As we approach the conclusion of the Government's Spending Review and Autumn Budget, we wait with baited breath to see if our collective call for investment in early support hubs will make it into Government plans. We’ve been campaigning for hubs for a long time. Since Youth Access was founded back in the 1990s, we’ve been calling for investment in Youth Information Advice and Counselling services (YIACS) – local youth-friendly services, where young people can easily access support on a range of issues which impact their mental health, right up to age 25.
But since 2019, we’ve really ramped up our efforts by joining forces with our allies in the youth and mental health sector. As part of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, we’ve been able to work more closely with our friends at Young Minds, the Children’s Society, Mind and Black Thrive Global. Through this work, we’ve realised that what we’re hearing from young people across the board is the same – increasing mental health support in schools and clinical services is a welcome investment, but what’s missing in many local areas, are services like YIACS, where young people can access support without a referral or appointment, without a long wait and beyond age 18. And that’s where we agreed to start working together for ‘early support hubs’ that could offer exactly this.
Back in March 2020, just before ‘Covid’ became part of the global vocabulary, we kickstarted a coordinated effort with our friends at The Children’s Society, Young Minds, Mind and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition. Together we were advocating for investment in what we were then calling ‘open access hubs’.
At that time, the Government was planning the Spring Budget, not knowing that the pandemic would throw this totally off track! Together with our coalition partners, we produced a submission, calling on the Treasury to invest in ‘open access hubs’ nationally, and sent briefings to key MPs to prepare them to raise the issue at the Budget debate.
Since then, the world changed, and the need for hubs has become even more evident. Young people’s mental health is suffering as a result of the pandemic, and the social factors which underpin their wellbeing have taken massive hits too. They’ve been cut off from friends, family and education, they’ve missed out on key milestones and formative experiences, and they’ve suffered the sharp edge of the economic shock, with higher rates of job losses, furlough, housing insecurity and debt. It’s a stressful time to be making the journey into adulthood.
Hubs can help alleviate that stress, by supporting young people to the navigate the challenges that life throws up and deal with emerging mental health issues before they spiral. This might look like accessing counselling over a few sessions to help with an emotional issue. Or getting advice on a tricky issue, such as accessing the right benefits or managing your bills. It might be a combination of these things – making sure that the root cause of stress is dealt with, along with the emotional distress.
So, over the past year and a half, we’ve stepped up our efforts – and the pressure on the Government – to invest in early support hubs. Here’s a timeline of our work. What comes next will depend on what Rishi Sunak announces in the spending review and Autumn Budget on Wednesday, but whatever the Budget might hold, we know that with our members and the young people we serve, we’ll continue to be a powerful voice for young people’s right to better mental health support.
Spring 2020: We join forces to call for hubs
- With Young Minds, Children's Society, Mind and the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition, we submitted a pitch to the Treasury, calling for the Spring Budget to include funding for a national rollout of 'open access hubs'. To prepare for the parliamentary debate following the Budget, we sent briefings to key MPs.
Summer 2020: Building the vision
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Along with lots of charities in the mental health sector, we produced a joint call for ‘Mental Health Renewal Plan’ and ‘Vision paper’ for that plan which included ‘open access mental health hubs’ in every local area. To build support for the vision, our CEO took part in a roundtable with the Minister for Mental Health to present this vision paper and we supported efforts to develop costings for each of the proposals in the paper.
Autumn 2020: Raising the volume
- In November 2020, we started to really build momentum behind the call for 'early support hubs'. We co-hosted a roundtable with Young Minds, Children’s Society and the CYP Mental Health Coalition, where Monique Collier, CEO of our member YPAS, Monique Collier, presented alongside Baroness Diane Barran, then Minister for DCMSCivil Society, Emma Thomas of Young Minds and a young person in front of over 60 attendees from across Parliament, Whitehall and civil society.
Spring 2021: Parliament starts to listen
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In March Youth Access submit evidence to Health and Social Care Select Committee inquiry, alongside other organisations calling for investment in early support hubs like YIACS.
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In April Youth Access CEO Cassandra Harrison gave oral evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee inquiry, after several organisations reference the need for early support hubs, like YIACS, in every local area.
Summer 2021: Thousands take action to say Fund the Hubs
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In June 2021, we worked with Young Minds, The Children's Society, Mind and the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition to launch Fund The Hubs - a joint campaign calling for a national rollout of 'early support hubs'.
- As Young Minds hosted a digital action, supporting thousands of members of the public to email their MP asking for them to write to Boris Johnson in support of hubs, our members and the young people they work with made it personal, sending letters and first-hand testimonies to local MPs and decision-makers. And it worked - lots of MPs responded to say they'd written to the Prime Minister, and some even came to visit our services as a result!
- We also secured public support from the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists and the Royal College of Psychiatrists and coverage on local and regional news.
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In July, Youth Access and our member YPAS presented at a roundtable about early intervention in mental health with key officials from Number 10, Department for Health and Social Care, Royal College of Psychiatrists and NHS England, making a strong case for more early support hubs like Youth Access YIACS.
- In August, Young Rights Advocates from the Our Minds Our Future campaign meet with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care to discuss their experiences of mental health care and the need for hubs.
- We were also joined by Black Thrive Global as core partners in the Fund the Hubs campaign, representing the needs of the Black community as we shaped our policy.
Autumn 2021: Momentum builds as the Budget draws near
- September 2021 was a busy month! Our CEO, Cassandra Harrison and Emma Thomas of Young Minds met with then Minister for Mental Health, Nadine Dorries.
- Stephen Fry spoke out about the need for hubs in an article in the Telegraph.
- Young people from Young Minds’ activist network wrote a letter to Rishi Sunak, signed by 5,000 more young people, and handed it in to Downing Street.
- Our joint letter, signed by 53 organisations, was published in the Telegraph.
- Labour leader Kier Starmer used the party conference to pledge support to investing in a national network of hubs.
- New Minister for Care, Gillian Keegan, used her first week in post to visit our member YPAS in Liverpool.
- We submitted our case for early support hubs to the Treasury’s Spending Review, together with Mind, Young Minds, The Children’s Society, Black Thrive Global and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition
- October saw even more support, as The Local Government Association publicly joined the call for investment in early support hubs.
- Youth Access took three of our young Rights Advocates to Conservative Party conference to rally more support from across government and civil society.
On 27th October, Rishi Sunak will announce the Budget, which we hope will include funding for a national network of early support hubs, building on existing support from services like YIACS. Watch this space!
