The number of children going to A&E in England in mental health crisis has spiked over the last six years, new analysis shows.
Research from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) shows the number of children – some as young as six – attending A&E units for things like eating disorders and self harm as risen by more than a third since 2019.
The findings, based on figures provided via Freedom of Information requests to NHS England, show 75,491 children aged six to 17 went to A&E with a mental health problem in 2025, compared with 55,525 in 2019.
Some also had to sit through really long wait times. Last year, 6,235 children spent longer than 12 hours in an emergency department, compared with 1,964 in 2019.
During the same period, the number staying for over 72 hours rose from 55 to 338.
Dr Sam Jones, RCPCH officer for mental health said: ‘Behind every one of these figures is a child or young person in distress and a family who didn’t know where else to turn.
‘Emergency departments are a vital safety net, but they were never designed to be a place where children in mental health crisis wait for days at a time.’
‘This is a national crisis that will only get worse without urgent intervention from government and NHS leaders,’ Dr Jones continued. ‘No child should be spending 12 hours or more in A&E let alone days to weeks while they wait for the right support. The scandal has to end.’
Echoing a similar message, Gemma Byrne, policy & influencing manager at Mind added: ‘A&E can be a frightening environment for anyone in mental health crisis, let alone a child. Making them spend more than 12 hours there is simply unacceptable.
‘The fact that children and young people are presenting at A&E for their mental health in the first place shows they aren’t getting the support they need early enough. The current system, where many mental health services only provide support when young people are considered ‘unwell enough’ to qualify, clearly isn’t working.
‘We need to shift to a model of same-day open access mental health support, when anyone who needs help can get quality care straight away.’
News of the findings have come as the government prepares to publish it’s Mental Health Strategy later this year.
Dr Guy Northover, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said this is an ‘important opportunity to improve access to early support and to ensure children and young people get timely care when they need it.’
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