The government should look more closely at how existing mental health services - including those delivered in schools - are meeting the needs of young people, according to a report published today.
The report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) says that the government should commission research to investigate how existing services are meeting demand.
It warns that there is substantial variation across the country in the range of mental health support services outside of NHS settings available to young people. It also reveals that hospital admissions for mental health reasons have increased by 20 per cent since 2017 for 11- to 25-year-olds.
Reacting to the report, the country’s largest teaching union NEU has said that schools “do not have the resources or staff to continue carrying the weight of a broken system” and should no longer be expected “to pick up the pieces of a breakdown in mental health support”.
It was previously reported that schools were being left to deal with a “tsunami of pressures” hitting pupils’ wellbeing post-pandemic.
The EPI report, which was commissioned by mental health charity the Prudence Trust, recommended that the government “should commission further research to investigate how all existing mental health services, including non-specialist and specialist services, delivered in all relevant settings, including schools, are meeting demand for young people’s mental health at all levels”.
EPI has also recommended that additional research should examine incidence patterns in more depth to improve understanding of need and demands for services.
The report found “substantial variation across the country in the range of mental health support services outside of NHS settings available to young people”.
And it found that half of the areas did not have a targeted service for LGBTQ+ young people, and two-thirds did not have any targeted service for young people from ethnic minority groups or for other underserved groups, including refugees and asylum seekers or care-experienced young people.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said the “postcode lottery for mental health provision for young people is worrying”.
He said that teachers are seeing a rise in levels of anxiety and eating disorders among students and this leads to students “struggling in school and developing difficulties with attendance”.
“Schools do not have the resources or staff to continue carrying the weight of a broken system. They should not be expected to pick up the pieces of a breakdown in mental health support any longer,” he added.
The Labour government has pledged to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
The EPI report recommended that the rollout of Young Futures Hubs - part of the new government’s programme to support young people’s mental health - should address gaps in support and work with existing open-access mental health hubs.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the findings reflect “concerns raised by school leaders, who report that pupils often face great difficulty in accessing NHS mental health support services, resulting in their condition deteriorating into a medical emergency”.
“The new government must ensure that those in need can access support promptly no matter where they live. As a matter of urgency, it must deliver on its manifesto commitment to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.”
A government spokesperson said: “We will ensure there is access to a specialist mental health professional in every school, will recruit 8,500 more mental health workers across children’s and adult services and will also roll out the new Young Futures programme to boost opportunities for our young people.”
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