A ‘shocking’ analysis reveals workforce crisis, with one in three child and young person consultant psychiatrist posts unfilled in England, experts say “I can’t do that,” he said, adding to the long wait times.
The number of children and young people requiring mental health care has skyrocketed in recent years, but many face long delays in receiving treatment. While waiting, some people develop dangerously severe mental illnesses.
At the same time, persistent underfunding of health services over the past decade has devastated the ability to hire and retain enough psychiatrists to cope with the huge increase in demand for care.
Labor force research published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists shows that child and adolescent mental health services currently have the highest rate of consultant vacancies of any psychiatric specialty.
According to the census, one in five (19.2% or 162 posts) of the 842 child and adolescent consultant psychiatrist posts in England were vacant. Combined with locum-covered posts, the total vacancy rate was more than one in three (36.8% or 310 posts), the report said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Dr. Reid Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, called for immediate action from the government to resolve the workforce crisis.
“More than 15 years of chronic underfunding and pressure on mental health services has negatively impacted our ability to recruit and retain enough psychiatrists,” she said.
“As the workforce ages and pressures on staff increase, consultants are retiring without enough new employees to replace them, resulting in high staff vacancy rates and increasing pressure on the most vulnerable. Some children have delayed access to treatments that we know are effective to help them stay healthy.”
Smith said the solution is simple. “The Government must fully implement the latest NHS long-term workforce plan and help expand the mental health workforce and meet this demand, while investing in children’s mental health as a priority. We also need to fund additional services.”
Increased waiting times for children and young people to access mental health services is “unacceptable”, she added. Too many children experience deterioration in their mental health while on the waiting list, she said.
Earlier this year, The Guardian revealed that the number of children being referred to emergency mental health care in England had soared by more than 50% in three years, reflecting the impact of long waiting lists for regular NHS treatment.
In 2022-2023, there were 32,521 emergency referrals to child and youth mental health services crisis teams. In 2019-20, the year before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the figure was 21,242.
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This increase means that every week more than 600 mentally ill children are suffering from a crisis-level condition, according to NHS statistics published by the Guardian.
“We know that with early treatment, many children and young people can recover,” Smith said. “Children who receive early support are more likely to develop long-term conditions that can impact their education, social development, employment prospects, overall productivity, and of course their health later in life. Evidence shows that it is low.
“The government needs to prioritize addressing the mental health crisis in children. Anything else is short-sighted and calls for further access to services as mental health problems persist into adulthood. It creates pressure and demand, which means it costs more.”
Smith said many medical students want to choose child and adolescent psychiatry.
“Our members say that working with children and seeing them grow after treatment increases their motivation and gives them a high level of job satisfaction.However, there is a lack of training opportunities. and ultimately there will not be enough psychiatrists to meet the overwhelming need.
“This is solvable. All we need is the government to prioritize children.”
Ollie Parker, head of external affairs at children’s mental health charity Young Minds, said in response to the workforce review: “It is shocking that so many positions remain vacant.”
He said labor shortages were a “major obstacle” to increasing the number of young people supported. “It takes years to become a psychiatrist, and the government needs both long-term and short-term solutions to fill that gap.
“Skill shortages have a very real impact on young people, who already face huge waiting lists. More than one million young people under the age of 18 use services each year, and more Systemic changes are needed to support those in need and prevent young people from falling into crisis.
“The Government will urgently roll out open access early support hubs to ease pressure on the NHS and how to fill staffing shortages that are putting further strain on an already overburdened mental health system. We need to provide further details.”
A government spokesperson said: “Too many children and young people are not getting the mental health care they need and we are committed to changing this.”
“An additional 8,500 mental health Recruit workers.”
