A quarter of a million children in the UK with mental health problems have been left without help from the NHS as it struggles to cope with a growing caseload amid a children’s mental health crisis.

Some NHS funds fail to offer treatment for 60% of patients referred by GPs, a study based on responses to freedom of information requests found.

V study by House magazine and shared with the Guardian, also revealed a zip code lottery: Costs per child are four times higher in some parts of the country than others, while the average waiting time for a first appointment varies by trust from 10 days to three years.

In 2021-2022, the trusts were forced to raise the threshold at which they could offer support to address backlogs, resulting in hundreds of thousands of children being rejected or denied treatment after a long wait.

The total represents 32% of all referrals compared to the previous year’s quarter, according to FoI requests sent to 70 UK Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) trusts and councils.

Previous research has shown that many of the 54 NHS Mental Health Trusts in England have raised the threshold for how sick children under 18 must be before they receive treatment, in response to the massive and persistent increase in demand for care that Covid has exacerbated. .

This prompted complaints from affected young people, their families and general practitioners who cited Camhs that even those under 18 who are seriously ill and self-harm or contemplate suicide are denied care because they are considered not sick enough. Mental health services are also struggling with a severe shortage of psychiatrists and specialized nurses.

Former Children’s Commissioner Ann Longfield said the long wait resulted in only the worst crises being prioritized. She heard repeated stories of children who tried to commit suicide but were not offered support because they had not reached the threshold of multiple attempts. “The first thing to judge is whether they really meant it,” she said, adding: “The threshold is so high because the system is failing. He fought before Covid, but the pandemic added rocket fuel to him.”

Ollie Parker, head of external affairs at YoungMinds, said the FoI findings showed “the system is completely shut down” with no “clear government plan to rescue it” after the 10-year mental health plan was cancelled.

“At the same time, young people are harming themselves and trying to commit suicide, waiting months and even years for help after being referred by doctors,” he said. “It’s not the kids who say, ‘I’m unhappy.’ They are sick, they are desperate and they need urgent help.”

Average waiting lists have risen by two-thirds in two years in England, meaning children wait an average of 21 weeks for their first appointment in England, although that figure has dropped to three weeks in Wales. Only 12% of trusts that responded to the request for information met the government’s four-week target for first appointments.

Nearly three-quarters of the English trusts surveyed said they had at least one youth waiting for at least a year, and two-fifths had someone waiting for at least two years. The longest wait was 217 weeks, with the longest wait across all trusts currently averaging 87 weeks across the UK.

It was the Roanne Brewer experience. She has two children, aged 15 and 11, who have been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, as well as other mental health issues, including self-harm. She has spent over four years on the CAMHS waiting list for her son, who is still waiting for an official ADHD assessment, while her daughter has only been offered online group therapy, which is not a good fit for her.

“No parent wants to do what I did, which is lie on the floor in my child’s bedroom every night because they are so scared and so worried. They are quite traumatized,” she said.

She had to withdraw her children from school due to lack of support and despite her low income she spent thousands of pounds on private doctors who prescribed SSRIs for her children.

She believes CAMHS lumps all of her daughter’s mental health issues under the umbrella of autism, making it hard to get targeted support despite promises before the pandemic of a new funded neurodiversity pathway at the foundation that will accelerate progress in anticipation. list. “We haven’t seen anyone yet,” she said.

The numbers are repeated in recent report from the Commissioner for Children in England, who warned that too many children were in critical condition and hospitalized, which could have been prevented by earlier intervention.

Dame Rachel de Souza, Commissioner for Children, said children’s mental health is a “key pillar” of her work. “I am especially concerned about this surge in demand for help in my recent research. We are seeing waiting times increase for the first time in years, and the number of zip codes for children referred for treatment is increasing.”

She urged the government to roll out mental health support teams in every school by the end of 2025 and any investment in mental health must be directed towards children. “It is very important that this support is available – without it, too many children could be in crisis.”

Responding to the FoI findings, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said: “We are determined to do everything we can to support the mental health of children and young people, regardless of their background or location.

“School support is vital, which is why by April 2023 we are increasing the number of school mental health teams to almost 400, supporting 3 million children and youth.

“We are also working closely with NHS England to introduce new standards for access and waiting times for mental health services, ensuring faster access to high quality care across the country.”