Government mental health plans ‘failing a generation’ of children

In a joint report published today (Wednesday) the Education and Health and Social Care Committees slam the proposed Green Paper on Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health Provision, saying it lacks ambition and will provide no help to the majority of those children who desperately need it.

The report also criticised the Government for ‘missing’ the early years in its strategy. The report said, ‘A lack of focus on the early years means that opportunities are being missed to promote emotional resilience and prevent mental health and well-being problems later in life. There is no consideration given to the important role that health visitors and children’s centres can have in promoting emotional wellbeing in the early years or of the adverse impact reductions in funding for these areas might have on support for the 0 to 5 age group.’

In their report, The Government’s Green Paper on mental health: failing a generation, the MPs warn that the long timeframes involved in the Government's strategy will leave hundreds of thousands of children and young people unable to benefit from the proposals. The Government is rolling out new ‘Trailblazer’ pilot projects where mental health teams provide extra support alongside waiting time targets. But these schemes are set to roll out in only a fifth to a quarter of the country by 2022/23.

The Green Paper wants schools to provide a designated senior lead for mental health themselves, but the committees warn that both health and education services are under great strain with significantly stretched resources, and workforce recruitment and retention concerns. Half of school leaders appear to have cut back on their mental health support services.

The report also highlights how young people giving evidence to a forum for the report spoke about the pressure of exams on their mental health and well-being, and calls on the government to gather evidence on the issue.

The committee heard, in formal evidence, that young people excluded from school seem much more likely to have social, emotional and mental health needs, yet the Green Paper does not address this issue. The Government must focus on the increase in pupils being excluded with mental health needs and how the mental health needs of excluded pupils are being met, the report said.

Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, said, ‘The Green Paper is just not ambitious enough and will leave so many children without the care they need. It needs to go much further in considering how to prevent mental health difficulties in the first place. We want to see more evidence that Government will join up services in a way which places children and young people at their heart and that improves services to all children rather than a minority.’

Chair of the Education Committee, Robert Halfon MP, said, ‘The Government must back up its warm words by taking urgent action to address the mental health issues which children and young people face today.