Child mental health help ‘is a failure’

A POSTCODE lottery in children’s mental health means the NHS spends £136 per head in top areas and a tenner in the worst.

Staff have branded the inequality “unjustifiable” amid fears cash allocated for such child and adolescent services is not reaching the front line.

Barbara Keeley, Labour Shadow Minister for Mental Health, said: “These services are failing young people.”

Theresa May had promised “record levels” spent on mental health services.

Royal College of Psychiatrists data, in the Health Service Journal, shows Tameside and Glossop had the lowest spending per head at £9.69 per child up to, while South Tyneside spent £136.32.