In her speech about the ‘shared society’, Prime Minister Theresa May set out her vision for improving the mental health of people of all ages, with an emphasis on early intervention for children and young people.
The announcement included the following key actions for the improvement of children and young people’s mental health:
- the launch of a major thematic review of Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across the country, led by the CQC
- the publication of a green paper on CYP mental health in 2017, setting out new proposals for improving services and increasing focus on preventative activity across all delivery partners
- a strengthening of the links between schools, colleges and local NHS services by evaluating emerging models and approaches
- the provision of new funding for mental health first aid training for teachers in secondary schools
- investment in the development of new digital tools for mental health
May’s speech coincided with the publication of the government’s response to the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health which stated the government’s commitment to resourcing and implementing the recommendations of the Future in Mind report.
While the government’s continued focus on children and young people’s mental health is welcome, there are ongoing concerns that previously promised funding is not getting through. Two years ago, the government committed to a five year programme of CAMHS transformation, setting aside an extra £1.4 billion investment. In her speech, the prime minister pledged to hold NHS leaders to account for ensuring that money for children’s and adult mental health is spent as promised, but did not commit to protecting these budgets to prevent them from being used to meet other priorities in the NHS.
Norman Lamb – the former care minister and the chair of the taskforce that produced the Future in Mind recommendations – raised his concerns about the diversion of children’s mental health funding to plug NHS gaps:
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“The current government has failed to ensure the investment needed to implement [past commitments for the transformation of CAMHS] has got through. Much of the additional £1.4 billion of funding secured for child mental health care is being diverted to prop up other services.”
Recent analysis by Young Minds demonstrates that children’s mental health funding is not going where it should. Less than half of CCGs who responded to freedom of information requests were able to provide full information about CAMHS budgets and nearly two thirds of CCGs used some or all of the extra funding to meet shortfalls or priorities in other areas in 2015-16.
Improving the mental health of children and young people is a national challenge and the funding pledged to address this challenge must be made available to CAMHS. It is essential that the recommendations made in Future in Mind are resourced and implemented if we are to build resilience, intervene early and ensure that children and young people have timely access to good quality mental health treatment
