UPDATE 30
12 September 2026
Dear Supporter
Welcome back after the summer break! It’s time to go back to school now and in her latest piece Competence, Confidence and Community: Is Michaela the answer to the ‘mental health crisis’?
Lucy Beney reports on her visit to Michaela School.
Here are the other topics we’re covering:
· Bin the Bill coalition unites campaigners
· Calls for NHS therapists to educate clients
· Radical queer pedagogy in Welsh schools
· The Great ADHD Myth?
· Sharp rise in young children attending A&E for mental health crises
COMING SOON:
Ripped Apart –
Cancel Culture:
The Costs to Mental Health
Competence, Confidence and Community:
Is Michaela the answer to the ‘mental health crisis?
Lucy Beney received a personal invitation from Katharine Birbalsingh to visit Michaela School. You can read an account of Lucy’s experiences and the insights she gained from her visit in her latest fascinating article here.
‘Bin the Bill’ coalition unites campaigners
An energetic new coalition, called Bin the Bill, has hit the ground running, to fight the draft Conversion Practices Bill on every front possible. Within the group, there are representatives from various organisations – including LGB Alliance, the Bayswater Group, CAN-SG, Thoughtful Therapists, Transgender Trend and Genspect – and other big hitters such as Claire Fox, Helen Joyce, Maya Forstater, Sarah Phillimore and Fiona McAnena. The first ‘lobby day’, organised by LGB Alliance, took place at the Houses of Parliament on 1st September. There are plans to lobby the draft bill’s cross-party Parliamentary scrutiny committee, attend the political party conferences, write articles, hold demonstrations and do a lot of ‘street terfing’. The website is linked here, and offers a lot of campaign material for download, all of which reflects the concerns of different groups whose member are likely to be very adversely impacted, should the draft bill become law.
Calls for NHS therapists to educate clients
Nick Wallis, the journalist who exposed the Post Office scandal, has written a scathing piece in his Gender Blog about the proposed new standards to be introduced by the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapies (BABCP). The BABCP regulates CBT therapists working in the NHS and elsewhere. It has more than 23,000 members. Its new standards require therapists to “actively promote inclusion” during therapy sessions and to “ensure that any discriminatory attitudes and behaviours are challenged” when expressed by patients. In the article, several BABCP members raise concerns about the implications of these requirements. Wallis also mentions concerns raised by Carole Sherwood, of Save Mental Health about the BABCP’s Climate Change Guide. The final draft Standards will go to the BABCP board for approval in September before being voted on by members later this autumn.
Radical queer pedagogy in Welsh schools
Genspect has published a detailed exposé, researched and written by Ben Sears, of the destructive influence that Professor Emma Renold has had on education in Wales. In 2017, Renold was brought in to lead reform of mandatory Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) for 3-11 year olds. Sears believes that understanding her influence “is key to understanding the profound and destabilising effect the education system may be having on Welsh children through their understanding of themselves and society”. Changes to the RSE curriculum reflect Renold’s ambition to “queer childhood” and her belief that “education should actively unsettle what school’s treat as normal or natural, particularly binary ideas about sex and gender, heterosexuality, traditional family structures, and fixed identities”.
The Great ADHD Myth?
On 18th August, Channel 4 aired a new documentary called The Great ADHD Myth? This one-off production looks at the recent surge in diagnoses of ADHD and seeks to examine whether or not the condition really is neurodevelopmental in origin or instead is a social construct and ‘identity marker’, as some scientists believe. Dr Max Pemberton, the NHS psychiatrist who fronted the show, believes that ADHD is “wildly over-diagnosed” and that the solution to the growing behavioural issues attributed to the condition is “better parenting with less screen time”, rather than powerful medication. Dr Sami Timimi, another NHS psychiatrist who works with children and adolescents, has described the ‘disorder’ as “a fact of culture rather than a fact of nature”. Predictably, there has been a backlash from all the usual suspects. Charity ADHD UK’s chief executive criticised the programme as “sensationalist nonsense” and Ofcom has been inundated with complaints. No doubt the debate will run and run.
Sharp rise in young children attending A&E for mental health crises
Analysis by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has found that the number of 6–9-year-olds attending A&E for mental health reasons has increased by 62% since 2019. This increase is steeper than among older children. Dr Samantha Jones, RCPCH officer for mental health and a consultant in paediatric emergency medicine, was quoted in The Telegraph saying that “what we are seeing are children who are in real trouble and they are coming to emergency departments in their droves, in abject crisis”. Mental health-linked A&E attendances among 9–15-year-olds rose by 41%. There is speculation among some professionals that delays around ADHD diagnosis, and waits for referral for other conditions, may be playing a part in the rise in numbers.
RECOMMENDATION
A great deal has been written and spoken about Jason Arday and his tragic death. Tanya Grunwald, of the This Isn’t Working podcast, invited Jaco van Zyl of Critical Therapy Antidote, to join her for a discussion about what Arday’s death means for the HR Industry. They talk about the vigil held for Arday in Trafalgar Square and the language used there such as ‘lynching’. They also ask why the tone shifted so quickly from hard questions about his story to “uncritical sainthood’ after his death. Jaco brings his psychotherapeutic skills to bear on subjects such as groupthink and ‘narcissistic large group regression’. You can view the podcast here.