Child Mental Health Services Get £1.25bn Boost

An extra £1.25bn will be spent on services for people suffering from mental health problems, the Deputy Prime Minister has said.

The cash will help more than 100,000 youngsters needing mental health services over the next five years, Nick Clegg announced.

He said the way children had been treated before by the system was an "institutionalised form of cruelty".

The £250m-a-year funding will be confirmed in next week's Budget.

Mr Clegg made the announcement during a visit to Clock View Hospital in Liverpool.

He said: "I think it will have a huge impact. You have got, on average, three children in every classroom in our country who have got mental health problems and are not being properly catered for, not being properly identified, not being properly supported.

"This huge expansion - £1.25bn over the course of the next parliament - will help around 110,000 children, children who at the moment are being let down by the system.

"It's an institutionalised form of cruelty, the way we allow vulnerable children with mental health problems to basically have to fend for themselves at the moment.

"This big announcement I'm making is going to seek to change that. It won't happen overnight, it will happen over the coming years."

The funding will also help improve support for new mothers, who had previously struggled with a "second-class mental health service", Mr Clegg said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: "It is terrifying to think that in this day and age some new mothers are having to travel miles for treatment and others are even being separated from their newborn child. This has to stop.

"This funding will make sure they get the treatment and support they need so they in turn can give their children the best possible start in life."

Mr Clegg was in Liverpool for the Liberal Democrats' spring conference. During his announcement he blamed some local NHS commissioners for failing to pass on previous funding for children's mental health.