The number of urgent referrals of children in mental health crisis in England has increased by 13% this year

The number of children referred to emergency mental health services in England has risen by 10% in a year, with long waiting lists for mainstream NHS care increasingly reaching a crisis point.

There were 34,793 urgent, very urgent or urgent referrals to child and young people’s mental health crisis teams between April and October 2024, an analysis of official data from mental health charity YoungMinds showed. That compared to 31,749 in the same six-month period in 2023.

Many of the children needing emergency care – some of them suicidal or seriously ill due to eating disorders – have been on NHS waiting lists for months or, at worst, several years.

YoungMinds CEO Laura Bunt called the figures worrying and showed that thousands of children previously needed urgent help to avoid becoming seriously ill.

“Early support would help prevent many young people from becoming even sicker, but instead their mental health deteriorates, pushing them into crisis and in some cases putting young people’s lives at risk,” she said. “This is a shocking betrayal of young people and their mental health.”

She said adjustments to the system would no longer be enough to tackle the crisis. “We need major reforms that tackle the root causes of why so many young people are struggling. It should also be easier for young people to get help for their mental health when they need it. To make this possible, the Government must urgently deliver on its promise to roll out early support hubs in every community.”

The data analysis showed that there were 4,424 new high-urgent referrals to mental health crisis care teams between April and October 2024, an increase of 13% on 3,912 in the same period last year.

There were 24,886 new urgent referrals to crisis care teams between April and October, a 13% increase from 22,045 in the same period the year before. The number of new emergency referrals fell by 5% to 5,483.

Together, the figures show that there was a 10% increase in the number of urgent, very urgent and emergency care referrals in 2024, according to YoungMinds.

The Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Elaine Lockhart, said the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis and a range of other factors had had a significant impact on children’s mental health.

“We have seen an increase in the number of young people experiencing mental health problems partly because of this,” she said. “Mental health services help thousands of young people recover from mental illness every year, but they struggle to manage rising demand due to staff shortages and a lack of resources. This contributes to longer waiting lists and more young people reaching a crisis point before they can access the care they need.”

Separate data analyzed by news agency PA Media showed a 5% increase in hospital admissions in a year for the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia.

The Department of Health and Social Care recognized that too many children and young people were waiting too long to access the mental health care they needed. A spokesperson said: “We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers, give young people access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and a young futures hub in every community.”