How do we work with CAMHS as a school?

Start with your senior mental health lead

Route CAMHS referrals through your trained senior mental health lead, agree a local protocol with your CAMHS or Mental Health Support Team, and get parent and pupil consent before you share information (England, 2026). CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services — the NHS specialist services for children’s mental health. The senior mental health lead is the role the Department for Education expects every school to appoint to build a whole-school approach to wellbeing; making one person the named point of contact stops referrals being made ad hoc and keeps the school’s decisions consistent.

Agree a local protocol — including advice, not just referrals

There is no single national CAMHS referral route. Services are locally commissioned and vary: some areas accept open or self-referrals, others only take referrals from named professionals (a GP or school nurse), and many run a single point of access. So the second step is to agree a written protocol with your local CAMHS or Mental Health Support Team (MHST) that sets out referral thresholds, the consent process, and — this is the part schools most often miss — how to get advice and consultation for a pupil who is below the referral threshold. Many specialist teams will talk a case through with school staff before any formal referral is made.

Use the graduated approach while you wait

CAMHS treats children with the most severe and complex mental health difficulties — roughly the top few per cent of need — and only around half of pupils in England are yet covered by an NHS Mental Health Support Team. A referral is not a substitute for school support. Keep delivering the graduated approach and early help while a pupil waits, recording social, emotional and mental health needs as part of SEN support. A confirmed diagnosis is not required to refer or to seek consultation; CAMHS works on need and risk.

When it is safeguarding, not a referral

Immediate risk is a safeguarding matter, not a routine referral. If a pupil discloses self-harm, suicidal intent or abuse, your designated safeguarding lead acts at once through urgent and crisis routes — NHS 111 (select the mental health option), A&E, or your local crisis line — not a standard CAMHS form. Information can be shared without consent where there is a safeguarding risk to the child, in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education. Outside those situations, consent comes first.

1. Find out whether your school is covered by an NHS Mental Health Support Team, and who your local CAMHS single point of access is.
2. Log every concern with your senior mental health lead so referrals and consultations run through one route.
3. For any immediate risk, follow your safeguarding policy and your safeguarding referral route, not the CAMHS pathway.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.