Culture change required for mental health services

My predecessor, Maggie Atkinson, was a member of the taskforce and I’ll be continuing to push for radical improvements to mental health services for children. The current level of children’s mental health support is woefully inadequate and nothing short of scandalous in many parts of the country.

I was at the launch of the report on the day before the Budget. Health minister Norman Lamb spoke about his son’s mental health condition and the struggle his family had to get the right support. He left the impression that he is personally committed to improving services for children, but the scale of the change needed will require strong leadership, backed by investment over many years.

The taskforce calls for schools to play a greater role in identifying children with mental ill health and in offering support. It acknowledges the gap in available treatments, problems with access in primary care, as well as in specialist services, and access to crisis and out-of-ours services. It emphasises the need for early intervention and prevention, and the importance of building resilience in the early years, as well as increased public awareness to challenge the stigma of mental health problems.

Encouragingly, it sets out a move away from the outdated and rigid model of access to support in tiers, towards more personalised support based on need. It recognises that all interventions should be evidence-based so support offered is cost-effective and known to work. Importantly, the taskforce also highlights the need to improve mental health support for looked-after and vulnerable children.

Cash injection for services

Chancellor George Osborne announced a further £1.25bn for mental health services for children and new mothers in the Budget. The bulk will go on improving access to mental health services for children, with 110,000 more children cared for over the next five years, while £75m will be spent on improving care for women who experience mental ill health during the perinatal or antenatal period. Another £1.5m will fund training in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and improving access to support in schools.

Other measures include providing online cognitive behavioural therapy to 40,000 people who claim employment and support allowance due to illness or disability, are on Jobseeker’s Allowance or are being supported by the Fit for Work scheme. Therapists will also be located in 350 job centres from this summer and £8.4m will go to improving mental health services for vulnerable veterans. It’s not quite the £1.25bn for children’s mental health suggested by the headlines, but it is a significant investment with the potential to create significant change.

So, can we hang up the banners demanding better services for the one in 10 children suffering from a diagnosable mental health disorder, or the 72 per cent of children in care who have behavioural or emotional problems? Will we no longer read almost daily news reports about children taking their own lives because the mental health system has failed them or being detained in police cells because they are the only places of safety?

It is of course too early to tell. The priority must be to ensure a planned and consistent approach to improvement that rises above party politics to achieve long-term change. This will take longer than a single five-year term of office. It will demand a sea change in attitude, approach and investment. Only then will this welcome investment mean something real to the thousands of children and young people who are desperately waiting for the help they need. I for one intend to do all I can to make sure it happens.

Anne Longfield is children’s commissioner for England