Children’s Adviser welcomes King’s Speech commitment to mental health

A “concerned about the future” children’s councilor has urged the new government to tackle children’s mental health. The Labor administration used the King’s Speech yesterday to highlight plans to prioritize mental health on an equal footing with physical health, particularly for children and young people.

Carol Lyndon MBE, from Great Barr, has been working with young people since 2006. The former director said phones have reduced resilience among young people and the effect of the pandemic cannot be underestimated.

When she started in her role as an adviser to the NSPCC, the 75-year-old said the issues young people turned to were “much simpler”. Carol said: “They would call us about bullying, arguments with parents, family relationships or partners or that they might be pregnant.”

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The grandmother of four said in the early 2010s, everything changed for children: “As computer technology advanced and children had mobile phones, they were sitting at home at night, by any means you like, they couldn’t escape. This one. Then there was a wave of resistance.

“Before, if you had a bad day, you had a bad day, you got over it. Now there is a real lack of resistance. When I started here, it was almost three years before I got my first suicide call. It was such a shock. Now, it’s four, five, six contacts every day.”

Carol said the NSPCC was receiving more calls because there were fewer options for children who needed support.

She said: “You only have to look at the schools that have educational psychologists that they bring in if they have troubled children. They have no time and no funding. Children are not picked up from schools. Family doctors make referrals, then kids go on waiting lists that last three years, four years. The explosion has worsened since covid.

“The new government must immediately invest funding in mental health services. They need to invest more money in local children’s services. Where can the children go in the evening? All youth services were closed. I don’t go outside, I don’t get fresh air, I just sit there on tablets.”

Carol said that on the one hand, there wasn’t enough for the kids to do, but on the other hand, because of the constant stimulation from the screens, the kids were suffering from withdrawal and they didn’t have the ability to be bored. The screens also skewed a young person’s perspective because they didn’t see other people having a bad day on social media, she said.

She said: “Communities need to come together. I am very worried about the future of the current generation.”

The NSPCC is currently recruiting volunteers. For more information about volunteering or support, click here to go to the charity’s website.