Mental health challenges among children and young people are rising at a pace that services across the country are struggling to keep up with. In England, around one in five children and young people (CYP) aged 8–25 were estimated to have a probable mental health disorder in 2023, compared to around one in nine in 2017.

Behind these statistics are real impacts on young people’s lives; struggling to attend school, withdrawing from friends and family, reaching a crisis point or carrying difficulties in adulthood without the right support at the right time. Research continues to show that half of all mental health difficulties emerge before the age of 14, reinforcing how important early support can be in shaping long-term wellbeing and life chances.  

For many families, accessing mental health support can feel fragmented and confusing, with different providers, pathways and thresholds to access care. At a time when demand is increasing, and needs are becoming more complex, improving how services work together can really make a meaningful difference to how quickly CYP receive help and how supported families feel throughout that journey.

This is the thinking behind the newly established North Central London Community Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) Provider Collaborative, which formally launched in April 2026. The collaborative brings NHS organisations together across Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington under a shared approach to strengthening community mental health support for CYP.

Transformation Partners in Health and Care (TPHC) supported partners across North Central London with the arrangements to establish the collaborative, helping organisations move from informal arrangements and a shared ambition to a practical model which allows providers to focus on improving access to support, strengthening collaboration between services and creating a more connected experience for young people and families.  

While the collaborative is still in its early stages, its long-term ambition is clear: to help create a system where CYP can access the right support earlier, experience more consistent care regardless of where they live, and receive help through services that work more closely together.

A key focus moving forward will be improving understanding of demand and wait times across the system, helping services to identify gaps, respond more effectively to local need and better understand inequalities in access and outcomes.

Importantly, this work recognises that mental health support should not begin only at the point of crisis. Better long-term outcomes are more likely when CYP can access timely support in their communities, schools and local services, before difficulties escalate and begin to affect education, relationships and overall wellbeing.

As Mental Health Awareness Week encourages conversations around prevention, wellbeing and access to support, the establishment of the NCL Community CYPMHS Provider Collaborative represents an important step towards creating more integrated, equitable and person-centred mental health services for CYP living in these communities.

About the author

Afroza Shamsudin is a Consultant at TPHC, supporting programmes across children and young people’s mental health and wider NHS transformation. She has over ten years of healthcare experience across clinical and transformation roles, with particular expertise in system collaboration, governance and implementing complex change across organisations and partnerships