Children’s Commissioner Calls for Overhaul as Mental Health Referrals Rise.

Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza has called for an overhaul of state support after reporting a 10% rise in young patient referrals last year.

Anxiety remained the most common reason for referrals, accounting for 16% of them. The longer young people go without good-quality mental health support, the more unwell they can become, increasing the likelihood that they will need crisis support. Previous research by the Royal College of Nursing found that children and young people in England experiencing a mental health crisis were spending up to three days in an A&E unit before being given a bed in a specialist unit.

The analysis also found that although more children were waiting in the system, with proportionally fewer having their referral closed, the number left waiting longer for support surged in 2024–25. More than 60,000 children were waiting more than two years for support, up from more than 44,000 the previous year.

With more than 1 million children now referred to mental health services, and many waiting months or years for support, it is clear that the system is struggling to respond to the mental health challenges young people are experiencing.