More than a third of senior child and adolescent mental health services staff are unaware of the government's £12m fund to improve the mental health of looked-after children, new research by YoungMinds has found.

The charity's survey of England's CAMHS lead clinicians and managers reveals that 39 per cent did not know about the mental health grant or reported that it was not being used to finance priorities agreed with their local social services.

It also discovered that of the lead staff that did not know about the mental health grant, 67 per cent had not been consulted about how it should be spent. Of the respondents who said they were aware of the grant 70 per cent said it was not spent on services they deemed a priority.