NHS Data Shows Child Mental Health A&E Visits in England Up 36% Since 2019

Doctors in England are sounding the alarm over a sharp rise in children showing up at emergency rooms in mental health crisis, and the numbers back them up.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) analyzed NHS England data obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. It found 75,491 attendances by children and young people aged 6 to 17 for a recorded mental health concern in 2025. That's up from 55,525 in 2019, a 36% jump.

For comparison, overall A&E attendance rose just over 8% in the same period, according to the BBC. Mental health crisis visits by kids are climbing more than four times faster than emergency room use overall.

Youngest kids hit hardest

The fastest growth wasn't among teenagers. It was among six- to nine-year-olds. Attendances in that age group rose from 3,870 in 2019 to 6,269 in 2025, a 62% increase, according to figures reported by The Independent, ITV, the Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror.

Dr Sam Jones, RCPCH officer for mental health, called that trend "particularly worrying given the vulnerable nature of young children's neurodevelopment and the potential of suffering for those children longer term without early intervention."

Kids waiting three days in the ER

The wait times are the part that should make anyone furious. The number of children stuck in A&E for more than 12 hours rose from 1,964 in 2019 to 6,235 in 2025, according to RCPCH's analysis. That's roughly 8% of all children who showed up with a mental health concern last year, per the BBC.

Some waited far longer. 338 children spent more than 72 hours in emergency rooms in 2025, up from 55 in 2019, a six-fold increase, according to figures cited by The Independent, ITV and the Evening Standard.

Dr Sam Jones didn't mince words: "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."

Dr Ronny Cheung, RCPCH officer for health services, called the trend among younger children "a wake-up call for government," warning that failing to intervene early risks "more young people falling out of education, employment and training."

Emergency rooms weren't built for this

Dr Mark Buchanan of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said children in crisis are ending up in A&E "by default," not because it's the right place for them, but because nothing else exists. Gemma Byrne of the mental health charity Mind agreed, saying A&E is "a frightening environment for anyone in mental health crisis, let alone a child."

Byrne pointed to a structural problem: many community mental health services only step in once a child is considered "unwell enough" to qualify. That threshold, she argued, means kids don't get help until they're already in crisis.

Professor Lynn Woolsey, chief nursing officer at the Royal College of Nursing, called the numbers "a damning indictment of a failing system, with desperate families left with nowhere else to turn." She noted A&E departments are "noisy, brightly lit," and long waits there "can often cause those struggling to deteriorate further."

Woolsey also credited existing efforts. She said new mental health A&Es and community mental health centres already being rolled out are "a step in the right direction," while arguing the rollout needs to be expanded faster than it currently is.

What the government has actually said

According to the BBC, the government's response so far has been to say it is "looking to improve services" and will set out plans "soon." That's it. No date, no dollar figure, no specific commitment.

The RCPCH figures land just ahead of a government-commissioned review into ADHD, autism and mental health services, which The Independent, ITV and the Evening Standard all report is expected to be published imminently. None of the sources give a firm publication date.

This is a taxpayer-funded, government-run health system reporting a 36% surge in children in psychiatric crisis, with the youngest kids hit worst, and the official response is a promise to "set out plans soon." Families aren't waiting on a press release. They're waiting in emergency rooms, sometimes for three days.

Reporting on this data doesn't explain why this is happening. The sources don't cite a specific driver, whether it's pandemic-era disruption, social media, diagnostic thresholds shifting, or genuine growth in underlying need. Until that question gets answered, any new spending plan risks treating a symptom without knowing the disease. The upcoming Mental Health Strategy and the ADHD and autism review are the next concrete tests of whether this government has an actual answer or just another announcement.