NSPCC and the crisis in child mental health

SIR – One in 10 children and young people in England has a diagnosable mental health condition, and yet less than a third of them receive NHS treatment or support. Additionally, recent estimates suggest that as many as one in four school-age children experiences some form of mental health issue. Without early help, some of these initially manageable problems are likely to escalate into something much more serious.

The Government’s recent Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision, provides a crucial opportunity to reform our mental health system to make sure that all young people receive the help they need, when they need it. It includes welcome measures to improve school-based services, but we believe the Government can go further still.

Services like the NSPCC’S Childline are now on the front line of mental health support for young people. Last year one in three Childline counselling sessions was about mental health and emotional wellbeing. The service has also seen a 150 per cent increase in counselling sessions since 2010-11 with children who are suicidal. However, currently the service is only able to support three in every four children who contact it.

The NSPCC urgently needs to increase the number of available volunteers and to improve and expand the training that they receive. We urge the Government to allocate an appropriate proportion of the £300million pledged in the Green Paper to ensure that Childline is equipped to meet the rising demand.

Peter Wanless

Chief Executive, NSPCC Dame Esther Rantzen

Founder and President, Childline Luciana Berger MP (Lab) President of the Labour Campaign for Mental Health and 130 others; see telegraph.co.uk