Campaigns

In all our work in this area children and young people views are central and therefore our policy and campaign priorities are driven by their experiences and opinions.

This is achieved through our work with our Very Important Kids panel, which provides a much needed voice for children and young people with mental health problems.

The panel members campaign regionally and feed into national policy making as well as talking directly to the media about their experiences and ideas on how to improve support for young people.

We also consult regularly with our Healthy Heads group, an online community of children and young people with mental health problems which further informs the content and priorities of our work.

Manifesto, School Support Alliance and  Vaccination Against Violence Action Plan

Manifesto

We launched our young people's manifesto on mental health in June, featuring Messin' with our heads, the powerful film made by VIK. Please sign our petition and urge your MP to sign the parliamentary Early Day Motion, which has currently been signed by 92 MP's.

In the run up to the forthcoming general election we want all the political parties to sign up to the manifesto's key pledges and include them in their own manifesto's. since the launch we have met with MP's from all the political parties to discuss the manifesto and our VIK group have been campaigning regionally and nationally to raise awareness of its points.

This has included meetings with regional MP's, speaking to Health Minister Phil Hope and VIK speaking to the National Advisory Council as a part of the New Horizons consultation on improving mental health.

On 11^th January we launched our YoungMinds manifesto  policy recommendations in parliament with speakers Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Loughton MP Shadow Minister for Children and Martin Ward, Deputy General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. The policy recommendations have been formulated from the manifesto and consist of four pledges that we would like to see implemented in all the political parties manifesto’s in the run up to the next general election and for these recommendations to be embedded in government policy from then on.

The policy recommendations are;

•           Reduce stigma

•           Improve transitions

•           Healthy Young Minds Standard

•           Training for the children’s workforce

Download the policy recommendations here

School Support Alliance 

At least a million children of school age in England have a health condition – many of them are struggling as the support they need is not yet in place. YoungMinds are part of a growing alliance of over 30 organisations which includes Mencap, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation who are calling for:

• Schools and other learning providers to have a statutory duty to provide support for children with health conditions
• Robust collection of data on the number of children with health conditions
• All schools to produce and implement medical support policies as part of their duty to promote pupil well-being
• Inclusion of school support for health conditions in Ofsted inspections
• Appropriate support and training for school staff.

As part of the Alliance YoungMinds VIKs have taken letters to and met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, taken part in a Question time event with Diana Johnson MP, Labour, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Children, Schools and Families,Tim Loughton MP, Conservative, Shadow Minister for Children, Schools and Families, Annette Brooke MP, Liberal Democrat, Shadow Minister for Children, Schools and Families, Jim Cunningham MP, Labour, PPS to Mike O'Brien MP, and Dr Sheila Shribman, National Clinical Director – Children, Young People and Maternity Services.

Vaccination Against Violence Action Plan

This is our strategy on early intervention which we are raising awareness and campaigning on to highlight the social and financial benefits of early intervention. Investment in early universal intervention will enable early identification of vulnerable infants, children and families.

Research shows that addressing parenting relationships, child development and emerging mental health problems early on is the key to reducing our social care bills across all departments in the long run. Crime, unemployment, homelessness and bad health can all be adverse effects of what may initially be a relatively minor issue. So the key is to nip such problems in the bud though strategic investment in certain areas, thereby saving expenditure in other areas further down the line.

The total cost of mental health problems in England is currently more than £77 billion a year, which is double previous estimates. The costs include NHS and private care for people with mental health problems. The total cost of care is estimated to be over £12 billion. A further £23 billion is lost as many people diagnosed with a mental health problem are unable to work. Reduced quality of life and loss of life may account for nearly £42 billion every year (Sainsbury's Mental Health Foundation). These figures look set to rise if nothing is done.

For example, a study which followed a group of 10 year olds for 18 years found that antisocial behaviour in childhood is a major predictor of how much an individual will cost society…by the age of 28 costs for individuals with conduct disorder are 10 times higher than for those with no problems. Over this period the mean individual total costs were £70,019 for this group, compared with £7,423 for those with no identifiable problems this massive difference in these two sums highlights the importance in early intervention in the lives of these young people who are susceptible to falling into social exclusion (Financial Costs of Social Exclusion, 2001).

Action points:

• Break the vicious cycle of generations of families inflicting damage on their children
• Teach parenting skills to all new parents
• Take children out of abusive families
• Create an army of health visitors for all families to support the development of a good relationship between mother and baby
• Fathers must take responsibility for their children's emotional well being
• Target intervention and supervision for all at risk families
• Everyone who works with children must have knowledge of how a child develops
• Teach children emotional literacy and provide mental health support in schools

The Flavasum Trust

We are also working with the Flavasum Trust to raise awareness of how  theatre can reach out to young people to prevent them carrying knives and weapons. Knife and gun crime plague the fringes of our communities, and we believe for a young person to threaten, maim or kill another young person with a weapon  we are dealing with poor mental health characterized by lack of empathy, emotional regulation or social skills. This is why early intervention and education in schools, youth and community groups to raise these issues  through creative means is vital for all young people, and especially those that are marginalized and for whom traditional education often fails.

More information on our recent event with the Flavasum Trust at the Unicorn Theatre.

Get involved

If you would like to get involved in our campaigning and policy work please contact our Director of Campaigns and Participation, Lucie Russell at lucie.russell@youngminds.org.uk