Children needing NHS mental health services in England need to be seen within four weeks — or the next day for those at risk of self-harm and suicide — according to a new report.
A study from the Commission on Young Lives, chaired by former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield, said the current system was buckling and required a huge investment. It said NHS services often rejected referrals, including those for children who had self-harmed, attempted suicide or had eating disorders, while there were long waits for those who made it on to the list.
It called on the Government to agree a long-term strategy with an immediate billion-pound cash injection to improve support for youngsters with “guaranteed appointment and treatment times”. This meant all children and young people requiring NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services should be seen within four weeks, “with guaranteed next-day emergency appointments for children at risk of serious self-harm and suicide”.
The report said access to mental health services was a “postcode lottery”, with a survey from YoungMinds finding three in four parents claiming their child’s mental health deteriorated during the wait for help. In 2020/2021, just one in five children referred actually started treatment within four weeks, it added.
It comes against a huge rise in the demand for help, with areas such as eating disorders among those seeing a surge. In March, 90,789 young people were referred to NHS children and young people’s mental health services — the highest figure since records began.
The report said: “YoungMinds told us of two particularly harrowing examples of young people who had attempted suicide but had still not been able to access NHS children and young people’s mental health services. We heard about one teenage boy who was discharged from hospital after trying to take his own life, but after 10 days nobody from mental health services had been in touch.
“A young woman was admitted to A&E following a suicide attempt but was discharged 12 hours later. Her family contacted mental health services every day for over a week but did not receive any follow up appointment or phone call.”
It is thought one child in six aged six to 16 has a mental health issue – a “huge increase” from one in nine in 2017, the report said. Children from LGBTQI+ groups were “disproportionately affected”, as were those with special education needs and disabilities, and children from black, brown and minority ethnic backgrounds. Children in poverty were also said to be more likely to suffer and “feel as though no one and/or no service cares about them”.
In a foreword to the study, Ms Longfield described “a very profound crisis in children and young people’s mental health in England.” She said the pandemic had a major impact, and school leaders, youth workers and people working in children’s services “told me that dealing with students who self-harm and make suicide attempts is now a regular part of their professional lives”.
The study warned that failing to support young people with mental health problems could lead to more behavioural incidents at school, a rise in exclusions, and more children becoming at risk of grooming and exploitation. The report also called for a “national social prescription scheme that would enable GPs and health professionals to pay for sports, arts, music, drama, activities, youth clubs, volunteering, and outlines to improve young people’s confidence and self-esteem.”
Ms Longfield said: “The children’s mental health emergency in England is so profound that we face a generational threat to our country’s future national prosperity and success. The overall response from the Government to this children’s mental health crisis has so far been too slow and inadequate, and we are failing to support hundreds of thousands of children with mental health problems.”
Shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan said: “Our children’s futures can’t be put at risk because the Government continues to ignore the rising demand for mental health services, leaving many areas without the access to services that are so desperately needed. This is why the next Labour government will eradicate the postcode lottery, guaranteeing mental health treatment within a month for all who need it.”
A Government spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring children can access the support and resources they need, as early as possible. We’re continuing to take action to support their mental health – including £79 million to ensure 22,000 more children and young people can access community mental health services, as well as to expand mental health support teams in schools to reach three million pupils by 2024.
“This is on top of our record investment to expand and transform services giving an additional 345,000 children access to support by 2024 and expanding the children’s mental health workforce by more than 40 per cent.”
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