The ‘Independent Review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism’ was published today. Its Chair, Professor Peter Fonagy, tells a story every youth worker will recognise.
As a depressed, isolated 15-year-old who had recently arrived in England, he wasn’t saved by a system. He was saved by a neighbour who noticed he was struggling, and then by a professional who saw him as a person, not a problem. He calls everything he has done since “a long footnote to that afternoon.”
That is a description of a trusted adult. It is also a description of the potential of youth work.
Welcoming the Review’s publication, Jacob Diggle, UK Youth’s Chief Impact Officer, said:
“We’re proud that young people’s and youth workers’ voices have been heard in this Review. Youth workers see every day what it describes: young people who are struggling, patiently waiting, and too often going without help because support depends on a diagnosis they can’t access. And they see what makes the difference: a trusted adult, a safe space, and a chance to belong.
“The Review recognises that youth work is an essential part of the solution. Now Government has to back that with long-term investment, so that every young person has somewhere to go and someone to turn to before things reach crisis point.”
Making sure young people and youth workers were heard
We have worked closely with the Review team alongside our partners in the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, with support from funders including the Prudence Trust and Julia Rausing Foundation. Our aim was to make sure the people closest to the issue, young people and the youth workers they trust, weren’t left out of the debate.
That influence shows in the final report. Young people describe the devastating impact of losing their youth clubs, and one says the youth groups they attend have “literally saved my life”. The youth sector is described as “the social foundation that supports children’s wellbeing”, and our evidence is cited throughout. Crucially, youth work is central to many of the report’s recommendations.
What the Review found
The Review is careful and honest about what we don’t know, but unequivocal on the key facts.
There is no “snowflake generation”: distress among young people is real and rising. Common mental disorders among 16–24-year-olds have risen from around one in six in 1993 to one in four in 2024, and young women now report the highest rates of any group. Among the million or so young people not in education, employment or training, the share reporting a work-limiting health condition has risen from 26% to 44% in a decade, mostly linked to poor mental health.
Too often, support is locked behind a diagnosis young people cannot get. The longer young people wait for support, the worse they tend to get. The Review’s central recommendation is a shift from a “diagnosis-dependent” system to one that is “needs-led plus diagnosis”, where support starts when need is recognised, not when a label arrives.
The Review also points to the challenging environment young people are growing up in today: more uncertainty and financial insecurity, constant comparison, fewer chances to rest and play, and less belonging. It links that loss of belonging directly to the loss of community infrastructure, including youth work.
Youth work is central to the Review’s recommendations
- Recommendation 1 calls for long-term investment in youth, community, and voluntary organisations as part of a national prevention programme.
- Recommendation 3 calls for voluntary and community organisations to be commissioned as core partners with stable funding, and for keyworkers for young people with complex needs, “recognising the importance of youth work within this”.
- Recommendation 6 says workforce planning should include youth work, not just clinical professions.
- Recommendation 10 asks that the new cross-government mental health strategy connects with the National Youth Strategy.
What youth workers already do
Across all its evidence, the model the Review found most consistently valued was the open-access, self-referral youth hub.
This aligns with UK Youth’s 2024 research for DCMS that found young people who received youth work support as teenagers grew into adults who were happier, healthier, wealthier, and more involved in their communities, with benefits lasting decades. Our work with Frontier Economics also found the youth sector saves around £3.20 for every pound invested, including through reduced mental health treatment costs.
Our recent report Another Way is Possible, draws on insights from the £11 million Thriving Minds programme. It showed what youth organisations can achieve with multi-year, flexible funding. The roles youth workers play map closely onto the Review’s proposals: the trusted adult it keeps returning to; the anchor supporting the “missing middle” of young people too unwell for universal services but below the threshold for specialist care; and the navigator who makes “no wrong front door” a reality.
At Together as One/Aik Saath, young people waiting for CAMHS therapy are paired with a dedicated youth worker, and many leave before therapy starts because they feel well enough not to need it. That is exactly what the Review means by “waiting as an active period of support”.
The Review is also honest about our sector. It warns about short-term funding and the toll on staff supporting young people in high distress without adequate supervision, and says clearly that “earlier support must not become lower-skilled support”. We agree.
What we’re asking for now
- Youth work named in the cross-government mental health strategy, due this year, as a well-funded part of prevention and early support.
- Multi-year funding, so services aren’t withdrawn just as relationships are built.
- Data rules that recognise our contribution. Under current waiting-time rules, voluntary-sector support doesn’t count as treatment having begun. One NHS trust considered dropping an effective partnership for that reason alone.
- Investment in training, supervision, and reflective practice, and a place for youth workers in the neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams the Review proposes, with timely access to specialist advice.
- Support to build the evidence, through independent evaluation and proportionate wellbeing measurement, so the sector can prove and improve its impact.
Professor Fonagy writes that young people today “are not fragile. They are outnumbered.” Youth workers have spent fifteen years stepping in as the adults, spaces, and opportunities around young people disappear. This Review is a chance to change that balance, and we’ll be working with our partners and network to make sure it does.
The post “They are not fragile. They are outnumbered.” What the Independent Review into mental health, ADHD and autism means for youth work appeared first on UK Youth.
