Children’s mental health

Our approach to children’s mental health

Right now, millions of children and families are trapped in poverty which causes significant harm and distress to children’s mental health.

This is an issue which disproportionately affects children from minoritised ethnicities, who are more likely to live in poverty due to structural racism.

When a family is forced to live in unsuitable housing, work low paid unstable jobs, and rely on foodbanks, this affects every aspect of a child’s life.

Children living in poverty often experience:

• Poor quality sleep
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty regulating emotion
• Stress and feelings of overwhelm
• A lack of safe spaces to play

The situation is made worse by challenges accessing support services. Poverty and racism make it harder to access timely, effective care, with children from marginalised communities often at risk of both judgement and discrimination.

How we’ll achieve our vision

To reduce inequalities in children’s mental health outcomes in Lambeth and Southwark, we will work closely with local people and organisations who are trusted by their communities, developing impactful ways of improving children’s mental health.

That means:

• Reframing the narrative about children’s mental health by highlighting it as an issue of inequity that needs to be tackled.
• Building evidence around effective approaches, with a view to them being adopted ​and scaled.​
• Developing our understanding of the key issues through centring the voices and experiences of parents and families.
• Identifying opportunities to influence systems and policies which create inequalities and perpetuate poor mental health for children.