Recommendation 5

The Department of Health and Social Care—in partnership with the Department for Education and all other relevant Government departments—must take radical steps to shift the focus in mental health provision towards early intervention and prevention. This must ensure that all children and young people under the age of 25 can receive mental health support as early as possible and no young person is turned away from mental health support for not being ill enough. The Department must focus its attention on: Children and young people’s mental health 55 a) the faster roll out of Mental Health Support Teams, as detailed in Chapter 3 of this report; b) a network of community hubs based on the Youth Information Advice and Counselling service model detailed in Chapter 4 of this report and; c) digital support, as detailed in Chapter 4 of this report.