Start with the current state

The first step is to map everything that already happens: counselling hours, pastoral systems, tutor-time content, parent communication, staff training and external partnerships. Most schools have more provision than they realise, but it is rarely joined up.

An audit should also capture the informal support: the teacher who always notices, the counsellor parents trust, the peer mentor scheme that runs quietly in the background. This is real provision, and it needs to be visible before it can be protected.

Measure confidence, not just policies

Policies are easy to audit. Confidence is harder but more important. A school can have a flowchart on the wall and still have staff who freeze when a student discloses self-harm. The audit should ask adults at every level how they would respond, and whether they know their limits.

Anonymous staff surveys are useful here, but so are structured conversations. The goal is to find the gap between what the school says it does and what adults actually feel able to do.

Check the handover points

Mental health support fails at boundaries: between year teams and counselling, between school and external services, between term time and holidays, between languages and cultures. An audit should trace a hypothetical concern through every handover and ask where it might get lost.

In international schools, the external boundary is especially critical. Does the school know how to refer locally? Are consent and data practices compatible with both host-country law and the school's own policies?

Look at leadership and governance

Provision without leadership backing is fragile. The audit should ask whether mental health has a named, resourced lead; whether it appears in strategic planning; and whether the board or leadership team reviews it regularly.

A good audit produces not a judgment but a prioritised plan. It tells the school what to keep, what to stop, and what to build - with realistic timeframes and clear ownership.