'We will not rest until all children get the help they need'

REGULAR readers of this column will know that I think that mental health support for children and young people in Wales has been too limited for too long.

That is why the National Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee, which I chair, has repeated its call for Welsh Government to make the emotional wellbeing and mental health of our children a national priority.

As a follow-up to the committee’s landmark report on the emotional and mental health of young people in Wales, Mind Over Matter, the committee is urging the Welsh Government to accelerate improvements for mental health services for children and young people in Wales.

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We welcome the new focus Welsh Government has placed on the emotional and mental health of our children and young people following the publication of Mind over Matter last year.

In particular, it has been positive to see the work to develop a whole school approach to mental health being taken forward by a Ministerial Task and Finish Group as a result of our inquiry. We want to see that work continue with urgency and pace.

However, there is a long way to go before the whole system adequately supports children and young people’s mental health in Wales and urgent improvements are still needed in primary mental health services and early support, crisis care and inpatient provision.

We will not rest until all children and young people get the help and support they need and deserve.

A key concern of the committee is that the NHS-led improvement programme, Together for Children and Young People, which aims to improve emotional and mental health services for children and young people, is coming to an end in October 2019 without adequate legacy arrangements being in place.

Following evidence sessions, the committee did not receive the assurances they sought - either from the Welsh Government, or from the Together for Children and Young People programme - that sufficient and robust arrangements are in place to deliver the improvements that services urgently need after the planned close of the programme.

Having heard from ministers and professionals, we are clear that the Together for Children and Young People improvement programme must be extended to ensure all services are providing timely and appropriate support, from early intervention to the most specialist care for our most unwell children and young people.

Without an extension to the Together for Children and Young People programme we believe the progress already made as well as the improvements needed would be in jeopardy.