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'Good mental health (or emotional or psychological well-being) is as important as physical health, and without it children and young people will not achieve the good outcomes Every Child Matters is designed to promote.'

'Childhood mental health problems can result in poor educational achievement, unemployment, low earnings, teenage pregnancies and marital problems as well as criminality', assaerts the latest study by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, May 2009

Mental health in childhood

10% - nearly 850, 000 children and young people aged between 5-16 years - have a diagnosable mental disorder: that's 1 child in 10 - or 3 children per class for every school in Britain – ONS Figures

95% of imprisoned young offenders have a mental health disorder. Many of them are struggling with more than one type – ONS Figures

Over half of all adults with mental health problems were first diagnosed in childhood, but less than half received appropriate treatment at the time – ONS Figures

Research by the NSPCC revealed that a third of children are worried about something, and that almost half of them find it stressful that they have nobody to talk to.

An inquiry led by Professor Robin Alexander of Cambridge University has claimed that 3.5 million younger children are affected by a worrying “loss of childhood”. The study said primary schools are engulfed by a wave of "anti-social behavior, materialism and the cult of celebrity"

49% of children say they are “worried about my future” - a dramatic rise from only 30 per cent in 2007 – Ofsted Tellus3 study, June 2008

Behavioural problems

80% of children showing behavioural problems at the age of five go on to develop more serious forms of anti-social behaviour - 'Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in Great Britain’, Office for National Statistics, 2000.

Over 90% of young offenders have had a mental health problem as a child - ONS, 2000

New Philanthropy Capital’s ‘School's Out’ Report, (September 2005), shows that one pupil in every 1,000 is permanently excluded from school every year in the UK and on any given day, at least 70,000 children play truant

According to New Philanthropy Capital the total cost of an excluded child can be up to £63,851 –‘Misspent Youth’, June 2007.

School life

Almost a third of all children had been bullied twice in the past month and five per cent reported they were bullied "most days" – OfSTED ‘TellUs3’ Ipsos Mori poll, 2008.

More than 250,000 qualified teachers no longer work in the profession and nearly 100,000 switched careers between 2000 and 2005 - more than double the number that left in the preceding five-year period. – ONS, 2007.

45% of teachers leave the profession due to pupil behaviour. Factors Affecting Teachers' Decisions to Leave the Profession. - DfES Report 2003.

A survey conducted by the Association of School and College Leaders Union found it took 80% of Head teachers more than a month to access mental health support for children and teenagers. About four out of 10 schools said it took more than three months.

Educational underachievement costs the nation an astounding £18billion in foregone earnings.

Family life

Each year more than 750,000 children experience domestic violence.

Nearly three quarters of children on the 'at risk' register live in households where domestic violence occurs and 52% of child protection cases involve domestic violence. - Department of Health, 2002

Children who live with domestic violence are at increased risk of behavioural problems and emotional trauma, and mental health difficulties in adult life. - See Kolbo, et al., 1996; Morley and Mullender, 1994; Hester et al.,2000.

75% of people have their dinner in front of the TV. According to the National Family Mealtime Survey, children often eat alone in their bedrooms while playing computer games. Only 20% of families eat together at least once a week

More than half (53%) of couples divorcing in 2006 had at least one child aged under 16. - Review of the National Statistician on marriages and divorces in 2006, and adoptions in 2007, in England and Wales, ONS

In 2007 a quarter of families with children were lone parent families. Lone parent families were more than three times more likely to live in social housing than couple families, and nearly seven times as likely to have a total family income in the lowest income quintile. – Families and Children in Britain: Findings from the families and children study (FACS), 2007, carried out by the Department of Work and Pensions.

One in ten mothers described their health over the last 12 months as ‘not good’. Lone mothers were twice as likely to describe their health as ‘not good’ compared with mothers in couple families. One-quarter of lone parents had a longstanding illness or disability, compared with one-fifth of mothers in couple families. – FACS, 2007.

Young carers

Nearly 150,000 children and young people in Britain provide varying amounts of unpaid care.

15% of young carers say they need more understanding/support from teachers and 12% would like their schools to establish lunchtime clubs or carer's groups. - New Deal for Carers: Findings from stage one of the adult and young carers' engagement programme, November 2007

Children in care

69,000 children were in the care of local authorities on 31st March 2009. 20,000 were aged between one and nine. – British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF).

The reasons why children are looked after range from abuse and neglect through to a need to offer parents or children a short break because of severe disability. In 2008, the main reason why social services first engaged with looked after children was because of abuse or neglect (62 per cent), with family-related issues making up the majority of the rest of cases; a consistent pattern over the past five years. – DCSF and ONS

Depression

The economic cost of depression in terms of lost productivity is huge - around £17bn, or 1.5% of UK gross domestic product. – see Richard Layard, ‘MENTAL HEALTH: BRITAIN'S BIGGEST SOCIAL PROBLEM?’

ONS Figures predict depression will be the 2nd largest killer of all parents by 2020. - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey, 2004.

