Surge in children seeking mental health support from cash-strapped councils, figures show
Councils just aren’t equipped to meet these allocation of resources across the UK to properly meet the needs of this vulnerable client group. This story tells us:
Soaring numbers of children seeking help for mental health issues have been blamed on savage cuts to local authority budgets.
Politicians and council leaders are calling on the government to inject funding into children’s services as an analysis of figures reveals the number of youngsters identified by councils as having mental health problems has surged by 54 per cent in four years.
The figure rose from 133,600 in 2014-15 to 205,720 in 2017-18, with more than 560 cases recorded every day last year on average.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which carried out the analysis, said children’s centres and family support services – “vital” for looking after children before problems become more serious – had lost 60p out of every £1 they had from central government over the past decade.
Some of these services have subsequently been stripped back or ended altogether, with about 1,000 Sure Start centres – which provide early years health and education services – having been forced to close down since 2010.