Teaching children about wellbeing is as important as road safety, best-selling author Matt Haig has said as he calls for mental health to be added to the school curriculum.

However, Haig, who is known for his children's books which unpick mental health issues for young readers, warned against so-called 'helicopter parents' "editing" their sons and daughters' lives.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, the 43-year-old who has written about his own severe depression, warned parents and schools they must "get ahead of the game".

“It’s just as important as road safety,” he told The Telegraph, “I think we need to get ahead of the game on this, it’s evolving so fast and it feels like everyone’s so behind in terms of technology and health.

“It should be ingrained at some point in the curriculum.”

His call comes after this newspaper revealed a potential shake up of Ofsted’s school inspections to include an assessment on mental health and wellbeing.

An NHS report last week found that more than one in ten boys at primary school are being labelled as suffering from a mental disorder.

Researchers found that boys aged between five and ten were twice as likely as girls the same age to suffer such problems.