His pledge includes providing specialist support in all schools, with a full-time mental health professional placed in every secondary school. He also wants to see a part-time professional in every primary school.
In addition, Starmer promises to launch open access mental health hubs for children and young people “in every community”.
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These universal access hubs would provide early intervention support and drop-in services.
In his speech at the party’s conference this week, he promised to ensure support would be available in less than a month to a million people a year.
“One of the urgent needs of our time is mental health,” he said.
He added: “We’ll make sure children and young people get early help, putting specialist support in every school and mental health hub in every community.”
Labour’s plans also include hiring 8,500 more mental health professionals.
My mum taught me about the principle of care.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 29, 2021
This principle will guide my Labour government.
We will shift the priority of the NHS away from emergency care and towards prevention - for both physical and mental health. #Lab21 pic.twitter.com/u9GzSF0SqA
Starmer’s speech comes amid a record number of children and young people being referred to mental health services, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP).
Between April and June this year more than 190,000 young people up to the age of 18 were referred. This is more than double figures recorded in the same period last year, when 81,000 young people were referred.
The RCP is calling on the government to prioritise young people’s mental health, to ensure all schools can respond to the needs of pupils.
“Children’s mental health services must also be properly funded and properly staffed if we are to treat the ever-growing number needing mental health care,” said Dr Elaine Lockhart, chair of the RCP’s faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry.
“Without investment, we run the risk of many more needing crisis help.”
Further research, published by NHS Digital has found that one in six children in England had a probably mental disorder during 2021. This is the same rate as the previous year, but up on 2017’s proportion of one in nine.
Kadra Abdinasir, strategic lead at The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, said: "Whilst this year’s survey does not report a rise in the rates of mental health difficulties from last year, we cannot ignore the fact that rates still remain high and have been deteriorating in recent years."
"Mental health support needs to be truly accessible for all, so that children and young people feel confident that they can get the right support, at the right time. That’s why we are calling for a network of Early Support Hub in every local area," she added.
