One in five young people are experiencing a common mental health problem, such as anxiety or depression. Connecting all these young people is a shared experience of falling through the gaps in a creaking mental health system where they wait months to be seen, only to have to re-tell their story time and again. All too often, these are the stories of young people growing up in poverty, from racialised backgrounds, or girls and young women.

The consequences for children and young people’s lives run deep. They become at greater risk of missing school and violence and crime, putting their future life chances in jeopardy and continuing the cycle of poor mental health. Without timely support, the risks compound and follow them into adulthood. 

The economic impact is also sharpening. Over a quarter of the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training cite their mental health as a key factor. The easy answer may be to brush this off as ‘overdiagnosis’ but this ignores the underlying drivers.

“A child born in Britain today should live to see the 22nd century. I want them to be part of the healthiest generation that ever lived.” [Wes Streeting, Labour Party Conference 2023]

So, to the solutions. The Government has pledged more support to create the healthiest generation. Such ambition requires bold, systemic change. The NHS 10 Year Plan is a roadmap to move away from a system that spends millions trying to support young people once they are already at crisis point, and towards one that prioritises early intervention and prevention. 

The plan includes a commitment to embed mental health support in Young Futures Hubs, a key part of the Government’s plans to better identify and support young people with vulnerabilities. This follows the recommendation of the Commission on Young Lives to create a “Sure Start for Teenagers” model to provide a coordinated, cross-departmental approach to supporting young people experiencing vulnerabilities that is reflected in locally integrated support. It also responds to calls from the Fund the Hubs campaign for a nationally resourced network of early support hubs for young people’s mental health.

Improving mental health is one of three core aims of the Hubs, alongside tackling violence and crime and improving access to opportunities. To have a meaningful and lasting impact, Hubs will need to be embedded within existing local health systems in order to complement rather than duplicate existing provision.

Hubs cannot just be another means of identifying young people in crisis and referring them on for clinical support, adding to the already long lines of young people waiting for help from NHS Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services. Instead, they will need to vibrant, welcoming community spaces with a ‘no wrong door’ ethos, where staff are equipped to identify emerging needs and are able to intervene before problems escalate. This requires:

• An open access wellbeing offer as well as mental health support. Hub staff, including youth workers, are equipped to deliver a trauma-informed, evidence-based wellbeing offer. There is also capacity to identify and meet higher levels of mental health need.
• NHS support, clinical oversight, and governance: To safely deliver these evidence-based interventions within Hubs, clinical oversight and governance from the NHS will ensure that staff can identify this range of needs and work closely with specialist services to get the right help at the right time.
• Interventions in a non-clinical, community setting. Hubs should not be clinical or stigmatised environments but rather open-access community spaces with engaging activities alongside more targeted help. The success of early support hubs in offering accessible, youth-led spaces provides a foundation upon which to build.
• Embedded working relationships with specialist services. To strengthen existing networks, Hubs must become a key partner. This includes including them in Local Health and Wellbeing Strategies and Children and Young People’s Plans.

An ‘in-reach’ model – one that integrates pathways between Hubs and NHS Services - of this ambition requires close alignment across government, so that a clear vision and direction for Young Futures Hubs is conveyed to and shared by local authorities and ICBs. It also requires enough funding to provide qualified staff who can identify and intervene early, rather than simply stretching existing crisis support services even further. A new culture of ‘invest to save’ is needed to break away from the piecemeal system of support that young people currently face. 

This shared vision begins with the eight early adopter local authorities which are due to open their Hubs next year, laying the groundwork for the wider rollout. Bringing key partners around the table from the outset will set them on the right path, ensuring Hubs are able to meet local needs while remaining true to the core model.

Learning and evaluation must also be at the heart of these nascent plans, particularly when it comes to the delivery of the mental health offer, so that the model can be fine-tuned for future Hubs and a compelling case for further investment can be made.

Young Futures Hubs have the potential to be a genuine turning point for vulnerable young people. With sufficient resources and a clear, ambitious vision, they can become a cornerstone in the lives of a generation who are safer from crime and violence, supported with their mental health, and have the opportunities they need to thrive. 

The Future Minds and Fund the Hubs groups have published a paper setting out the key principles of the mental health offer within Young Futures Hubs, available here.