National Children’s Bureau | Child mental Health Services

This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Education Safeguarding Professional, Zarine Power for the attention of all Schools.

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New research from the National Children’s Bureau and the University of Cambridge examines mental health support for children with social work involvement and those living in poverty. An analysis of over 71,000 records from a London NHS Trust showed: children with social work involvement for current concerns were more likely to have their referral rejected from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) than their peers; and children from the most deprived areas were twice as likely to be rejected than those from the least deprived areas. The report calls for children with social worker involvement to have a dedicated pathway to CAMHS that is supported by both social work and mental health specialists. It also recommends that CAMHS need more flexibility to better suit children and young people perceived to be in less “stable” situations such as those living in poverty.

Read the report: Children in most need of specialist mental health support often turned away because their situation is too unstable