CYP Now - Children’s mental health services ‘buckling’ under post-Covid pressure, Longfield warns

Former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield has warned that vulnerable young people are at greater risk of exploitation, serious violence and abuse, as children’s mental health services struggle to cope with a post-Covid rise in demand.

Longfield: 'We face a generational threat to our country’s future national prosperity and success'. Picture: Commission on Young Lives

A report from Longfield’s Commission on Young Lives highlights a 47 per cent increase in emergency referrals to crisis care teams for under 18s between December 2019 and April 2021, noting that as of April 2022, 388,887 people were in contact with children and young people’s mental health services.

Longfield, chair of Commission on Young Lives, 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 scale of the problem is growing, rocket-boosted by the pandemic and the system is buckling under pressure and unable to cope with the explosion in demand for help.”

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