On October 30, the UK House of Commons Library published a research briefing, Children and Young People’s Mental Health: Policy and Services (England), highlighting the growing demand for mental health support among children. In 2024/25, more than one million children in England—approximately one in ten—had a referral to mental health services.
The scale of the problem was underscored in June 2026, when England’s Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, declared there was a “crisis in young people’s mental health…with many waiting months, and sometimes years, for the help they urgently needed.”
On October 9, the independent Fonagy Review, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, published its findings on mental health conditions, ADHD and autism. He identified financial insecurity, loneliness, educational pressures, social media and disrupted sleep as contributing factors to increasing mental distress. He noted that while the demand for mental health services has risen, children are waiting long for treatment and many are left without any assistance until they receive a diagnosis.
Fonagy proposed a shift: from a diagnosis-dependent system to a needs-led plus diagnosis system. Quick support according to the severity and impairment. Diagnosis offered where appropriate, but not as a locked gate.
The UK government has now moved in this direction.
In T&T, parents too are often told an assessment must come first, while teachers may feel unable to provide support without a formal report. Meanwhile, children wait months for Child Guidance or Student Support Services as their difficulties worsen.
It may benefit us to adopt such a parallel system: one for assessment and diagnosis, and another for early intervention. An anxious child struggling to sleep, learn or cope should receive help immediately through counselling, classroom adjustments and parental guidance. Diagnosis can follow, but support should not wait.
This does not mean abandoning diagnosis. Children with neurodevelopmental and intellectual disabilities still require assessment, specialist intervention and appropriate educational accommodations.
England has also decided to move care out of the specialists’ clinics alone, from their national Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, towards a broader range of support through mental health support teams (MHSTs) in schools (already in 80 per cent of secondary schools) and local-authority-led Young Futures Hubs (YF Hubs), one placed in each region where a young person can walk in for mental health support, career guidance and help with life skills and crime prevention. The programme targets young people aged 10–18, extending to 25 for people with special educational needs and disabilities. England plans to establish 50 hubs by March 2029.
In T&T, we already have structures in place, including the Student Support Services Division (SSSD) within the Ministry of Education, Child Guidance Clinics within the Ministry of Health, Adolescent Clinics in primary healthcare and the services offered by the Children’s Authority.
Also, the National Therapeutic and Resource Centre at Carlsen Field has been recently operationalised, providing occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy and behavioural therapy.This was welcome news for families who have spent years seeking assistance for their children.
With increasing referrals of children to our already overburdened and understaffed specialist clinics, alongside growing concerns about juvenile offending, we must look closely at England’s YF Hubs.
Could we adapt this approach, bringing mental health support, mentoring, technical and educational assistance, family guidance and youth services closer to the communities where children live? Rather than waiting for problems to escalate into psychiatric crises, school failure or offending behaviour?
Schools are not simply places of academic instruction; they are also environments where emotional, behavioural and developmental difficulties can be recognised early.
Our SSSD should be expanded, with dedicated teams in every secondary school, not as visitors but becoming an integral part of the school community, providing timely access to counsellors, social workers and other specialist personnel. This would be similar to England’s MHSTs, which provide mental health support within schools.
T&T needs a system where, when a teacher recognises a child experiencing emotional distress, learning difficulties, persistent aggression or other behavioural changes, the school support team is readily available to respond. Children should not have to wait months for assistance or for their difficulties to escalate before intervention begins.
Early identification would allow children to receive appropriate support, with referral for specialist assessment when necessary. Our objective should be to identify, assess and support children much earlier, rather than allowing preventable difficulties to develop into more serious mental health, educational or social problems.
