Children's Mental Health Crisis: NHS Emergency Departments Overwhelmed

NHS emergency departments are seeing a 36% surge in children and young people attending in mental health crisis, with some as young as six years old arriving in significant distress. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health analysis reveals a system buckling under the weight of unmet need.

Vital Signs

Key figures from the RCPCH analysis of NHS England data:

• 75,491 A&E attendances by children for mental health concerns in 2025
• Up from 55,525 in...