Before the pandemic, schools and colleges were already finding worsening mental health amongst children and young people a serious challenge. This briefing note sets out aspects of current provision.
The problem has grown steadily across the past two decades. According to the report, Health of Children and Young People in England, 2020 (Wave 1 follow up to the 2017), one in nine school-aged children was diagnosed with a mental health problem; this was up from one in ten in 2004. As of 2020, it was one in six. This increase was already recognised by schools. According to the British Psychological Society Briefing Paper (2019), Mental Health Support Teams: How to maximise the impact of the new workforce for children and young people, 94 per cent of teachers who had taught for more than five years had seen an increase in pupils presenting with mental health problems.
Evidence suggests the pandemic has worsened this situation. Findings from a survey of young people aged 13-25 show the majority of young people experienced worsening of mental health during lockdowns, particularly anxiety and loneliness. A survey by the charity, Young Minds in 2021 showed that 67% of children and young people believed the pandemic would have a long-term impact on their mental health. And mental health services statistics in April 2021 show that referrals of young people have more than doubled in the past year. These findings were called "heart-breaking” and "awful” by Dr Elaine Lockhart, the new chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Importantly, the government is aware of this challenge. In December 2017, the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision green paper introduced a new policy to create Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to work with children and staff in education settings. These are intended to provide early intervention on some mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, such as mild to moderate anxiety. The teams act as a link with local children and young people’s mental health services and will be supervised by NHS staff. The first MHSTs were announced in December 2018. According to official NHS figures, there are now 183 MHSTs covering 3,000 schools and colleges. 104 teams were commissioned in 2020/21, with a further 112 to commence training during 21/22. The NHS predicts that this will see 399 MHSTs up and running offering support to almost three million pupils, by 2023.
In December 2021, the Health and Social Care Committee published findings of their inquiry into children and young people’s mental health. They said: "In schools, the new Mental Health Support Teams represent a valuable opportunity to identify and support children and young people who are beginning to experience problems with their mental health. However, no funding to roll them out nationally has been identified in the recent Spending Review settlement and even currently planned timescales lack ambition.” The Health and Social Care Committee recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care fully fund and scale up the roll out of Mental Health Support Teams to cover two thirds of schools in England by 2024/25 and 100% by 2027/28.
The Committee also recommended that "every area should have a community service for children in crisis which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week… This should include 24/7 all age liaison psychiatry in hospitals, crisis services in the community, and 24/7 crisis support teams in all areas.”
We endorse the role of MHSTs and propose their expansion across the country is a good way of embedding effective mental health support for children and young people, before it gets to the point of requiring more serious intervention. We also support the proposal for community-based crisis services.
Given the crisis in access to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), we believe that the new Integrated Care Boards should have a duty place on them to review the CAMHS pathway. The Pathway covers the range of services provided as part of CAMHS service provision.
This will form the basis of our response to the Call for Evidence.