The average age for the onset of serious clinical depression is now 25, compared with late middle age 50 years ago. Concurrently alcohol abuse has also gone up and is linked to suicidal behaviour.

Suicide and self-harm

Substance abuse

Crime

Up to 80% of crime in the UK is committed by people who had behavioural problems as children and teenagers. - Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, report 2009.

Every year an estimated 70,000 school-age offenders enter the youth justice system, costing the UK £1 billion every year. – HM Government, ‘Reducing re-offending through skills and employment’, 2005

Placing young offenders into institutions is expensive. The 2,500 juveniles aged between 15 and 17 in custody cost the country an average of £75,000. – The Audit Commission.

Each youth crime costs an average of between £4,000 - £5,000 – The Audit Commission.

It would only require one in 25 children with conduct problems to not enter a life of crime for prevention schemes to be cost-effective. Only one child in 20 has a conduct disorder, but they go on to commit 30% of crime at a cost to society of more than £22bn a year. Another 45% of children have mild or moderate behaviour problems, and go on to commit half of all crime at a cost of £37bn a year. - Sainsbury Cenrte for Mental Health, study 2009.

5 to 6 per cent' of young offenders commit between 50 and 60 per cent of all juvenile crime, with an average of 30 to 40 offences a year. The worst offenders have a 96 per cent reoffending rate, with each costing taxpayers £80,000 a year. – Ministry of Justice, 2008.

Being noisy or rude in public (13%) and behaving in a way that caused a neighbour to complain (11%) were the most common anti-social behaviours committed. - Crime and Justice Survey, 2006.

Just over a quarter (26%) of young people aged from 10 to 25 had been a victim of either personal theft or of assault in the last 12 months. 10 to 15-year-olds were more likely to have been a victim of a personal crime in the past 12 months than 16 to 25-year-olds. - CJS, 2006.

Six per cent of 10 to 25-year-olds had committed an offence six or more times in the past 12 months and were classified as frequent offenders. Ten per cent of 10 to 25-year-olds had committed at least one serious offence. - CJS, 2006.

The number of under-18s convicted or cautioned over violent offences rose from 17,590 in 2003 to 24,102 in 2006 - an increase of 37%. - CJS, 2006.

Gangs

Half of all known gangs are based amongst the African-Caribbean community. - Scotland Yard.

Although about 90% of gang members are male, there are also believed to be three female-only gangs operating in the capital. - Scotland Yard

25% of all UK gangs are based in the London Borough of Lambeth, which has 40 gangs operating in the area. The largest has 2,500 members.

Other British cities have identified a trend towards primary school pupils becoming involved in gangs, often as couriers for drugs and guns. Recruitment was taking place in schools, youth clubs, playgrounds and on street corners. The youngest children had been used as messengers and lookouts by teenage drug dealers.

Guns and Knives

In 2004, One in ten boys aged 11 and 12 are reported to have carried a knife or other weapon, of whom 8% admitted intending to inflict serious harm. - See ‘Fear and Fashion: The use of knives and other weapons by young people' by Gerald Lemos, 2004.

Nearly a third of children in the UK have been affected by gun and knife crime. - NCH/Action for Children 2008.

Excluded young people are more likely to carry weapons. 46% of all children excluded from mainstream education admitted owning a weapon, compared to 16% of those within mainstream education. – see Lemos ‘Fear and Fashion’

One in five 16 year-old boys admits to having attacked someone and intended to hurt them seriously with a knife. - National Youth Agency 2006.

The killing of teenagers in London reached record levels in 2007. The 26 murders are nearly double the figure for 2006 and in 2008 23 youngsters met violent deaths.

The most commonly given reason for carrying a knife is ‘for protection'. Other reasons include ‘in case there's a fight' and ‘for use in crimes': Source: Offending, Crime and Justice Survey 2005.

A 2008 survey by Action for Children revealed that 63% of young people believe image is directly linked to gun and knife crime.

Teenage pregnancy

Factors such as low aspirations, violence and bullying at school, poor parental support, domestic violence and a lack of things to do and places to go for young people also strongly impact upon the likelihood of teenage pregnancy. – Horgan and Kenny.

Child poverty

Child poverty more than doubled in the UK between 1979 and the early 1990's. – ‘POVERTY AND ITS OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN’, University of Birmingham Public Policy Publications

The evidence from many countries persistently shows that children who grow up in poverty are more vulnerable: specifically, they are more likely to be in poor health, to have learning and behavioural difficulties, to underachieve at school, to become pregnant at too early an age, to have lower skills and aspirations, to be low paid, unemployed, and welfare dependent. - Report Card 7, Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries, UNICEF.

52% of children in inner London live in income poverty, compared with 28% in England. - DWP,March 2006

There are 301,000 unemployed people in London, more than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together (137,000, 74,000 and 34,000 respectively). Labour Market Statistics, ONS, January 2006

A quarter of all children in inner London live in workless households. - ONS, July 2006