Funding boost for young people’s mental health services

Children and young people will benefit from a cash injection to mental health services which includes addressing the increasing demand for the treatment of eating disorders.

An extra £40 million has been allocated to address the COVID impact on children and young people’s mental health and enhance services across the country.

One way the additional money will be spent is to support ensuring the right type of beds are in the right places, or that alternatives to admission are in place, supporting parts of the country that have more challenges in their range of bed capacity.

Across the country £10 million capital funding is being used to provide extra beds at units which provide care for young people with the most complex needs, including eating disorders, as well as £1.5 million to ensure there are additional facilities for children under 13.

This funding is on top of £79 million made available by the government to support children and young people’s mental health in the community, including via increased access to crisis and eating disorder services, and new mental health support teams being rolled out – by April 2023, there will be around 400 teams covering 35% of the country, exceeding our previous 20-25% ambition.

Claire Murdoch, national mental health director, said: “This pandemic has hit our young people hard and while services have remained open throughout, we have seen an increase in the numbers of children and young people seeking help from the NHS for their mental health.

“This additional funding is in recognition of the rising demand and our continued commitment to provide the best care as early as possible and to do as much to prevent children and young people needing hospital treatment as we do to ensure that when they are in hospital they receive the right treatment before being supported back at home.”

£30 million revenue and £10 million capital will be used across a number of schemes including supporting services to prevent the need for admission and to train staff working with children with mental health issues on children’s wards to ensure they have the skills to manage mental health conditions even if they are not specialist mental health staff.

To support staff in providing care for patients with eating disorders the investment will include specialist feeding training which will be rolled out so where appropriate this care can be given to children and young people in a standard hospital setting. But the investment will also be used to develop day services and alternatives to admissions that will include support for patients with eating disorders.

This investment recognises the complexity of mental health in children and young people who may require hospital treatment for another matter while also presenting with a mental health condition.

Money will also be spent on establishing an intensive community support role to prevent children being admitted to hospitals and facilitating earlier discharge as in many cases the best place for children and young people to receive care is in their own home.

This will enable the training of 96 associate practitioner psychologists who will be trained to practice under close supervision with those who have complex and severe mental health conditions, to provide care both in hospital and within the home.

This funding is in addition to the significant funding already committed to mental health services as part of the NHS Long Term Plan which will see a further 345,000 children and young people access mental health services by 2024.

• Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System (BLMK ICS) will fund 12 General Adolescent Unit and six Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit beds
• Intensive outreach services will be boosted in the East Midlands
• 12 additional beds will be funded in the South West
• 22 additional beds will be supported in West Yorkshire
• Three additional beds will be funded at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Investment will be made in the day service and alternative treatments provided in Kent and Sussex.