Future Minds – led by Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition and YoungMinds, with support from the Prudence Trust – calls on the Government to fix the children's mental health system and sets out a roadmap for action.
It comes as a Mumsnet survey reveals three-quarters (77%) of parents fear for their children's mental health, with almost a third very concerned.
Andy Bell, chief executive of Centre for Mental Health, said: ‘Transforming children's mental health must sit at the heart of the Government's moral mission to change the course for this generation.'
The roadmap calls for the expansion of community-based early intervention, reform of specialist and crisis services, and harnessing of digital innovation to close treatment gaps and improve outcomes. It argues prioritising community support, widening access to effective interventions and using digital tools can ensure children and young people get help earlier, before crises escalate.
Around one in five young people aged 8-25 now report a diagnosable mental health problem such as anxiety or depression, with girls and young women facing particularly high rates, with the UK lagging behind comparable nations on key wellbeing measures.
Worsening youth mental health is being driven by stagnant living standards, rising child poverty, fewer opportunities, the lasting impact of the pandemic, increasing online harms and the erosion of trusted relationships.
The Mumsnet survey finds social media and online content (76%) is the biggest factor affecting children's mental health, with just 3% believing the Government is doing enough to tackle the problem.
Parents say they want more school-based mental health staff and shorter NHS waiting times, particularly for specialist services.
The announcement comes in the same week the Government launched a consultation on children's mobile phone use, including a possible social media ban.
Reaction
Rebecca Gray, mental health director speaking on behalf of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said: ‘NHS leaders will welcome the Future Minds roadmap which proposes having Mental Health Support Teams and open access mental health support in every community, through Young Futures hubs. This would help fix the system by shifting from hospital to community and implementing prevention programmes to help increase capacity as demand for services rises.
‘We also welcome the focus on reducing the number of young people sent out of their area for care, an important issue we have focussed on in our own work recently. However it is important to recognise that in practice sometimes young people will need highly specialised treatment, which is not possible to provide locally.'
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘No parent should be worrying about their child's mental health, which is why we have already helped nearly 40,000 more young people access support.
‘We are investing an extra £688m in mental health services this year, we've hired 7,000 additional mental health workers, as well as accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges.
‘We are also opening 50 Young Futures hubs over the next four years, bringing together services to improve mental health and wellbeing.'
