In 1992 a man with poorly controlled schizophrenia climbed into the lions’ enclosure at London Zoo and was badly mauled. This and other horrifying incidents in the early 1990s prompted widespread concern about services for mentally ill people.
Better statistics were urgently required. Official surveys initially focused on adults, but in 1999 the Office for National Statistics decided to survey children and young people’s mental health for the first time, turning to the child psychiatrist Robert Goodman to guide their team of psychologists and statisticians.
