Transforming children and young people’s mental health services: A green paper

BASW welcomes the publication of the Green Paper: Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services. As an association we have long pointed to deficiencies in the mental health system that let children, young people and their families down and hinder social workers from providing the high-quality support that they are trained to give. These deficiencies must partly be seen as a direct result of the Government’s decision to reduce spending against ever increasing demand. Another key contributing factor to the deficiencies is the continued failure to establish a comprehensive system based on a clear hierarchy of need. Schools are a good place to start but cannot be where efforts end.