New to the Role of the Senior Mental Health Lead

Senior mental health lead is often a hat you wear on top of two or three others. The job is big, the need is bigger, and it's hard to know where to put your first hour.

You'll sort colleagues into allies, listeners and naysayers, hand the keen ones a real job, and win round the sceptics by linking your work to what they care about, such as a Year 9 pupil's GCSE grade. Find a governor to champion mental health, and train your frontline staff first. Treat your interventions like a researcher would: decide what you'll measure, and when you'll stop something that isn't working, however much it cost.

It's led by a child mental health expert who helped write the government's description of the role. Your own wellbeing is part of the plan too, including the weeks when everyone's worn out, like the third week in November.