Most young people with a mental health condition do not get the treatment they need, and government should step up action to increase staff numbers and develop required skills, according to a new report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The report, ‘Mental health services for children and young people’ states that in 2017 to 2018 only three in ten children and young people with a mental health condition received NHS-funded treatment, and many more faced unacceptably long waits for treatment.
The report highlights that the government has committed to providing ‘parity of esteem’ between mental and physical health services, but it is still unclear what it means by this in practice. It also has no comprehensive, long-term plan for how it will fulfil its commitment to implement Future in Mind, which set out a cross-sector vision for how to support children and young people’s mental health.