The government's mental health strategy was praised last week for putting children and young people at its heart.
Councils and GPs will play a crucial role in commissioning mental health services for children and young people under the strategy through newly created health and wellbeing boards.
Sarah Brennan, chair of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition and chief executive of YoungMinds, hailed the strategy's shift towards early intervention, but warned that turning it from "rhetoric to reality" would be a challenge given that services are already under threat.
"Children's services are already being cut and we know children's mental health services are sadly often the first services to go," she said. "The real worry is that by the time this strategy kicks in, will there be enough services to be able to commission and deliver?"
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