Mental health services for children could be moved closer to schools

The government is to consider developing child and adolescent
mental health services closer to schools, as part of its plan to
increase the role of schools in delivering local services,
writes Derren Hayes.

The announcement, made by schools minister Baroness Cathy Ashton
at a Local Government Association conference, comes as a boost to
Community Care’s ‘Changing Minds’ campaign for
better mental health care for children.

Ashton said bringing CAMHS and schools closer together could
improve the integration of health, education and social services
for children. “The question we are looking to is how we best
provide these services, and this is a model we are quite interested
in exploring more fully.”

At last month’s national social services conference in
Cardiff, health secretary Alan Milburn announced the government is
to spend £140 million over the next three years on CAMHS.