World Mental Health Day: Young People’s mental health services must be transformed
The legacy of COVID combined with the cost-of-living crisis will be a tsunami of mental health problems emerging across the country among children and young people unless systems are put in place to ensure that people with mental ill health get the right support at the right time.
As we mark World Mental Health Day, [...]
Lack of early intervention leads to re-referrals
An estimated 64,000 children a year are missing out on early help services and then being re-referred to children’s social care within 12 months, a report by Action for Children warns.
There were at least 320,000 missed opportunities to provide early help services to children who were then re-referred to social care within 12 months, [...]
Cash-strapped authorities leave families navigating own problems with teens such as exploitation and gangs
A lack of support for families is placing young people at risk of criminal exploitation, county lines, gangs and violence, a report has warned.
The Commission on Young Lives report outlines how parents have told them that they have called the police and social services desperate for help, only to be told that no help [...]
Councils predict 100,000 children in care by 2025
There could be 100,000 children in local authority care by 2025, the County Councils Network has warned.
While there were 69,000 children in care in 2015, CCN warns that number of vulnerable children being placed in council care could reach almost 100,000 by the middle of the decade.
Cllr Tim Oliver, Chairman of the County Councils [...]
Early intervention cuts have placed 1m children at risk of poor life chances
Cuts to early years and youth support since 2010 has resulted in more than a million vulnerable children having their life chances reduced, according to a report by the Public Services Committee.
A failure to invest in children at risk of harm has affected over one million children, with those in deprived areas being worst [...]
Early intervention mental health hubs needed to tackle rise in young people with mental ill health
Early support mental health hubs, easily accessed without referral, are needed to tackle the rise in mental health problems among young people, the Local Government Association has urged.
Mental health practitioners and health and wellbeing practitioners would be available at the centres, which currently exist in some places. Young people can also access various other [...]
