‘Buckling’ NHS fails to treat 250,000 children with mental health problems

Exclusive: child mental health crisis deepens with one third of all referrals denied help and average waits of up to three years

A quarter of a million children in the UK with mental health problems have been denied help by the NHS as it struggles to manage surging case loads against a backdrop of a crisis in child mental health.

Some NHS trusts are failing to offer treatment to 60% of those referred by GPs, the research based on freedom of information request responses has found.