Help us to make the case for early intervention

We support calls from the Royal College of Psychiatrists to turn the tide on the mental health crisis amongst children in the UK.

Dramatic increase in numbers of children requiring emergency support

Recently released NHS data has shown that in just four years, psychiatrists and their teams have seen a 53% increase in the number of children in mental health crisis, who need emergency support. Click here to read the full NHS report which was released in November.

Analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists has revealed that there were 32,521 emergency and urgent referrals to child and adolescent mental health services crisis teams in 2022-23. In 2019-20, the year before the Covid pandemic, the figure was 21,242. The increase means that more than 600 mentally ill children a week are deteriorating to such a state that they have reached crisis point.

Importance of early intervention

We agree with the Royal College of Psychiatrists that urgent investment and action are required not only to meet this demand for emergency care but also, crucially, to intervene earlier to help children and families to avoid reaching crisis point.

We know that many crises can be prevented if children and families are offered the specialist support they need at an early stage.

As Dr Elaine Lockhart, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Child and Adolescent Faculty said “The evidence shows us that children who receive support quickly are less likely to develop long-term conditions, that negatively affect their education, social development and health in later life. … Investing in children’s mental health will ultimately free up NHS time and resources, while ensuring the country has a healthy and productive population in the years to come.”  

Early intervention

The evidence shows that early intervention results in better outcomes for children, families, local communities and for the wider economy. You can read more about this on the Foundations website, the national centre for the What Works Centre for Children & Families.

Early intervention requires commitment, sustained investment, expertise and a longer term approach. The challenge is achieving this in a world of competing demands on public spending.

When responding to the recent tragic death of 2 year old Bronson Battersby in Lincolnshire earlier this year, Anne Longfield CBE, the former Children’s Commissioner and founder of the new Centre for Young Lives said;

“It’s not just a case of money, it’s a case of what you do with that money. Now we are in this really damaging cycle where more and more money is being spent on fewer and fewer children at higher and higher cost. It’s not sustainable. What we need to do is to reset the system towards working with families earlier. That’s what the Government’s own commissioned independent review led by Josh MacAlister (a former schoolteacher) said two years ago.”

Our role

WLAC is not a crisis agency. We are an early intervention agency.

We work with children and families who are referred to us by social workers, schools and GPs because they have concerns and think that counselling and therapy will help.

Our team of specialist professional therapists works with each child and their family to discuss the issues they face and together we identify the most effective forms of support. This might be 1:1 therapy, family therapy or inviting them to join one of our parenting groups or school groups. Many children and their families have different kinds of support over time, always tailored to their unique needs. Our support is flexible over time as these needs evolve.

Through counselling and therapy, we help children and their families to make positive changes in their lives and to help them avoid or prevent future crises. Many of the children and families we work with have experienced acute trauma and crises in the past; we support them to avoid and prevent recurrence. We provide a safe place for children to talk. We listen. We suggest strategies to help children and their parents to face new challenges more positively. We help children to understand their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. We help all family members to express their views, explore difficult feelings, understand each other, build on existing strengths, find solutions to problems and improve family dynamics. We help children and parents to build and strenghten their support networks and move forward more positively and with greater confidence.

How you can help

By supporting us and showing an interest in our work you are helping us to help those most in need.

Please help us to raise awareness about our early intervention work and make the case for greater investment in children’s mental health services.