Young London SOS: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan backs our campaign tackling child mental health

The Mayor of London and the leader of the Liberal Democrats have backed the Evening Standard’s campaign to address the rising mental health crisis among young people in the wake of the pandemic — and called on the Government to act. 

Sadiq Khan threw his weight behind our Young London SOS campaign on social media and said: “The pandemic is having a devastating effect on young people.  

“Many have had their education disrupted, lost out on early career opportunities and are missing interaction with their friends. We all have a role to play and I fully support the Standard’s mental health campaign, which shines a light on this hugely important issue. As Londoners we should all be encouraging each other to talk and act more when it comes to mental wellbeing.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called our campaign “incredibly important” and said: “I hope the Government will recognise that this is a growing crisis which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Prevention has long been overlooked and is key to stopping young people reaching crisis point. Providing access to counselling in schools would be a lifeline to many young people. This early intervention will prevent mental health issues from worsening.

“Ultimately the Liberal Democrats want to see clear commitments from the Government to expand the mental health workforce and make access to counselling for children and young people a priority.”

Our campaign follows our investigation which revealed that 500,000 children who had no mental health problems before Covid-19 now need mental health support. We have teamed up with mental health charity Place2Be to  help them support more pupils and schools.  

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has already backed us, as have Tory MP Andrea Leadsom and Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee. Labour’s shadow children’s minister Tulip Siddiq today added her voice, saying young people were “far too often” the forgotten victims of the pandemic.  

Lord Blunkett, who served under Tony Blair as education secretary, warned the isolation and distress arising from the pandemic had created a “really dangerous situation”.

He said: “We owe it to our children to massively expand child and adolescent mental health services.”