The number of young people presenting mental health problems at a school clinic has risen sharply in the past two years.

Andrew Havercroft, a GP in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, said that since 2000 the level of under-16s attending the Time 4U clinic - based at the local school - because of a mental health or family, relationship or school problem, had more than doubled and has now reached the same level as that for sexual health consultations.

He said that in 2001-2, 200 girls and 150 boys, mainly aged between 13 and 15, had a consultation with a GP, nurse or youth worker at the clinic, which runs for an hour once a week.

The clinic was set up in 1995 to provide health advice to young people who attend Hanley Castle High School from outlying villages.