A new report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), funded by The Prudence Trust in partnership with Youth Access, finds significant geographic disparities in the availability of early mental health support services for young people. The report found no clear correlation between the level of need and the range of support on offer. In addition, new data indicates that hospital admissions for mental health issues among 11-25-year-olds have increased by 20% since 2017.
Youth Access' member network of local youth advice and counselling services offer local, easy-to-access services, tailored to the diverse needs of young people, and are proven to be a lifeline for those who can’t get that support elsewhere. However as highlighted in the report, there is a postcode lottery in the availability of these services, and where they do exist they are too often overstretched and underfunded.
The Government’s commitment to support young people to access drop in mental health support in every community through a network Young Futures Hub has huge potential to address this treatment gap. For this programme to be a success the needs and wants of young people must be central to service planning and delivery. The roll out must build on existing successful practice, be tailored to local need and address inequity in access to support.
Importantly, it must also not lose sight of its central function in providing early access and drop-in mental health and wellbeing support.
Cassandra Harrison, CEO at Youth Access said:
It is shocking that more young people than ever are reaching crisis point and left to seek treatment in A&E departments for their mental health. Young people deserve to be offered early support to safely ride the waves on their journey into adulthood.
The Government’s commitment to providing drop-in mental health support for children and young people through Young Futures Hubs is a window of opportunity to address the treatment gap and set all young people up for a healthy adulthood.
The report's key findings include:
● There is substantial variation across the country in the range of mental health support services outside of NHS settings available to young people
● NHS providers of specialist mental health services to young people are often unaware of the services operating in their area, indicating that they are unable to signpost young people who do not meet thresholds for access to NHS treatment to a suitable service
● Marginalised young people, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those from ethnic minority groups who have documented barriers to accessing mental healthcare, are particularly underserved when it comes to targeted services
● In a third of integrated care systems, we find that data on the impact of accessing mental health support on young people’s mental health is not being comprehensively collected
● New data from NHS England shows that, between 2017 and 2023, the number of young people aged 11 to 25 being admitted to hospital for mental health reasons increased by 20 per cent to about 150,000, whilst admission episodes rose by a third
The report recommends
- The rollout of Young Futures Hubs, a key pillar 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, identified through this and previous research. The government should facilitate knowledge sharing across local systems, commissioners and service providers, particularly in areas of weakness identified by this research, such as using data for improving services, addressing inequalities, involving young people and their families in service improvement efforts, and measuring outcomes following engagement with services.
- The government should commission research exploring the availability of non-specialist, including early intervention, services for young people’s mental health, and the extent to which these are meeting young people’s needs – particularly for groups of young people less likely to access specialist healthcare.
- Given the notable level of variation in awareness about services across commissioners and providers of these services, NHS England should create clear guidelines supporting good governance and joined up working to address fragmentation between NHS trusts, local authorities and the voluntary sector.
Find out more about the Youth Access member network of local community services and the Youth Access Model for youth advice and counselling services.