Experts question underfunded child mental health services

In some areas, NHS bodies are spending little more than £2 per child, analysis from the Royal College of Psychiatrists has shown.

The College has estimated the amount of money being spent per head by NHS commissioners on child and adolescent mental health services for the 2016/17 financial year, finding that 25 of the Clinical Commissioning Groups in England have planned to spend less than £25 a head on mental health services for the children in their communities.

The government has pledged £119 million of NHS funding to clinical commissioning groups for this financial year and another £140 million promised for 2017/18, with an additional £30 million for eating disorder services.

The RCPsych figures show that children and adolescents’ mental health is still underfunded when it comes to the share of NHS spending in many areas of the country, with 52 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England currently allocating less than five per cent of their total mental health budget to services for children and young people.

Luton CCG is spending the least amount of money for every under-18 in its area this year – just £2.01, with the London boroughs of Enfield (£2.33), Tower Hamlets (£4.45) and Ealing (£6.39) and North Somerset (£5.89) also underspending on services.

Conversely, Birmingham South and Central CCG has allocated the most for such services of any of England’s 209 CCGs – £135.85 – while the figure is £131.37 in Corby CCG and £126.76 in South Tyneside.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “Our analysis shows that in many areas of the country, the proportion of money that NHS clinical commissioning groups are planning to spend on the mental health of our children and young people is negligible. We know that more than half of all adults with mental health problems were diagnosed in childhood and less than half were treated appropriately at the time. It is a national scandal that opportunities to prevent mental illness from occurring in childhood are being missed because of unacceptably low investment.”

Peter Hindley, chair of the RCPsych Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, added: “This research confirms the stories I hear from colleagues every day; that desperately needed money, promised to child and adolescent mental health services is not getting through to local services in many parts of the country. Without this investment, it will be nigh on impossible to deliver the best outcomes for children, young people and their families, let alone achieve the national target of ensuring 70,000 more children receive treatment for their mental illness by 2021. The College calls upon commissioners to revisit their planned spend in this vital yet chronically underfunded area.”