Mental health provision for children under spotlight

The charity Young Minds says freedom of information requests show local authorities are cutting budgets that aim to deliver the government’s strategy of intervening early in childhood and the teenage years.

Young Minds found that 34 out of 51 councils who provided data had cut funding for child and adolescent mental health services in recent years.

Bedford council has reduced its spending by 60 per cent and Derby city council by 41 per cent since 2010.

Trends varied considerably between neighbouring areas. In the Yorkshire and the Humber region, Barnsley council has increased its spending by 27 per cent since 2010, while Leeds city council cut its budget by 9 per cent.

Early intervention

The government’s 2010 mental health strategy states that “by promoting good mental health and intervening early, particularly in the crucial childhood and teenage years, we can help to prevent mental illness from developing and mitigate its effects when it does”.

Young Minds said it was concerned that the cuts “could jeopardise the aims of the government’s mental health strategy that promotes early intervention in childhood and teenagers”.

The charity estimates that about one in 10 children and young people aged five to 16 suffer have a diagnosable mental health disorder – around three children in every classroom.

And about half a million children and young people – nearly 6 per cent of pupils – have a “conduct disorder” which could make them disruptive.

Data shortage

But these numbers, along with estimates for the prevalence of conditions like ADHD and depression, come from research done a decade ago.

The Association for Young People’s Health says in its latest report: “The prevalence of selected diagnosed mental health conditions in the UK youth population is not measured regularly and this shortage of good, up to date, data is areal issue in understanding the picture.”

A Young Minds spokesman told us: “How can you effectively commission services on data that is 10 years out of date? You couldn’t plan a cancer service like that.”

How can you effectively commission services on data that is 10 years out of date? Young Minds

Last month the government-backed MindEd website was launched, designed for teachers and others who work with children to access up-to-date information and best practice on mental health issues.

But teachers are currently not given mandatory training in spotting and dealing with mental disorders among pupils.

While many schools have offer counselling and support to pupils on a piecemeal bases, England has not followed the lead of the Welsh government in introducing a national strategy for in-school counselling.

Ofsted inspectors judge schools on the behaviour and safety of pupils, but the requirement for the education watchdog to report on “wellbeing and community cohesion” was dropped in 2012.

Is pupil behaviour getting worse?

In 2011/12 320 pupils were excluded permanently for assaulting another pupil or a member of staff, up from 290 in the previous year.

The number of pupils excluded temporarily over physical assaults went up from 16,990 to 17,750 in the same period.

But government figures show the number of pupils permanently excluded from state schools for all types of bad behaviour has almost halved in 10 years.

Fixed-period exclusions have also fallen since records began in 2003.

The Health Behaviour in School Aged Children study, which looks at trends in adolescent physical fighting across 30 countries, have shown declines in violent behaviour in two-thirds of the countries including Britain and the USA.