Mental health charity calls for government to eradicate need for mental health hospitals for children by 2030

Every child whose mental health deteriorates to the point of requiring hospital treatment represents ‘a failure of the state', a mental health charity has said, as it calls for the government to reduce child mental health hospital admissions to zero by 2030. 

Rethink Mental Illness has published a new report on mental health services for children and young people, and analysis by the charity today reveals that at the end of September there were 915 children receiving treatment for their mental health on an inpatient ward in England.* 

The report identifies three distinct groups of children who are falling through the gaps between services. These are the children and young people stuck on long waiting lists for support from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS); children and young people who do not meet the threshold for CAMHS but whose needs are too complex for school-based support or early access hubs; and young people who disengage during the difficult transition to adult services. 

Georgina, 18, Bath, is autistic and experiences ADHD, depression and anxiety. She is a university student and youth board member for the charity Beyond. She said: “If I'd received support that was higher-quality and more urgent from CAMHS in the first place, I wouldn't have deteriorated to the point that I needed hospital care, saving both myself and my family a lot of stress and pain.   

“I first began struggling with my mental health and self-harming when I was 14. Long waits for treatment from CAMHS left my family with no choice but to pay for private treatment, where I received poor quality care and was given heavy dosages of medication but no therapy. My mental health deteriorated to such a degree that CAMHS said my needs were too severe for its service, and finally I had to go to A&E and be admitted onto an inpatient ward. In my first hospital stay there was no classroom or tutors available for me to continue my studies. A different member of staff from CAMHS came to visit every other day, which made me feel even more disorientated. The second time I was in hospital, there was nothing to do, no television or board games, and I wasn't allowed to go outside.  

“I've experienced similar issues in the transition to adult services when I turned 18. I found out recently that CAMHS hadn't made the referral, and due to a gap in support, I've had to seek out help from a private psychiatrist again.  

“I was first diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, but I have since learned that I'm autistic. I've now accessed specific mental health support related to this, which has helped me become stable and independent enough to live away from home and thrive at university, where I'm working towards my dream of helping others through drama therapy.”  

The report highlights that the median wait time for a child who had received a first contact from CAMHS was two weeks. However, this masks the extreme delays experienced by children who are still waiting to receive their first contact from CAMHS, with a median wait time of six months, and some waiting up to two years. 

The Children's Commissioner has estimated that there were 373,000 referrals rejected by CAMHS in 2022/2023. Rethink Mental Illness warns in its report that this group of children could be the 'missing middle' falling through the cracks between services because they do not meet the threshold for CAMHS but have needs that are too complex for school-based support.  

The report also highlights learnings from Rethink Mental Illness and Mental Health UK's work supporting older children, with inconsistent approaches across the country meaning many young people drop away from the system as they transition to adult mental health services, due to further delays and poor planning. 

Evidence is gathering of a crisis in child and adolescent mental health, with the NHS estimating that the number of children and young people with a probable mental health disorder had increased to 1 in 5. Efforts have been made to widen access to support, but mental health services are struggling to meet the rising demand, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists has reported a surge in the number of children requiring emergency support. 

Brian Dow, Deputy Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness, said: “A child needing to receive treatment in a mental health hospital is not an unavoidable fact of life; it is the consequence of political decisions which mean we have failed to adequately support that child early enough. This lack of prevention and early intervention is causing the poor mental health of children to deepen into severe mental illness, which can be incredibly difficult to resolve and often persists well into adulthood.  

“No child should have to be separated from their family, friends and schools and forced to spend weeks, months or years in a mental health hospital where they miss out on crucial milestones. Until our leaders set a bold target to eradicate the need for mental health hospitals for children, supporting mental health early will not be a priority and inpatient care will continue to be the only solution, albeit an unsafe and ineffective one. Achieving this goal will require hard work between government, schools, local authorities and charities, and there will inevitably have to be investment and innovative thinking to both tackle the drivers of mental illness in children and to repair the cracks we've seen within mental health services.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editor 

*The figure on the number of children on a mental health inpatient ward is taken from NHS Digital Mental Health Monthly Statistics, Performance September 2024. 

About Rethink Mental Illness 

Rethink Mental Illness is the charity for people severely affected by mental illness. No matter who a person is or how bad their situation has got, we are here to help them get the information and support they need to live a better life.  

We work tirelessly to ensure people living with mental illness and their carers are listened to, treated fairly and have easy access to services that meet their mental health needs and wider physical health, financial, housing, work and volunteering needs. 

We do this by providing our own services, campaigning on a local and national level, and working with a wide range of other organisations to create communities that care.