At the recent National Children and Adult Services (NCAS) conference, a succession of government ministers went out of their way to highlight concerns about the standard of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). They all said something needed to be done about it. None pledged additional money.
This is despite the fact that mental health campaigners have long argued that the root of the problems in CAMHS lies in a lack of funding - it is often referred to as the Cinderella of the NHS. CAMHS accounts for just six per cent of mental health spending and less than one per cent of the overall NHS budget.
Speaking at the NCAS conference, care minister Norman Lamb did not shy away from the problem with CAMHS. He called the system "broken and dysfunctional", but asserted it was not just an issue of money.
A report on children's mental health services published last week by the health select committee supports his argument. It found the way the system is organised to be "deeply flawed". For starters, there is no accurate national data on prevalence. It is often quoted that one in 10 children and young people will experience a mental health problem, but as the most recent prevalence data dates back to 2004, it is entirely possible that this figure is inaccurate.
Without reliable, up-to-date information on the scale of the problem, it is unsurprising that services are struggling to meet the needs of children and young people. Whether due to the corrosive impact of societal changes or a greater recognition - and therefore reporting - of mental health illness, the demand on CAMHS is growing. And it is not just specialist services that are seeing this - many universal services, such as schools, youth groups and GPs, report growth in low-level mental health problems among the children with whom they work.
The result of this, highlighted in the select committee's report, has been services raising the threshold for accessing support, waiting times going up and a shortage of appropriate care settings. This applies across the board, from community-based early interventions when a young person experiences their first mental health episode through to inpatient care for those in crisis. Funding pressures across the NHS have not helped. Nor have cuts to local authority CAMHS budgets - recent research by charity YoungMinds revealed 55 per cent of councils had imposed real-term cuts over the past year.
The health select committee's report calls for a "clear national policy for CAMHS underpinned by adequate funding". That is a challenge that now passes to the government's CAMHS Taskforce, which is set to report its findings on the way ahead in early 2015. Unlike similar government initiatives that have gone before it, the taskforce must deliver a more joined-up, simpler and prevention-focused system for commissioning and delivering care.
Campaigners have called for the select committee report to be a "pivotal moment" in children's mental health. A government pledge to develop a new prevalence survey is a start. But if it is to really deliver on its commitment to put mental health services on a par with physical health, then the amount the NHS spends on CAMHS must also rise.
