Special Report: Children's Mental Health

Children's mental health has received plenty of attention from policymakers over the past decade. The Mental Health Act (2007), implemented by the then Labour government, introduced the requirement for under-18s to be treated in age-appropriate settings. Six months into the coalition, then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg launched No Health Without Mental Health, the cross-government strategy to improve mental health outcomes for all ages and ensure "parity of esteem" between mental health and physical health services. The coalition also commissioned an independent taskforce review of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), appointed a cross-department minister for CAMHS, embarked on a national rollout of psychological therapies and set out plans for the first waiting time standards for CAMHS.

The current government has continued where the coalition left off, establishing a Mental Health Taskforce that outlined plans for 70,000 additional young people to get access to support, appointing a (since removed) schools mental health champion and developed legislation to end the practice of placing children in police cells when no in-patient care is available.

Despite this, research into the quality of services shows half of children referred to CAMHS are still put on a waiting list, some for many months. With demand for services rising along with increased awareness of mental health problems among young people, this apparent lack of progress appears concerning. However, the collective efforts of the past decade appear to be about to pay fruit.

The publication in 2015 of the Future in Mind report and the accompanying £1.4bn in funding to deliver its recommendations has prompted a significant expansion in provision. It has seen a reorganisation of the children's mental health system that is properly integrating specialist mental health support across a wide range of children's services. The challenge is now to translate that investment and system change into improved outcomes for children.