Dear School Leader
In recent days, I’ve been shocked to read in newspapers on both sides of the political spectrum, headlines proclaiming that 7.4% of young people have attempted suicide by the age of 17.
Almost as concerning was the figure of 24.1% who have self-harmed.
These figures come from the millennium cohort study, by University College London, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry – the full report is here – and is well worth reading for the detail. Incredibly, these figures relate to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data from Smoothwall Monitor, now operational in over 648 schools around the UK, shows an increase of 250% in serious alerts in the twelve months of December 2019 to December 2020.