YoungMinds responds to Milburn report

The review lays bare the scale of the task facing ministers, including the need to increase support for young people’s mental health.

Crucially, it also explodes the myth that it is a shortage of effort by young people that is somehow holding them back. It is instead a shortage of mental health support and the need for action on the drivers of poor mental health, such as academic pressures, poor housing, and online harms.

Turning the situation around will take investment and a whole-government approach. We need an end to the high stakes school exams system which damages the mental health of many young people by teaching them their worth is tied to their grades without sufficiently preparing them for life after school. Alongside this we need early and sustained intervention to support young people’s mental health through the roll out of more community hubs. And we need the Treasury to recognise that money spent on someone when they are young can benefit them and the country for a lifetime.