Chancellor urged to invest in children's mental health services
120 organisations have supported an open letter the government calling on the chancellor to put children at the heart of spending plans ahead of next Monday's budget.
Anna Freud, The National Children's Bureau and Young Minds are among those backing a letter directed to Philip Hammond and Prime Minister Theresa May.
There is "compelling evidence that the services and support that children and young people rely on are at breaking point," they write.
"We believe this is because children and young people are being ignored in the Government’s spending plans."
Various evidence is referenced:
• Less than a third of children and young people with a diagnosable mental health problem will get access to NHS funded treatment this year
• Only three in a hundred families of disabled children think the health and care
services available to their children are adequate
• Almost three-quarters of school leaders expect they will be unable to balance their budgets in the next financial year
• The number of children with special educational needs who are awaiting provision has more than doubled since 2010
• Ninety children are being taken into care every day
• Up to three million children are at risk of going hungry during school holidays
The Government pledged an extra £20.5 billion to the NHS to mark it's 70th birthday this year.
Mental health will become a mandatory part of primary and secondary school education in England and Wales from September 2020.
Find out the key points in the government's draft plans and take our ten question survey to tell us what you'd like the new syllabuses featuring mental health to look like:
How does this story make you feel? We will be discussing children's mental health responses on Twitter in this week's #MHTchat from 12pm UK time, Wednesday 24 October.
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