Hold an inquiry into CAMHS and NHS children’s mental health delays
33,909 people signed this petition to the UK Parliament after it opened on 3 December 2025; it closed on 3 June 2026. The Government responded on 19 December 2025.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Hold an inquiry into CAMHS and NHS children’s mental health delays
Establish an inquiry into reported failures in CAMHS and NHS delays affecting children’s mental health, school attendance, and welfare outcomes.
Many children face long waits for CAMHS and NHS mental health support, which can leave families without help and pupils unable to attend school. Access to care and GP prescribing of SSRIs can vary by postcode, which can create unfair treatment gaps. These failures can harm education and drive rising welfare costs. EHCP's are also being affected as we feel the H (Health) parts are not being addressed. This can cause further costs to cash strapped local authorities. An inquiry is needed now.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 19 December 2025; the petitions site lists the Department of Health and Social Care as responsible. Its summary:
The Government has no current plans to establish an inquiry. Multiple actions are in place to improve and reform NHS mental health services and provide children with timely access to appropriate care.
The opening 365 words of the 722-word response:
The nation’s mental health has deteriorated over the past decade. Lord Darzi’s investigation highlighted that people accessing NHS mental health services — including children and young people — face long waits, variable quality of care and persistent inequalities.
This Government has already taken important steps to stabilise and improve mental health services, but we recognise that much more needs to be done. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a fundamentally new approach to mental health care.
Progress is already being made. In the first 12 months of this Government, nearly 40,000 more children and young people accessed NHS mental health support compared with the previous year. This has been supported by the recruitment of over 7,000 additional mental health workers since July 2024, putting us on track to meet our target of 8,500 by the end of this Parliament.
We are also investing in innovation and evidence-based improvement. Since July 2024, more than £100 million has been awarded through National Institute for Health and Care Research mental health research programmes to improve treatments and care pathways. This includes £1.5 million awarded in October to 17 innovative health technology projects aimed at reducing waiting times for children and young people.
The NHS 10 Year Health Plan sets out an ambitious programme of reform to make the NHS fit for the future. Building on this, we will go further to ensure mental health services consistently deliver timely, high-quality care. It is clear that ‘more of the same’ will not suffice. We will continue to reform how mental health support is delivered, reducing waits, improving quality and embedding a whole-of-society approach focused on prevention and early intervention.
By spring 2026, up to 900,000 additional children and young people will have access to an NHS-funded Mental Health Support Team in their school or college. As part of our shift from treatment to prevention, we will accelerate rollout to achieve full national coverage by 2029. We will also strengthen workforce capability to better support young people with complex needs, including trauma, neurodivergence and disordered eating. To support this, we are investing £13 million to pilot enhanced staff training, informing future phases of the programme.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions.json?state=with_response&page=9UK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
9303e014447855ca… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
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