Serious mental health conditions in children up 50 per cent in three years

Clinically significant mental health conditions among children rose by 50 per cent compared to three years earlier, according to an NHS study carried out in July 2020, her report reveals.

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In addition, a “staggering” one in six children now have a probable mental health condition, according to the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield.

The findings have been detailed in her fourth annual report into the state of children’s mental health services.

This warns that many children are struggling to access services.

But Longfield praises some local areas for “improving above and beyond what central government has expected of them and delivering vastly improved services for children”.

The report found that during 2019/20 only four per cent of children were able to access mental health services - this equates to one in four of those who need support based on latest estimates.

The current NHS aim is to treat a third of children with a clinically diagnosable mental health condition, with 17 areas failing to reach this target.

Longfield’s report welcomed the 53 local areas that are exceeding this with a commitment to treat half of young people who need support.

Among her recommendations is for strongly performing local areas to “show where the benchmark should be set nationally”.

When children are able to access support they often have to wait “weeks or months for treatment” warns Longfield. Her report found that last year just a fifth of children referred to mental health services received support within four weeks.

While there have been improvements to access this is “not as quickly as we would expect” says Longfield, especially given rising rates of mental health issues among children

In 2019/20, 538,564 children were referred to mental health services, up on 35 per cent on the previous year and up 60 per cent on 2017/18.

Meanwhile the number of children receiving support has increased at a far slower rate, by just four per cent between 2019/20 and 2018/19.

Damage to children’s mental health caused by Covid crisis could last for years without a large-scale increase for children’s mental health services - our report published today https://t.co/mCTzeClr4w

— Children's Commissioner for England (@ChildrensComm) January 28, 2021

Longfield warns that lockdowns and school closures amid the coronavirus health crisis are set to worsen children’s mental health further and place added pressures on support services.

“Even before the Covid pandemic, we faced an epidemic of children’s mental health problems in England and a children’s mental health service that, though improving significantly, was still unable to provide the help hundreds of thousands of children required,” said Longfield.

“It is widely accepted that lockdown and school closures have had a detrimental effect on the mental health of many children.”

She added that the current lockdown “will be causing even more damage to many children’s mental wellbeing and putting even greater strains on mental health services, potentially for years to come”.

Among young people who took part in Longfield’s report one 17-year-old boy described the health crisis as “emotionally draining”.

Another 16-year-old boy said that amid the pandemic “young people and children are suffering a lot more than people think they are. In my opinion, people underestimate how much young people and children are affected by these current circumstances”.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old girl called for improvements in school based mental health support.

“We don’t have a counsellor at all, just a nurse every two weeks… everyone is on edge and I think people would benefit a lot more from talking about it,” she said.

The government is urged by Longfield to set up mental health support teams in every area. These are being set up to provide better links between schools and the NHS, but the government is only committed to reach a fifth of areas within the next five years.

Charities should play a greater role in supporting this national roll out, Longfield adds.

Greater use of digital counselling should also be made by health services as the pandemic “has shown that many (but not all) children respond well to” this form of support.

Among good practice in this area, highlighted by Longfield, is work by the Wolverhampton Headstart programme to support a city wide roll out of digital support for schools and to be used by children themselves.