This week has marked Children’s Mental Health week, which this year takes on the theme of Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. It highlights the importance of self-awareness in developing resilience, confidence and emotion wellbeing.
Mental health is an issue that comes up in almost every conversation I have with children, whether it’s around long waiting times for support, the need for earlier interventions or wanting to share ideas on how to break down stigma. The nature of those conversations has changed since the pandemic. The world changed overnight for children and young people and added to the existing pressures they already faced just in the usual course of growing up, from academic expectations to social influences, both online and offline.
It can be easy for children and young people to sometimes lose sight of who they are and what they need to feel happy and secure.
The physical and mental health of our children and young people is of paramount importance because it lays the foundation for their overall wellbeing and sets children up for future success.
I have long been concerned by figures relating to children’s mental health – rates of children and young people with probable mental health conditions have increased substantially in recent years, from about one in eight children and young people in 2017 to one in five in 2023.
My own research reinforces this, with my last annual report on children and young people’s mental health showing more than a quarter of a million (270,300) children and young people were still waiting for mental health support after being referred to Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services in 2022-23.
It’s clear that demand for children’s mental health services continues to outstrip availability, despite welcome increases in investment in children and young people’s mental health services.
I have been clear in my calls when it comes to children’s mental health. I want to see:
- Children’s mental health at the heart of the government’s NHS Ten Year Plan, currently in development. This must ensure fewer children experience mental ill-health, and all who do receive excellent care;
- Reduced waiting times for mental health services, so no child is turned away from mental health support or waits more than four weeks for an initial assessment for their mental health needs, and no more than four weeks after that to receive support;
- Support for children who do not reach the threshold for CAMHS, including from school counsellors and Mental Health Support Teams, and through Early Support Hubs and the new Young Future Hubs; and
- Equal rights and protections for children in the new Mental Health Act, which flow from a clear framework for assessing children’s competency and capacity. There must also be strengthened safeguards for children, including from being placed in adult wards and out of area placements.
Children’s Mental Health Week serves as an important reminder of the need to prioritise children’s mental health. Every child deserves to access help when they need it and, to feel confident in who they are and have the about who they can become.
