4 barriers in the children’s mental health system

Here at the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, we’re excited to be working in partnership with NPC. Together, we’re exploring how charities and funders can work together to address the rising levels of mental health problems in children and young people.

There are over 400 members of our Coalition, all of whom are working towards the united aim of supporting babies, children and young people’s mental health. We have a clear vision for change: a mentally healthy generation of children and young people, access to early intervention for all, and strong specialist services for those in need of further support.

But there are still barriers to achieving this vision. We often hear from children, young people and families how are they are pushed from pillar to post trying to find the support they need.

Our work with NPC aims to identify barriers, find ways to remove them, and make our vision for change a reality.

To kick start the project, we reviewed existing evidence to understand what barriers exist in the children’s mental health system.

We found four key barriers coming up time and time again: Complexity, lack of prevention and early intervention, gaps in school support, and underfunding of NHS services.

The children’s mental health system is complex

Support is provided through a patchwork of services. This includes the NHS, voluntary and community sector organisations, schools and educational settings, and online services.

This can make it extremely challenging for children, young people, and families to know where to turn.

There’s a lack of preventative and early intervention services

While the importance of this type of support is widely recognised, there’s a lack of preventative and early intervention support in place.

This means that children and young people are often left to reach crisis point with their mental health. These services are also the most vulnerable to funding cuts, making it challenging to provide a consistent offer of support.

Support in schools has been expanded, but there are still gaps in provision

There has been positive progress in providing mental health support in schools through the roll out Mental Health Support Teams.

However, these are not yet universally available. Gaps in support still exist for underserved groups and those who are not in education.

NHS specialist mental health services are over-subscribed and under-funded

A lack of alternative services means there is an overreliance in the system on NHS Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services. Yet, these services are woefully underfunded and rising mental health need is far outstripping service capacity to respond. As a result, children and young people face high access thresholds and long waiting times for support.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that the mental health system is not only messy to navigate, but there is also no guarantee that children and young people are able to access support once they have found their way through.

We know that there’s lots of great work happening, with many of our members working  to plug the gaps in the system. We also know that this work is often underfunded, and they too are trying to make sense of this complex system.

With children and young people experiencing rising mental health, we can no longer afford to not act.

This project will provide a crucial first step in understanding how we can re-build the mental health system so that it truly works for those who need it.

As we look to the next stage of the project, we will be listening to people directly experiencing the system. Over the coming months, we’ll be hosting a series of workshops with young people, parents, and charities to understand their perspectives and build solutions together.

To get on updates on the project as it develops, sign up for the NPC newsletter and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition newsletter.