Are we listening? A review of children and young people’s mental health services (6 August 2019)

Summary

This report describes the findings of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) review of children and young people’s mental health services. The report focuses on three main aspects of the mental health system for children and young people:

• People’s experience of and involvement in care
• How partners plan and deliver services that offer high quality care that can be accessed in a timely fashion
• How partners in the local area identify mental health needs and what they do to start the process of getting the right support for children and young people

The CQC spoke with staff working across different parts of the system, children, young people, parents, families and carers. They also reviewed policies and procedures, and used ‘case-tracking’ to examine in detail how individual children and young people with mental health problems moved through the system.

Content

The report found that access for children and young people was inadequate. It found that the system was complicated, and there was not a clear, easy way to get support. It made the following recommendations:

1. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care should make sure there is joint action across government to make children and young people’s mental health a national priority, working with ministers in health, social care, education, housing and local government
2. Local organisations must work together to deliver a clear ‘local offer’ of the care and support available to children and young people
3. Government, employers and schools should make sure that everyone that works, volunteers or cares for children and young people are trained to encourage good mental health and offer basic mental health support
4. Ofsted should look at what schools are doing to support children and young people’s mental health when they inspect