• Future Minds – led by Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and YoungMinds, with support from the Prudence Trust – today launches a plan for the Government to fix the children’s mental health system with a detailed roadmap for action.
• The plan is released alongside a survey of 1,009 Mumsnet users with children aged 5–17, showing mental health worries are now a major part of family life, with 76% citing social media and online content as one of their top concerns.
• The survey finds many parents have had to cut working hours or take time off due to their child’s mental health needs, and very few believe Government support is adequate. Just 3% say they believe the Government is doing enough to support children’s mental health. They also reject claims that their children or professionals are over-diagnosing poor mental health and talk of the devastating consequences for all family members.

The Future Minds campaign – bringing together Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, and YoungMinds – is today (Wednesday 28 January) publishing “Future Minds: a roadmap to transform children and young people’s mental health by 2035”, a new plan to help fix the children’s mental health crisis”.

[.download] Download the report[.download]

The roadmap sets out decisive actions to expand community-based early intervention, reform specialist and crisis services, and harness digital innovation to close treatment gaps and improve outcomes. It argues that prioritising community support, widening access to effective interventions, and using digital tools can ensure children and young people get help earlier, before crises escalate.

Rising levels of distress, poor access to support, and limited government action are putting a generation’s wellbeing at risk and placing growing pressure on public services and the economy. Around one in five young people aged 8–25 now report a diagnosable mental health problem such as anxiety or depression, with girls and young women facing particularly high rates, and the UK lags behind comparable nations on key wellbeing measures. Worsening youth mental health is being driven by stagnant living standards, rising child poverty, fewer opportunities, the lasting impact of the pandemic, increasing online harms, and the erosion of trusted relationships.

The Future Minds roadmap is published alongside a new survey commissioned for Future Minds by Mumsnet, which highlights the urgent need to transform children and young people’s mental health in England.

Mumsnet received 1,009 responses from parents with a child aged 5 to 17, which reveal:

• Mental health worries are widespread: 77% of parents are concerned about their child’s mental health, with almost a third very concerned.
• Growing pressures on children: 87% say today’s children face more mental health pressures than they did.
• Top pressures: Parents cite social media and online content (76%), friendship issues and bullying (46%), and academic pressure (44%) as the biggest factors affecting children’s mental health.
• Support is hard to access: 68% of those seeking help describe the process as difficult, mainly due to long waits and challenges getting referrals or diagnoses.
• Little confidence in government action: Just 3% believe the UK government is supporting children’s mental health well; 39% say support is very poor.
• Common difficulties: Anxiety (61%), low confidence/self-esteem (60%) and school-related stress (50%) are frequently reported. Only 12% say their child has had no difficulties.
• High levels of anxiety concerns: 43% say their child has – or may have – an anxiety disorder.
• Low concern about overdiagnosis: Only 29% believe mental health problems in children are over-diagnosed.
• Impact on family life and work: 43% of working parents have reduced hours, taken time off or left a job because of their child’s mental health. 42% say their child has missed school, with 19% reporting frequent absences.
• What parents want: More school-based mental health staff and shorter NHS waiting times, particularly for specialist services.

The Future Minds’ roadmap puts forward concrete solutions to address the concerns and struggles of children, young people, and their families, calling for:

• A shift from hospital to community: stabilising specialist and inpatient services while shifting investment towards earlier, community-based support to cut the cost of crisis.
• A new digital age of treatment and support: Moving from analogue care by safely harnessing digital tools and AI to widen access, reduce waiting times, and increase productivity.
• A new era of prevention: Adopting an approach that embeds wellbeing support in schools, youth services, and families.

Among the measures proposed in the roadmap are a broadening of Mental Health Support Teams schools including more tailored support for neurodiverse young people, the delivery of Labour’s manifesto commitment to open access mental health support in every community, including through Young Futures hubs, and the expansion of pilots for young people with mental health needs to support them into work.

The roadmap also calls for more investment in mental health and wellbeing support within youth services, an expansion of social prescribing, setting clear, time-bound targets to reduce the number of children and young people in inpatient settings alongside multi-year funding for Integrated Care Boards to implement a new model of care for children and young people’s mental health.

It urges greater use of digital tools to widen access to support and complement children’s relationships with trusted professionals, pointing to hybrid models like Kooth and 42nd Street that combine online interventions with community outreach. The roadmap also argues for a new era of ‘test, learn, and scale’ that pilots promising new interventions in prevention and early support and sustained investment in rigorous research and a dedicated What Works centre for children and young people's mental health.

Andy Bell, CEO of Centre for Mental Health, said:

“The mental health of children and young people is under unprecedented strain. It is disrupting education, limiting future employment, driving up public service costs, and threatening the UK’s long-term prosperity. Too little is done to prevent mental health problems in childhood. Too many children face long waits or are turned away from specialist care, while early support is often patchy or unavailable.

“Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting now have a historic opportunity to reverse this crisis. Transforming children’s mental health must sit at the heart of the Government’s moral mission to change the course for this generation.

“The Future Minds roadmap sets out concrete steps the Government can take to do this.

“By prioritising prevention, early intervention, and both clinical and nonclinical support - and by building on existing good practice and emerging evidence - we can close the treatment gap and reduce growing levels of need, ensuring children get help earlier and more effectively.”

Connie Muttock, Head of Policy at the Centre for Young Lives, said:

“The UK is the European leader of youth unhappiness, with poor mental health in childhood reaching unprecedented heights, the consequences of which will ripple through generations to come. Parents and children are crying out for help and to find services and the Government is not yet doing enough to reform the system.

“This roadmap gives them the solutions needed to turn the tide on this growing crisis. It is just one part of a sweeping strategy we want to see from the Government to match the scale of the challenge.

“This should include both reforming the system and preventing poor mental health in the first place - from clamping down on the harmful grip of social media to tackling inequality, poverty and the range of other factors which have led to the mental health crisis facing too many children and young people.”

Justine Roberts, Founder and Executive Chair of Mumsnet, said:

“Mumsnet users are clear that children’s mental health has reached crisis point, with families feeling the impact every day. Parents are doing everything possible to support their children, often at significant personal cost, but they are battling a failing system.

“It is vital that the Government acts to reform children's mental health provision and provide the support that families urgently need.”

[.download] Download the report[.download]

ENDS

For further information contact: Jo Green (Director of Communications, Centre for Young Lives) on jo.green@centreforyounglives.org or 07715105415

Notes to editors:

1. About the Future Minds Campaign. ‍In the face of a major and growing crisis in children and young people’s mental health, four of the UK’s leading children and young people’s and mental health organisations – Centre for Mental Health, the Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and YoungMinds, with the support of the Prudence Trust – have joined forces to call on the Government to deliver urgent reform and investment.
2. The Future Minds roadmap is available here.
3. The data tables for the Mumsnet survey are here.