COURSE CONTENT AND RESOURCES
An Introduction to the Role of the Senior Mental Health Lead: Starting Out With Confidence
Getting Started
Welcome to An Introduction To The Role of the Senior Mental Health Lead: Starting Out With Confidence.
The programme is split into five parts, which will go into the principles of being an SMHL and what this means to yourself and your setting. You’ll have access to on-demand courses and content, as well as all the information you need to complete over the next six months.
Please bookmark this page and download your Core Workbook. It’s an essential document that you will refer to throughout the programme. Please ensure you download and save it. You will then be referring back to it and editing it throughout the programme.
To help you get started with the Core Workbook, we have also put together a Quick Start Guide. This covers everything from opening and saving the document to completing the audits and writing your action plan. We recommend downloading and saving this alongside your Core Workbook so you can refer back to it whenever you need it.
PROGRAMME EXPECTATIONS
Knowing what’s expected from the outset makes everything easier. Below you’ll find a clear summary of what you’ll need to complete in order to pass the course and receive your certificate.
Alongside the core requirements, we’ve also signposted a wide range of optional additional learning throughout the programme. You’re welcome to dip into as much or as little of this as feels relevant to your setting and your role.
Complete an Audit, Action Plan and Draft Provision Map
Complete All Mandatory Course Modules
Not currently within a setting?
If you are currently working within a school or educational setting, please use your own setting to complete the Setting Audit. The audit is designed to reflect your real context, and your responses will be most meaningful — and most useful to you — when they are grounded in your own experience and environment.
For those who are not currently based in a setting, we have created three fictional school profiles to support you in completing the audit as part of this course. Each profile gives you a detailed picture of a school’s current mental health provision across the eight DfE areas, with enough context to work through the audit thoughtfully. They are intentionally not straightforward — you will need to read carefully and use your professional judgement, just as you would in a real setting.
There is one profile for each of the following setting types:
- Maplewood Primary School — a maintained primary school in the East Midlands
- Ashford Academy — a secondary academy in the North West
- Birchwood School — a special school in the West Midlands, specialising in SEMH
Choose the profile that feels most relevant to the age range or setting type you are most familiar with, or most likely to work in. Download your chosen profile, read it in full before you begin, and then work through the Setting Audit in your Core Workbook using that school as your context.
Please note: Maplewood Primary School, Ashford Academy, and Birchwood School are entirely fictional settings created for training purposes only. All names, locations, staff, pupil data, and circumstances described within these profiles are imaginary. Any resemblance to real schools, individuals, or organisations is purely coincidental.
SUPPORT AND DEVELOP YOUR STAFF
Effective mental health provision requires a whole-school or college approach. To support you to support your colleagues we have developed a Staff Development Toolkit. Download the whole toolkit or review what’s available below.
Presentations
Explore a series of bite-sized presentations you can share with colleagues on INSET days and in team meetings.
Each presentation also comes with a full set of facilitator notes.
You can also use a staff skills survey to identify where there are knowledge gaps among colleagues.
Explainers
These concise summaries will give colleagues a complete understanding of a range of mental health conditions:
Helpful Resources
In addition we’ve also created a range of helpful resources, including:
- A sample mental health policy that you can edit and guidance on how to write your own
- A sample staff wellbeing survey
- A staff skills survey you can share with staff to determine development priorities
- A range of student and staff wellbeing measures you can use
Part one
Your first step is to download and save your Core Workbook, which you’ll find under Getting Started above. Once you’ve done that, head to page 5 to begin your first audit. Previous participants have found this takes around 30–45 minutes, so it’s worth setting aside a little quiet time to work through it thoughtfully.
Alongside your audit, you’re welcome to begin the first on-demand course, “More Than Happiness: A Guide To Pupil Mental Wellbeing.” You’re also welcome to dip into any of the additional learning at any point — there’s no set order for the optional content.
Please make sure you’ve completed the audit and the on-demand course before moving on to Part Two.
Part two
In Part Two, you’ll begin to explore the wider landscape of mental health provision and start thinking about how this applies specifically to your setting. The on-demand courses below are divided by setting type, so please choose the pathway that reflects where you work. Alongside these, you’ll also find a couple of self-study tasks — these are designed to help you apply your learning in a practical and meaningful way. Please complete both the courses and the self-study tasks before moving on to Part Three.
Primary and Special Schools
Secondary Schools, Alternative provision and Further Education
And complete the following self-study tasks (click the green icons)
- Review and edit your audit and action plan (it’s in your core workbook). You'll be submitting both at the end of the course, so if you wanted to check back on your audit and action plan later, you're welcome to but we strongly advise completing it at this point of the course. You don’t have to fill in every box of the action plan.
- After you have completed the Provision Mapping course, produce a draft map of the local mental health provision in your area for adults and children. Your coach will guide you. You can find some example provision maps here. Send this to your coach once completed.
- Writing Mental Health Policies – this is just an extra resource you may find useful and something to think about (it is not an expectation though to be completed)
part three
In Part Three, you’ll develop your confidence in making referrals and supporting students and adults in distress — skills that sit right at the heart of the SMHL role. Please work through the on-demand courses below before moving on to Part Four.
The following self-study task is optional. You’re welcome to complete in your own time, using the resources supported by this course.
Part four
In Part Four, you’ll deepen your knowledge of how mental health manifests differently across a range of student groups — and what this means for your practice as an SMHL. Understanding the diverse and sometimes hidden needs of the children and young people in your setting is a key part of the role, and the courses below will help you to feel more confident in recognising and responding to these. Please complete all of the on-demand courses before moving on to Part Five.
Part Five
You’ve made it to Part Five — the final stretch! This section completes your learning journey with courses that look at the wider responsibilities of the SMHL role, including supporting your staff team, working with parents and carers, and getting health education right.
Once you’ve finished the courses below, please take a moment to check you’ve completed everything across the full programme — all on-demand courses from Parts 1–5, your audit, your provision map and your action plan. If you have any questions before you submit, please do reach out. We’ll be in touch with feedback and your certificate once we’ve reviewed your work.
And complete the following self-study tasks (click on green icon)
submission
Please submit your completed core workbook containing your audit and your action plan. As well as your completed provision map to us directly at [email protected] using the subject line “SMHL Submission”.
Please allow our team time to review your work, and we will be in touch soon to confirm your course completion and certificate. As well as providing feedback on what you have accomplished throughout this course.
NEED ANY HELP?
If you have any questions about completing your Core Workbook or Action Plan, our Quick Start Guide is a great first port of call. You can find this at the top of the screen by the Core Workbook. You can also click below to access our support centre. If you can’t find your answer there, please either use our AI chatbot, Sunny, who will be in the right hand corner of the screen, or contact us directly at [email protected].