‘Frightening’ statistics on children’s mental health revealed in MPs' cross-party report

The APPG’s latest report, The Covid generation: A mental health pandemic in the making, compiles the findings of 41 academics, charity sector and children’s play specialists.

It found that among five - to 10-year-olds - 14.4 per cent, or one in seven, had a probable mental disorder in 2020, an increase from 1 in 10 - 9.4 per cent - in 2017.

The report claims that unless the mental health crisis for children and young people exposed by the pandemic is addressed urgently by Government, it may become entrenched long after lockdowns are history.

Helen Clark, former MP and lead author of the report, told Nursery World that the research was ‘frightening’.

She said that the UK Government has adopted a ‘laid-back’ approach to children and young people’s mental health, in the face of evidence from the most authoritative academic and scientific sources.

Dr Adrian James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said in December that the pandemic could be the ‘greatest threat to mental health since the second world war’ with 1.5 million children predicted to need new or extra mental health support as a result of this crisis.

Mrs Clark referred to the mental health crisis as a ‘ticking time bomb’ and said, ‘I hope that the Government will find this work useful. All the mainstream media outlets have sung from the same hymn sheet for months now, with headlines presaging a forthcoming mental health catastrophe that should have alerted even Government in its most "boosterish" vein to take action.’

She added that the children’s commissioner had never been invited to speak at the regular national press conferences and despite multiple requests from MPs on all sides of the House, the Government has ‘yet to make’ a ministerial statement on a Mental Health Recovery Strategy, preferring to let ad hoc ‘announcements’ trickle out via Written Parliamentary Question responses.

APPG chair and Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Steve McCabe, said that the Government has talked a lot about a post-pandemic need to ‘level-up’ so Minsters should subject the mental health provision and services that we are offering our children and young people to some ‘serious scrutiny’.

He added, ‘Far from "levelling up", the pandemic has exposed the UK as a patchwork of mental health disparity, with a fluctuating standard of provision, courtesy of factors ranging from individual family circumstance and socioeconomic status to deep-rooted and stubborn funding failings; both at service and research levels – and even dependent upon which UK country you happen to live in.

‘What the best available research shows, is that mental illness is common in even our youngest children; that one child in every seven in primary school class will have a diagnosable mental illness and that a shocking 75 per cent of mental illnesses begin before the age of eighteen.’

Mr McCabe said that unless the Government uses all the information thrown up by the pandemic about the state of children and young people’s mental health and then discerns, learns and acts – we will be walking, ‘eyes wide-shut’ into the type of long-lasting communal health disaster that will not be capable of a fix via ‘two ‘jabs in the arm, a mask and a booster’.

Lea Milligan, chief executive of MQ Mental Health Research, who sponsored the research, said, ‘The most vulnerable in our society are the ones who will be carrying the heaviest burden post-pandemic. The increase in mental illness in the UK was already an alarming trend before Covid struck. Now it is an emergency. The Government has a once in a lifetime opportunity. By implementing this report’s recommendations, they can help create a resilient generation, able to cope with the uncertainties of the future. Without action, many of our children could face a lifetime of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. Our response to this crisis our children face must be proportional; we must work together, across all nations in the UK and across sectors. Most importantly, we must invest. It is vital that we get our response right to protect our children’s futures. It is up to us to give the Covid generation a voice.’

Recommendations

The report calls for ‘new and substantial’ Government funding, which is ring-fenced for children and young people’s mental health.
Mrs Clark said, ‘We don’t want a situation where mental health is scratching around looking for the dregs or crumbs that have fallen off the academic and tutoring table. All the emphasis is on academic catch-up, which is very important, but no one is able to benefit from academic catch-up if their head is in such a poor state.’

It also calls for a cross-national strategy, which prioritises the best initiatives of a devolved UK with a Joint Policy Statement by the four children’s commissioners.

Mrs Clark said, ‘The vast majority of mental health problems could be averted in pregnancy or in the very early years, when problems can be seen and spotted. It’s a crying shame that there’s no consistency in terms of therapies and facilities for children when dealing with the mental health crisis and covid recovery for devolved nations.

‘England is in a worse situation than Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, who all have counsellors in their schools to deal with emergent mental health problems. Children in Reception classes and nurseries, need access to professionally-trained and accredited play therapists in all nations.’

Another recommendation is to invest in the UK’s playgrounds to halt and reverse the ‘alarming decline in their numbers’ and to safeguard children’s mental health.

Association of Play Industries chair, Mark Hardy said, ‘The lack of outdoor play and the amount of time spent alone, inactive and on screens, is fuelling the unprecedented rise in children’s mental health problems.

‘Playgrounds are a lifeline to communities. For children in disadvantaged areas and the 1 in 8 UK households without a garden particularly, they are often the only opportunity for free, outdoor play.

‘The Government is now presented with a rare opportunity to mitigate the damage to children caused by lockdown and to support their health and wellbeing for generations to come.

‘One simple yet powerful public health measure – investment in a national network of sustainable public play spaces – would dramatically improve the lives of millions of children.’

• For more details of the report, visit Working Group Reports – The All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood (fhcappg.org.uk)