News
NHS rolls out new measures to help school students ‘manage stress’ during exam season
"Young people are facing more pressures than ever before."
Emily Sergeant -
12th May 2025 
In case it wasn’t on your radar, today is the start of Mental Health Awareness Week.
And coinciding with this hugely important national event, the NHS has begun helping hundreds of thousands of pupils across the UK who are sitting exams from this week to manage any stress and anxiety they may be feeling.
Almost 600 colleges and sixth form centres nationwide have NHS clinicians on site who are offering one-to-one support and workshops for students, as well as providing training for teachers on how to support pupils who may be struggling with their mental health, particularly around this time of year.
It’s believed that more than 250,000 students, between the ages of 15-18, have already received NHS help for a range of issues which can be ‘exacerbated’ by exams.
More than 250,000 students have received help from the NHS for a range of issues, from anxiety or sleep difficulties, ahead of GCSE and A Level exams.
— NHS England (@NHSEngland) May 5, 2025
Find out more about how we’re helping young people do as well as they can in their exams.
➡️ https://t.co/y43SSbcMid pic.twitter.com/t5kWON1W10
As well as preparing students for the exam period, NHS staff are also on hand throughout the year to offer them resilience training and coping strategies that can be used for the rest of their lives.
Parents and carers can also receive NHS support to make sure that young people receive consistent support, both in and out of school.
“Young people are facing more pressures than ever before,” commented Claire Murdoch, who is NHS England’s National Mental Health Director, “and we can really see that peaking at this time of year, as exam season kicks off, but the NHS is here to help.
“Hundreds of teams working in classrooms are offering specialist advice on how to manage stress and anxiety to hundreds of thousands of children taking exams.
“We know that adolescence is a crucial time of life with half of mental health disorders being present by the age of 14, so it is absolutely vital that our NHS teams are able to offer students easy access to support with the skills they learn helping them as they enter the workplace or head off to university.”
Mental Health Minister, Baroness Merron, also added: “We know a lot of young people struggle with their mental health, and early intervention is crucial, so by expanding school-based support teams nationwide, we’re bringing help directly to students and ensuring easy access when it matters most.
“Through our Plan for Change, this Government will cut waiting lists and increase access to mental health support, regardless of where young people live or their circumstances.”
Read more:
- NHS 111 service to begin offering crisis mental health support for the first time
- NHS strikes deal with private sector to cut waiting lists across the UK
- Government urges UK public to ‘help fix the NHS’
For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.
Featured Image – MChe Lee (via Unsplash)
