Recommendation 13

One of the largest barriers to increasing access to mental health provision for children and young people remains the size of the mental health workforce. We have seen that children and young people’s mental health practitioners face staff shortages, increasing demand and high levels of work-related stress which in turn leads to more part-time work and increased early retirement. We have already made recommendations to the Department on providing mental health and wellbeing support to NHS staff in our previous Report into workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and Social Care. In particular, we are clear that: • Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) must be required to facilitate access to wellbeing support for NHS and social care workers across their systems, and that they are accountable for the accessibility and take-up of those services. (Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and Social Care, Second Report of Session 2021–2022, Paragraph 39); and • the level of resources allocated to mental health support for health and care staff must be maintained as and when the NHS and social care return to ‘business as usual’ after the pandemic; and that the adequacy of resources allocated to that support be monitored on a regular basis. (Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and Social Care, Second Report of Session 2021–2022, Paragraph 40).