Children’s Mental Health

Olivia Blake Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Olivia Blake (Sheffield, Hallam) (Lab)]

I am glad we are talking about this issue today, because the figures quoted at the beginning of the debate are shocking. In my area of south Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, three quarters of children referred to mental health services are not seen within the four-week period. I find that beyond belief, but in other areas of the country that rises to nine in 10 children. That is a horrific indictment of the Government’s approach and just goes to show that setting a target is only half the job. The energy and resources need to be put into meeting it too.

Other Members have eloquently outlined the broader picture of the crisis in children’s mental health, and Labour’s plan to address it. I want to use the opportunity of this debate to highlight a particular mental health problem and the effect that the lack of specialist services is having on children. The pandemic has seen soaring numbers of children suffering eating disorders. Some statistics we have not heard yet today are that between April and October last year 4,238 children were admitted to hospital with an eating disorder. That is an increase of 41% on the figures in 2020 and an increase of 59% on 2019, when the figure was 2,508. That is a dramatic increase in eating disorder inpatients, which should be incredibly concerning to all of us.

Of all the mental health issues, eating disorders are the No. 1 killer. It is perhaps even more concerning that, when these children and young people are admitted, the shortage of tier 4 beds and mental health practitioners means that they are often put in the wrong place in the system and do not receive support from people trained in eating disorders. These children are suffering from acute mental health problems and, unfortunately, restraint is regularly used on health wards, not mental health wards. That is not a good intervention, and it is not an appropriate therapeutic pathway for such acutely ill children. They all deserve a tier 4 bed, given how ill they are. At the moment, they are treated only for the physical consequences of their eating disorder and do not receive any kind of mental health intervention. That ignores the whole cause of their eating disorder.

Members have highlighted that we are failing our young people and children on the four-week target. It is also vital that the care that is finally provided is provided by the right people, not by people who are unqualified to meet their needs, as is happening to thousands of children with eating disorders up and down the country. There is a real danger that the system is actively contributing to making their mental health problem worse and harder to treat.

Does the Minister have figures on the use of physical restraint against children with eating disorders in acute wards that are not mental health wards?