More than one million children could miss out on mental health treatment warns new report
Anna Freud is part of the Future Minds campaign, which shared its mid-term report card at the Labour Party Conference 2026.
Today (28 September 2026), at the Labour Party Conference, the Future Minds campaign will publish a new mid-term report assessing the government's progress on young people's mental health at the midpoint of this Parliament and gives a 'Requires Urgent Improvement' verdict.
Anna Freud is part of the Future Minds campaign which brings together leading young people's charities and mental health organisations including Centre for Young Lives, YoungMinds, Centre for Mental Health, CYPMHC, Mental Health UK, and Mind, supported by the Prudence Trust to work together to make children and young people's mental health a national priority. Anna Freud joined the coalition earlier this year.
A system struggling to meet demand
The major new report warns that without urgent action, almost four million more children and young people in England could be referred for mental health support before the end of this Parliament, and more than 1.1 million of them - close to the population of Birmingham - could miss out on help entirely.
The report estimates that 3.9 million referrals are expected over the remainder of this Parliament, while children and young people could collectively spend more than half a billion days on waiting lists - equivalent to more than 1.3 million years.
'A Mid-Term Report Card on Children and Young People's Mental Health', gives the government's overall performance halfway through this Parliament a verdict of 'Requires Urgent Improvement', warning that progress is failing to keep pace with rising need and that ministers are running out of time to deliver on their promises to children and young people.
The report will be launched at a Future Minds panel event at the Labour Party Conference, chaired by leading mental health advocate Alastair Campbell and featuring contributions from Alan Milburn, as well as young people with lived experience, senior mental health leaders and Parliamentarians.
While the report welcomes the progress that the government has made, including the expansion of Mental Health Support Teams in schools, reforms to the Mental Health Act, investment in Young Futures Hubs and action to address child poverty, it concludes that these measures are being undermined by insufficient investment and a lack of system-wide reform.
The report paints a stark picture of a system still struggling to cope with soaring demand. More than one in five children and young people now experience a probable mental health condition, double the rate seen two decades ago, while referrals to children's mental health services have nearly doubled since 2018/19.
Growing evidence of rising mental health needs
The findings come at a pivotal moment, with the imminent publication of the independent reviews from Prof. Peter Fonagy and Alan Milburn. Both are expected to reinforce growing evidence that rising mental health need is real, significant, and having profound consequences for young people's education, employment, and future opportunities.
Today's report highlights that, since the last general election, there have been more than 2.7 million referrals to children and young people's mental health services in England. Waiting times are continuing to rise, with more than a third of children referred still waiting for support at the end of the reporting year. Almost 61,000 young people each year are reaching services in crisis. Yet less than 1% of total NHS spending in England currently goes towards mental health services for children and young people.
Priorities for the Mental Health Strategy
The Future Minds campaign is calling for the government to use its forthcoming Mental Health Strategy for England to deliver four urgent commitments:
Triple-lock spending on children and young people's mental health, ensuring funding rises by inflation, earnings growth or 2.5%, whichever is highest.
Make children and young people's mental health a national priority across government.
Introduce and enforce access and waiting-time standards for children's mental health services.
Deliver the manifesto commitment to provide open-access mental health support through Early Support Hubs in every community up to the age of 25.
Hear from the experts
Haroon Chowdry, Chief Executive of Centre for Young Lives, said:
"The mental health of children and young people is one of the defining challenges of our time. The support is not keeping up with rising levels of need.
"The Government does deserve credit for making progress in some areas. But overall, its response falls well short of the scale of the challenge and therefore requires urgent improvement. If the Government does not change course, then it will break its promise to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
"More than a million children the equivalent of the population of Birmingham could lose out on support. Every single one of them is a child with hopes, talents, and ambitions, left to wait out their teenage years in despair because successive governments have failed to prioritise their mental health.
"Piecemeal action will not be enough. The forthcoming Mental Health Strategy must be a turning point, backed by the investment, ambition and reform to ensure every young person can have good mental health, and gets help before they reach crisis."
Sam Dick, Associate Director of Policy at Centre for Mental Health, said:
"There is no avoiding the fact that, if current trends continue, millions of children and young people will require support for their mental health and far too many will wait far too long to get the support they need.
"What this report demonstrates is that addressing the children and young people's mental health crisis requires genuine cross-Government action - it cannot simply be seen as a health issue. The forthcoming mental health strategy is an opportunity that must not be missed.
"The first two years of this Government show that with concerted effort and political will, meaningful action has been taken to address bth the drivers of poor mental health and the support offered to children and young people. But significant further action is still required over the remainder of this Parliament if the Government is to adequately address the children and young people's mental health crisis. "
Read the full report