Topic: mental health services, CAMHS
Latest data from NHS England shows 932,822 young people aged under 18 had an active referral to mental health services in March. This includes 134,837 new referrals. Both figures are the highest on record for a single month. New referrals are up 11% on the previous month and 2% higher than the same time last year. The number of active referrals also includes young people waiting to start treatment and those already receiving support.
The numbers of urgent, very urgent and emergency care referrals for young people under 18 reached 8,631, an increase of 16% (7,443) compared with the previous month. This includes 1,383 very urgent referrals, rising 10% from February. The previous highest was 1,284 in June 2025.
Young people are also continuing to face long waits for support. For the eighth month in a row the average waiting time was over 300 days, with young people waiting an average of 301 days in March, up 13 days on the same time last year. In the worst cases, young people waited more than two and a half years (1,006 days) for support, up 146 days from the same period the previous year and the highest number of all time.
These alarming figures highlight the sheer scale of the mental health emergency. While waiting lists for the treatment of physical health problems are going down, the time young people are spending trying to access specialist support for their mental health continues to rise.
So many pressures are harming young people’s mental health, including academic demands, rising living costs and inequality. We need more investment in mental health services, but we also need to tackle these root causes of poor mental health. The announcement that a cross-government mental health strategy is to be developed is welcome but with a record number of young people being referred for support we can’t wait until that strategy is in place to turn things around. We need both a long-term plan and urgent action.
Data from NHS England, released May 2026 for reporting period March 2026
Very urgent, urgent and emergency referrals definition:
- Urgent – seen within 24 hours from referral
- Very urgent - seen within 4 hours from referral
- Emergency - seen within one hour from referral from an emergency department
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