A report by the Centre for Mental Health shows how initiatives such as Barnardo's Inner Resilience and Development (BIRD) Service, which is offered in four hospitals in the Black Country and one in Merseyside, have the potential to reduce pressure on emergency departments and children and adolescent mental health services crisis teams.

Andy Bell, chief executive at Centre for Mental Health, said: ‘Children and young people's mental health has been declining over the last decade, and too many reach crisis point before they can get the right help. The BIRD service demonstrates that non-clinical mental health support can help children and families, preventing or averting crises, and reducing the need for hospital care. We hope that children and young people in all areas of the country will in future benefit from services like BIRD.'

The report found children and young people supported by BIRD were almost eight times less likely to be readmitted within six months, with 97% reporting better wellbeing after using the service.

It recommends ICBs improve the coordination of mental health services to children and young people with collaborations between partners focussed on the child and include working with their families and schools.

An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘Working with community and voluntary organisations is an important part of providing mental health support and we welcome the good practice that this report highlights. The NHS has also significantly expanded support for children through the roll-out of specialist mental health services to half of England's schools, which will extend to all children in the next five years.'

Altogether, 842,900 children and young people accessed NHS-funded mental health services in the 12 months to the end of August 2025, compared with 513,964 children and young people in August 2019.