsure, suggesting that there is poor awareness in some schools. 19 young people agreed or strongly agreed that there were teachers trained in emotional health and well-being.
Most young people were unsure, disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement asking if they were aware if their school had a mental health strategy, framework or policy. Overall, 11 young people knew that their school had a mental health strategy, framework or policy. We suggest that schools may need to make their pupils more aware of their policies where they exist.
Most young people agreed with this statement as 31 out of 47 either agreed or strongly agreed that their school will signpost pupils to other organisations that support mental health. This could also suggest that schools may prefer or feel better equipped to signpost rather than have supports in schools. It could also suggest that it is better for young people to be signposted to professional organisations who are specifically set-up to deal with mental health issues.
There was a mixed response from the group in relation to the availability of a self-referral scheme for counselling. 20 young people agreed or strongly agreed that they were aware that they could self-refer themselves for counselling. 14 young people disagreed or strongly agreed which suggests that the service is not available in their school. Finally, 8 young people were unsure. Perhaps they are either not aware or may not have used the service in school.
Around a third of the young people either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement intimating that they have peer support, well-being groups or prefects in school. 16 young people disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement suggesting they have no peer support in their school. And finally, 8 young people were unsure meaning they possibly were unaware of this type of support in their school.
The majority of young people stated there were mental health workshops in their school. However, the question does not ask in what format this takes place (Learning for Life and Work (LLW) lessons, school assemblies, one-off workshops from outside organisations or through dedicated programmes in schools). 13 young people disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement suggesting that there have been no mental health workshops available to them so far in their school experience.
Almost half the group disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that mental health is taken seriously in their school. 15 young people felt that it was taken seriously in their school, and 8 young people were unsure.
In this workshop, the Youth Assembly staff asked the young people in their groups to create a drawing of a ‘mentally healthy school’. They were given 40 minutes to plan and make suggestions which would make school better for young people’s mental health. They spent time drawing and making notes on their sheet. Afterwards, they fed this back to the whole room and explained their choices.
The next section will show their drawings of an ideal school for mental health with explanations on each.
Drawing 1
This drawing depicts an ideal school for mental health, talking about mental health assemblies, a ‘zen den’ in which to relax, fully trained teachers in mental health support, a mental health professional such as a nurse and peer support. This group also listed a few other elements to add to a mentally healthy school:
Drawing 2
This group decided to draw a school and write their recommendations for an ideal school around it. Some responses include:
Drawing 3
This group have depicted their school in a similar manner to the previous group by drawing a school and writing their suggestions around it. A summary of the responses include:
Drawing 4
This group wrote suggestions but also focused on overall themes such as ‘Welcome school and community hub,’ which invokes a sense of the school not just being seen in isolation but as a part of a wider community. A summary of their responses include:
Drawing 5
This group did not draw a school, but they outlined their ideal school under three headings: Mental health, Sport and Education. See below for a summary of their responses under these three headings:
Mental health:
Sports:
Education:
Having examined the research, spoken to the experts and the ‘experts by experience’ (young people themselves), the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly Health Committee proposes the following recommendations in relation to mental health provision in schools:
Thank you to all the organisations who took part in our Youth Mental Health Stakeholder event in March 2025. A special thank you to the young people and their supporting adults in the following organisations:
We would also like to take the opportunity to thank those who gave evidence at the Committee Stakeholder Day in August 2024. They are:
In advance of our presentation and publication, we would like to take the opportunity thank the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt MLA and the Northern Ireland Assembly Health Committee for their time and consideration.
Topic | Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 | Group 5 | Group 6 | Group 7 |
Alcohol | 13 | 19 | 17 | – | 13 | 10 | 12 |
Bullying | 9 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 6 |
Childhood trauma | 3 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 3 |
Covid | 17 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 17 |
Drugs | 14 | 20 | 18 | – | 12 | 9 | 15 |
Eating disorders | 18 | 16 | 4 | – | 8 | 13 | 8 |
Exams | 12 | 7 | 12 | – | 4 | 2 | 11 |
Family | 4 | 1 | 7 | – | 2 | 16 | 2 |
Friends | 11 | 13 | 8 | – | 18 | 17 | 9 |
Gender/Sexuality issues | 5 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 14 | – |
Identity | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 10 |
Isolation/loneliness | 1 | 11 | 14 | – | 15 | 6 | 4 |
Mobile phones/social media | 20 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
Paramilitaries | 8 | 17 | 20 | – | 20 | 19 | 16 |
Peer pressure | 7 | 10 | 15 | – | 17 | 5 | 14 |
Poverty/money worries | 2 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 16 | 7 | 1 |
School | 10 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Stigma | 19 | 3 | 13 | – | 7 | 8 | 19 |
Vapes/Smoking | 15 | 18 | 16 | – | 14 | 11 | 13 |
Waiting lists | 16 | 12 | 10 | – | 11 | 15 | 18 |
*Group 2 also noted Autism/Neurodivergence and disabilities
*Group4 also noted generational trauma beside childhood trauma
*Group 7 also noted sexual abuse, discrimination
Which of the following have you heard of?
Programme/Report | Total | |
Yes | No | |
Mental Health Framework in Schools | 7 (17%) | 35 (83%) |
Independent Education Review | 17 (40%) | 25 (60%) |
Department of Health Mental Health Strategy | 21 (50%) | 21 (50%) |
Youth Wellness Hub | 7 (17%) | 35 (83%) |
Being Well, Doing Well (Education Authority) | 15 (36%) | 27 (64%) |
Reach (Education Authority) | 19 (45%) | 23 (55%) |
Text a Nurse | 27 (64%) | 15 (36%) |
Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools | 14 (33%) | 28 (67%) |
Attach Programme (Education Authority) | 1 (2%) | 41 (98%) |
Happy Healthy Minds (DE, Primary Schools only) | 10 (24%) | 32 (76%) |