190
Accepted in Part
Establish national mission, assess, and fund rural youth mental health services provision.
Recommendation
Given the over-reliance on CAMHS in rural areas as a response to mental ill- health amongst children and young people there is an urgent need to address the shortfall in youth services. Including youth services under the levelling-up agenda would give children and young people’s wellbeing the strategic prominence and profile it needs. It is therefore a missed opportunity that it has not been included in the levelling-up missions, or at least, identified as key to levelling-up in the ‘rural overview’ of the missions (in DEFRA’s second rural proofing progress report). The Government is investing new funding to grow youth services, but we are not able to evaluate how much it addresses rural need or to what extent it is starting to bring them up to previous levels of service. (Paragraph 190) We recommend that: a) the Government amend the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill to include an additional mission on young people’s mental health and wellbeing and the Rural Mental Health 83 provision of youth services; and develop a metric to measure progress with ONS, for youth services and outcomes for young people’s wellbeing in rural and urban areas b) DCMS and DEFRA issue a call for evidence, consulting with local government, charities and children and young people, to assess current and planned new provision for rural youth services against need, to establish if a projected shortfall remains, and c) by the end of this year, 2023, DCMS and DEFRA to publish findings from the call for evidence on rural youth services and develop proposals to fund and make up for any shortfall in provision over the next ten years. 84 Rural Mental Health
Government Response Summary
The government states mental health is a priority driver for the Levelling Up mission and reiterates the National Youth Guarantee by 2025. It rejects a new call for evidence, citing a recent review, but points to existing £300m investment in the Youth Investment Fund and its ongoing independent evaluation, whose findings will be shared with Defra.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The Levelling Up White Paper included a mission to improve well-being and to reduce spatial disparities in well-being. The mission was published as exploratory in the White Paper and since then, government has been carrying out analytical work and engagement to define a clear, credible, and ambitious mission. The drivers of well-being and metrics for the mission are being finalised but mental health has been identified as one of the priority drivers for the mission. The mission will seek to improve the well-being of children and young people as well as adults. The government recognises the vital role that youth services play in a young person’s life. This is why we have committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer, including young people living in rural areas... Because the review was conducted so recently and with such a large number of young people, we do not believe it is proportionate to run an additional external consultation at present. To support equitable access to youth services we are already investing over £300 million through the Youth Investment Fund (YIF), building, and refurbishing up to 300 youth centres across the country. The published methodology for choosing eligible areas was carefully designed to ensure a spread of urban and rural areas... There is an independent evaluation of YIF, being led by Ipsos Mori, that is running throughout the programme. We will look at findings on rural youth services receiving funding as they develop right across the National Youth Guarantee, ensuring findings are shared with Defra.
Timeline
Recommendation age
3.0 yrs
Report published
18 May 2023