Children as young as six are suffering mental health crises and turning to A&E for help after failing to get care elsewhere, damning new figures reveal.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said it is ‘deeply alarming’ that record numbers of youngsters are being left to descend into such severe distress and a ‘scandal’ that many are then forced to wait days in hospital waiting for care.
Its analysis reveals the number of children attending emergency departments in England after reaching ‘crisis point’ has soared by more than a third in seven years.
Meanwhile, there has been a three-fold increase in these patients facing ‘extremely long’ waits in A&E – including hundreds waiting for more than three days.
The RCPCH figures come ahead of a Government-commissioned review into ADHD, autism and mental health services, which is expected to be published imminently.
In 2025, 75,491 patients aged six to 17 attended emergency departments in England with a recorded mental health concern, up from 55,525 in 2019, according to RCPCH analysis of NHS England data released under freedom of information laws.
This represents a 36 per cent rise in mental health-related A&E attendances among children since 2019.
The rise has been fastest among children aged six to nine – with A&E attendances due to mental health concern ballooning by 62 per cent among this age group, from 3,870 in 2019 to 6,269 in 2025.
The number of children attending emergency departments in England after reaching ‘crisis point’ has soared by more than a third in seven years
The children’s doctors said this is ‘particularly worrying given the vulnerable nature of young children’s neurodevelopment and the potential of suffering for those children longer term without early intervention’.
The number of children and young people staying more than 12 hours in A&E rose from 1,964 in 2019 to 6,235 in 2025.
And the number waiting three or more days for appropriate mental health support and a safe place to be discharged to rose from 55 to 338.
RCPCH warned that A&Es are not designed to meet the needs of children and young people in a mental health crisis.
It has called on the Government to use the upcoming Mental Health Strategy to focus on prevention and improved access to early support so fewer children reach crisis point.
Dr Sam Jones, officer for mental health at RCPCH, 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.
‘Our health system is under mounting pressure.
Dr Ronny Cheung, RCPCH officer for health services, said the findings ‘must be a wake-up call for Government’.
‘More children are reaching crisis point, and when they do, they are waiting longer, often far longer, to get the help they need despite the best efforts of paediatricians to care for these children.
‘This is a national crisis that will only get worse without urgent intervention from government and NHS leaders.
‘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, added: ‘This must be a wake-up call for Government.
‘The growing number of children reaching crisis point with their mental health is deeply alarming, particularly among younger children.
‘Without urgent action to provide support earlier, we risk storing up serious problems for the future, including more young people falling out of education, employment and training, where poor mental health is already a major driver.
‘Tackling children’s mental health must be at the heart of any plan to improve life chances and opportunity.
‘The Prime Minister and Health Secretary must urgently set out how they plan to address the crisis.’
Gemma Byrne, from mental health charity Mind, said: ‘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.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘No child should have to reach crisis point before getting the support they need.
‘That’s why we’re making it easier to access mental health support in schools and colleges, and opening more than 150 new mental health facilities, including community centres offering same-day, walk-in support – to help young people get help earlier and closer to home.
‘Later this year, our Mental Health Strategy will set out our long-term plans to build a system that helps people earlier and ensures fewer young people end up needing emergency care.’
