The NHS plans to raid its own budgets to keep funding mental health support teams in schools after government funding runs out, a senior health official has said. help pupils with mild to moderate mental health problems, hitting a target for 35 per cent coverage across the country and reaching 26 per cent of pupils. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said this week that NHS budgets, which include funding for the teams, have been set up to March 2024. About 500 teams are expected to be operational by then. But it said that budgets for the 2024-25 financial year were still to be agreed. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said earlier this month the Department for Education 鈥渨ill certainly be putting the case forward for continuing the roll-out of this successful programme鈥�. However, with no decision made, Claire Murdoch, the national lead for mental health at NHS England, said it had 鈥渇ound some money鈥� within the NHS envelope 鈥渇or a further year鈥�. But speaking to MPs at the public accounts committee last week, she warned that because it relied on trained therapists 鈥�”we do need to be really clear what is happening the year after next and the year after that鈥�. The 拢215 million mental health support teams were a key pillar of the 2018 green paper on transforming children and young people鈥檚 mental health. Amanda Pritchard, NHS England鈥檚 chief executive, said she would be 鈥渆xtremely surprised if there was not an enthusiasm to continue with this programme鈥�. MPs have previously urged the government to roll out the teams nationwide by 2027-28.