An example of practice: The Regis School

Development of the senior mental health lead, case study in leadership and management.

This case study shows how The Regis School strengthened its approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing through strategic leadership and management of resources.

Background

The Regis School is a large secondary school in Bognor Regis with 1,665 pupils from year 7 to year 13. Of these pupils, 24% are eligible for free school meals, 16% speak English as an additional language and 17% have special educational needs. The school is part of the United Learning Academy Trust.

Debs Robson is the school’s Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) and has held the role for about 5 years. During this time, she has worked with colleagues across the school to raise the profile of mental health and emotional wellbeing and to improve how the school leads this area of support.

When Debs became the Senior Mental Health Lead, she completed the SMHL training with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families through a government grant scheme.

After finishing the course, it became clear that the school’s leadership team needed to prioritise mental health. This was important not only for safeguarding and pupils’ health, but also because good wellbeing is strongly linked to better academic results.

The 3 key elements to the leadership and management of mental health and emotional wellbeing are:

  • The Regis School was one of the first schools to join Thought‑Full, West Sussex’s Mental Health Support Teams in schools, in 2020. The school used the MHST model to develop its own internal mental health team.

    Because pupil mental health needs have increased, the school now funds its Wellbeing and Safeguarding team through its central budget. The team includes the Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL), a Child and Family Mental Health Keyworker and a counsellor.

    In January 2026, the school also appointed a new safeguarding assistant officer to respond to rising mental health‑related safeguarding needs. This has allowed the school to carry out more wellbeing check‑ins and respond more quickly when concerns arise, including offering support, signposting and referrals to mental health services.

    The school had previously employed a counsellor, but it created the Child and Family Mental Health Keyworker role to improve work with parents and carers and strengthen support for pupils.

    Schools that want to identify their own needs can use the West Sussex Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Reflective Tool and the Whole School and College Approach Implementation Self‑Assessment Tool.

    The Child and Family Mental Health Keyworker works closely with families to make sure support continues at home, especially during school holidays. They also provide cognitive behavioural therapy sessions, complete referrals to external services and act as the main contact for the MHST.

    The wellbeing team share an office to support good communication and hold a weekly triage meeting to discuss pupils’ needs and agree the right support, intervention or referral.

    Alongside the 3 core team members, the school has a growing group of trained Mental Health First Aiders. This group has increased from 8 staff to 22 staff, including 18 with a Level 2 qualification and 3 with a Level 3 qualification. 5 pupils are also trained Mental Health First Aiders and more will be trained next year.

  • The headteacher has played an important part in making mental health a priority, with a strong focus on staff wellbeing.

    The school has created and embedded a staff wellbeing charter that sets out its approach to supporting everyone. The charter says:

    “Just as we seek to provide the best education and opportunities for the children and young people in our schools, we want the very best for colleagues too, ensuring everyone feels valued, appreciated and able to thrive at work.”

    The charter has 3 strands, which are:

    • culture matters
    • time matters
    • support matters

    The charter clearly states how the school is structured to support staff, including elements such as:

    • high visible presence of senior leaders
    • staff voice
    • a “no-guilt” culture around times staff need to leave the school premises at the end of the day
    • co-planning
    • access to counselling
    • 9 Inset days a year to ensure that staff receive relevant and meaningful CPD

    There is also a dedicated staff wellbeing lead (separate from the SMHL) who organises staff wellbeing and social events, as well as “thank you” initiatives.

    The school also has access to a wider framework of support available through the United Learning academy trust, which grants access to a large online wellbeing resource, as well as providing support for SMHLs with an annual conference for those leading mental health provision across the trust’s schools.

  • The Regis School has run a Mental Health Ambassadors programme for 5 years. 21 ambassadors from across the school are led by senior ambassadors from the sixth form leadership team.

    Ambassadors can also gain a recognised qualification as a Mental Health First Aider.

    The leadership team meets every week and the full group meets every 2 weeks.

    Their activities include:

    • creating a pupil wellbeing survey
    • applying for funding from the Local Community Network to support their work
    • running the school’s wellbeing provision at break and lunchtime

    In autumn 2025, the ambassadors will launch after‑school mindfulness meet‑ups in response to pupil feedback. The SMHL and ambassadors will run the sessions together, offering activities, inviting external professionals and giving pupils chances to try new things that support practical, physical and cognitive skills.

    The next step is to raise more funds for a permanent wellbeing space in the school and a community bench.

Outcomes

It is difficult to measure the impact of how the school leads and manages its wellbeing support, but the school’s direction is clear. Attendance is above the average for West Sussex and for England.

The school also has fewer suspensions and exclusions than the West Sussex and national averages for secondary schools.

Advice for schools

Schools wishing to develop their leadership and management of mental health and emotional wellbeing should have a really clear direction of where you want to go and an agenda to bring to senior leadership. It is really important to have patience, things take time to embed - choose one thing to change at a time and do that one thing well.

References