Children and young people - community mental health and wellbeing: supports and services framework

Access and availability

35. Community-based support should be visible, easily accessible and available to all children, young people and their families.

36. Easy access to supports and services means having these situated in the places that children, young people, and their families are most likely to use or ask for them, e.g. in school, general practice, youth work or in other community settings. A single approach may not be appropriate, particularly to cover the full age range. For many children and young people, support should be integrated into aspects of their daily lives, but for others it will need to be provided in different settings.

37. A significant factor in making supports and services accessible is ensuring that children, young people and their families know where to look for help if required. This could be achieved through the supports and services being advertised locally, or the use of a dedicated website or mapping function, for example. It is important that local partnerships take active steps to promote the existence of community-based support, particularly as some people may not be aware that mental health services are provided outside the NHS.

38. For supports and services to be as accessible as possible, local partnerships should also consider the following:

• Supports and services should be available at times that children, young people and families can readily access them, not solely traditional office hours or weekdays.
• There should be an appropriate balance between the provision of face-to-face and digital supports and services, taking account of local factors such as demographics and rurality.
• There should also be an appropriate balance of provision across the age range, including consideration of older young people who may no longer be at school or who may be transitioning from children’s to adult services.
• Support should be available as close to 365 days a year as possible.
• There should be clear pathways linking supports and services with all other parts of the system.
• Self-referral is an essential element. There should also be other non-referral entry points, e.g. open access, drop-in and digital.

39. To ensure fully accessible supports and services, there should be specific consideration of at-risk groups and provision made for these, taking account of local needs. Local partnerships should also consider the impact of health inequalities and barriers to support. This should systematically focus on children and young people with protected characteristics as well as other groups of children and young people where there is evidence of poor mental health outcomes.

40. Supports and services should also be available for family members and carers of children and young people, particularly those in a parental role and siblings. This should apply also where the child or young person is receiving additional support. For example, if the child or young person is receiving support at CAMHS or in school, their families should be able to access community-based support when it is needed. It is important to recognise that young people may be parents too and require support for both themselves and their child.

41. Resilient families will be better able to provide support at home. There is a need to provide preventative support to family members who are supporting their child or young person, and to provide whole-family support where there is already significant stress. This support should be flexible and delivered in a place and in a way that is most appropriate for the family.

42. Consideration should be given to how help can be provided where required for children and young people to access supports and services. Additional measures to ensure that supports and services are accessible may include:

• Offering facilitated transport.
• Providing interpreters and making information available in multiple languages.
• Providing childcare in supports and services that are aimed at young parents.
• Sharing venues by providing supports and services alongside other more general supports that may be frequently or easily accessed, e.g. youth or sport clubs.
• Making support available to those who have existing relationships with the child or young person, including multi-disciplinary consultation on how best to support the child or young person.