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The health service is continuing to fail mentally ill children and young people, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned.
Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green said despite some authorities making good progress towards achieving government targets, many others still had “some way to go” in achieving this.
Labour is working towards ensuring no children or young people are inappropriately placed on adult mental health wards by 2010.
The remarks were made following a report setting out the progress made so far by primary care trusts (PCTs) and mental health trusts (MHTs) in meeting the target.
The assessment was made in the report Out of the Shadows?, a joint publication by the Children’s Commissioner, the charity YoungMinds and the group Very Important Kids.
It follows on from a report Pushed Into the Shadows, carried out on behalf of Sir Al and published last January, which said young people with mental health problems were receiving inappropriate and inadequate care on adult wards because of a shortage of hospital beds for under-18s.
Steve Shrubb, director of the Mental Health Network, which represents the majority of NHS mental health trusts, said: “The case for investing in child mental health and health generally is unarguable.
“This report will be useful in helping trusts identify where improvements need to be made.”
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