Mental health services for children and young people in England have been cut by £85 million over the last five years children’s mental health charity YoungMinds revealed.
While £85 million in has been lost from the budgets of mental health trusts and local authorities over five years, £35 million was cut from the budget last year, the charity told ITV News.
Mental health services for children and young people in England have been cut by £85 million over the last five years children’s mental health charity YoungMinds revealed.
While £85 million in has been lost from the budgets of mental health trusts and local authorities over five years, £35 million was cut from the budget last year, the charity told ITV News.
The charity sent freedom of information requests to 165 clinical commissioning groups, 97 local authorities and 37 mental health trusts.
In response to the findings Dr Peter Hindley, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) Faculty, said: “This confirms the impression that our members have that significant amounts of money have been lost from CAMSH as a result of cuts to CAMHS funding. Indeed it is likely to be an underestimate because it probably underestimates the amounts lost through cuts to local authority commissioned services.”
Similarly, Sarah Brennan, Young Minds’ chief executive, told the station that the results had painted a "disturbing picture of disinvestment" at a local level.
