Bob Seely MP has showed his support for improving children’s mental health services by attending the NSPCC’s Are You There? parliamentary reception.
With the Government’s public consultation on its green paper proposals for children’s mental health support due to close on Friday (2nd March), the charity’s event meant MPs were able to discuss the increasingly important role that Childline plays in the mental health landscape.
The event was hosted in the House of Commons on Monday (26th February), where founder of Childline Dame Esther Rantzen revealed the service had delivered 101,454 counselling sessions on mental and emotional health issues in the last year alone.
Dame Esther stressed the urgency for investment in Childline as she told politicians and other key stakeholders how two thirds of Childline counselling sessions take place outside school hours, and that children often use Childline as a means of early mental health support.
Bob Seely MP heard from several young people who had benefited from Childline after suffering from mental health issues, ranging from depression to anxiety.
Barbara Keeley, Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care also spoke at the event and stressed the importance of a mental health support system that is accessible for all children and young people, as well as adequate funding for voluntary services, like Childline, that can provide early support for children.
The public can get behind the NSPCC’s children’s mental health campaign, Are you there? by signing a petition to encourage Government to increase funding to Childline before 2 March. The funding will help to recruit more counsellors, deliver training to help manage the increased complexity of counselling sessions, and help provide more online resources for children and young people.
