Children’s mental health care ‘needs cash’

CHILDREN’S campaigners have called for a “radical rebalancing” of NHS budgets after figures showed less than 0.5 per cent of health cash goes on specialist services for children and young people with mental health problems.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) called on ministers to increase funding on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to 1 per cent of the NHS budget.

Just over £45.2 million was spent in the area in 2013-14 – amounting to 5.56 per cent of the overall mental health budget and 0.45 per cent of Scottish NHS spending.

That was an increase from £27.1m in 2007-08 – 3.73 per cent of total spending on mental health, but in England the health service spends 0.7 per cent of its total budget on CAMHS. In Scotland, only NHS Lothian spent this amount of its budget on CAMHS in 2013-14, while in the Fife health board area it amounted to 0.08 per cent.

The SCSC, which includes charities and independent organisations providing children’s services, is now calling on ministers in Scotland to devote more spending to help youngsters with mental health problems.

Speaking on behalf of the SCSC, Sophie Pilgrim, director of the voluntary organisation Kindred Scotland, said: “It is staggering to find only 0.45 per cent of the NHS Scotland budget is being spent on CAMHS, amounting to just over 5.5 per cent of the total mental health budget.

“Yet we know that one in five children have a mental health condition in any given year and all the evidence points to the clear advantages of early intervention to tackle those suffering and the long-term cost to society of failing to do so.

“We would urge that the Scottish Government looks at radically rebalancing the NHS budget.”