NHS Providers submission to Health and Social Care Committee Inquiry: children and young people's mental health

Key messages

• The government’s 2017 Green Paper on transforming children and young people’s mental health provision brought a welcome focus on the earlier identification, treatment and support for children with mental health needs, and emphasis on quicker referral to NHS specialist services. It is important to recognise the progress that has been made on the core proposals and other important related areas, notably in perinatal mental health. Trusts are doing all they can to expand services and provide the best possible care with the staff and resources available.
• However, the limited scale and pace of plans to increase access to improved mental health services was a key concern that we continue to hold. There remains significant unmet need, despite services reaching more individuals than ever before, and we need to see support for prioritising services provided to local areas that are not piloting implementation. Otherwise, there remains a risk of reinforcing inequalities in quality and access that were already a serious concern, and the impact of Covid-19 risks exacerbating further.
• The Covid-19 pandemic has placed profound pressures on all parts of the NHS and presented a host of specific challenges for trusts providing mental health services. Mental health trends have accelerated and the challenges facing services have intensified as a consequence of the pandemic: the demand facing services was already far outstripping trusts’ capacity despite substantial progress made in recent years, with new services and higher levels of investment.