Mental Health Fund and Menu

6. Engaging staff with the Schools Mental Health Fund

The Fund can be used to engage staff in the following ways:

• directly employ new staff
• extend the time fraction for current staff to support school mental health and wellbeing priorities
• enable time release for existing staff to:
  • plan for or implement a Menu item or program
  • deliver professional learning for a Menu item
  • attend professional learning delivered by an approved Menu provider
• engage mental health professionals on a sessional basis
• increase the time fraction of a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader or Mental Health Practitioner.

All professionals working in schools should be engaged according to the department’s employment protocols. If schools choose to engage staff as part of this initiative, advice on important considerations regarding eligibility and suitability can be found at Recruitment in Schools.

In addition, all staff engaged using the Fund must meet the requirements of the Schools mental health skills checklist.

The Schools mental health skills checklist assists schools to understand the skills and qualifications necessary for staff to be employed in schools when using the Fund.

Contracting sessional staff

Schools may also choose to use the Fund to contract staff on a sessional basis from local mental health services or community organisation under Tier 3 of the Menu.

All staff engaged using the Fund must meet the qualification and registration requirements of the Skills checklist, including those engaged on a sessional basis.

To contract a health service or mental health professional to provide mental health services to students, schools can use the School council health services agreement (DOCX) (staff login required).

More information on engaging staff, including mental health professionals, can be found in the Procurement rules of use.

For more information on how to complete this template, please refer to the department’s Legal Division’s Health Services intranet page (staff login required), or contact Schools Procurement Branch (schools.procurement@education.vic.gov.au).

Increasing the time fraction for a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader or a Mental Health Practitioner

The Fund can be used to top up the salaries of appropriately qualified:

• Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders (MHWLs) employed under the Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative. This applies to government primary schools only
• social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, mental health nurses or counsellors of a prescribed class employed under the Mental Health Practitioners in secondary and specialist schools initiative. This applies to government secondary schools and specialist schools with secondary enrolments only.

Note: Government primary schools wishing to use the Fund to engage a Mental Health Practitioner cannot do so under the Mental Health Practitioners initiative as this program is only funded for secondary schools and specialist schools with secondary enrolments. Schools should instead advertise for and engage the required professional under the relevant title, for example, social worker, psychologist or occupational therapist.

Schools must use the Schools Mental Health Fund project code 245005 when reporting and acquitting use of the Fund on these salaries in eduPay.

For more information on reporting and acquitting the Fund, please see the Instructions for reporting expenditure on the Fund and Menu resources page.

Staffing acquittal

Refer to Acquitting the Schools Mental Health Fund section for information.