Suicide-risk children refused places on NHS England waiting lists as services overwhelmed

Referrals for children and young people’s mental health services have been rising since the pandemic. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Children at risk of suicide are being refused places on waiting lists for mental health services because they are so chronically oversubscribed, according to leading education figures.

A report last month by the Centre for Young Lives and the Child of the North multi-university research programme warned that the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) are buckling under the strain of a “national epidemic” of children’s mental health problems.