Video: Children's mental health problems can be solved by 'getting them outside', says Milton Keynes Council leader after rejecting plea to plough cash into help services

Now the refusal of the Conservative's bid to inject £400,000 into improving the mental health of MK's young people has caused a political storm.

Currently around one in six local youngsters aged between five and 16 have “probable mental health problems" caused by lack of socialisation, schools being closed, fear of Covid or having to cope with a virus-linked bereavement, say experts.

Last night, at the annual budget meeting, Tories asked that £400K of MK Council's £200million budget be allocated specifically to deliver greater mental health support to help these children over the next 12 months.

But MK Council leader Pete Marland suggested a cheaper solution.

He replied: "There is money for mental health. It's called getting children outside. It's called Active MK. It's about doing something that actually improves mental health."

Labour councillors then voted with Liberal Democrat councillors to reject the motion. The refusal, coupled with the leader's comment, has left the Tories fuming.

Cllr Alice Jenkins, deputy leader of the Conservative group and a mother of two young children, told the Citizen: "Children have born the brunt of the mental health impact of the pandemic. Babies and toddlers have missed out on the vital socialisation that mother, baby and toddler groups offer; Young children who have been starved of creating friendships in the first years of school, and teenagers have been stuck in their rooms growing increasingly anxious about the virus as they have missed out on the learning that helps form well balanced young adults."

She added: "It will take a very long time for the full impact of the pandemic to be properly understood, but we are already seeing sky rocketing reports of depression and anxiety in our young people, both locally and nationally.

"For the Labour and Lib Dems to vote against funding for a proper programme of mental health support for children may well be waved away as a calculated political move to poke the eye of their opposition, but to suggest the council is going to fix the mental health problems by getting children outdoors rather than offering professional help is as naïve as it is foolish.

"Labour’s rejection was shocking. Telling the kids of MK that they should just go outside and play is wrong and shows a complete misunderstanding of how mental ill-health affects people.”

"I am woefully disappointed and I am sure there will be plenty of parents and grandparents out there who would agree."

Cllr Jenkins added: "The government has given Milton Keynes Council £182million to support the local response for Covid-19. The Labour administration has put up Council Tax by 2.5 per cent and have stashed tens of millions in reserves. This is a matter of priorities. We have the funding - it’s a crying shame Labour and Lib Dem’s chose not to spend it on our children’s mental health, and we fear will have grave repercussions."

She and the fellow Tories say young people's mental health problems are a complex issue and require "tailored and individualised support"to ensure proper mental health wellbeing.

Currently the specialist facilities open to youngsters in MK are limited to NHS-run CAMHS (which needs an official referral and has a lengthy waiting list, say the Tories), and the MK-based charity YiS, which offers free one-to-one counselling for 11 to 21-year-olds.

The council gave a grant to YiS last year, and also gave cash to Kooth, a national charity that runs an online-only counselling service for young people.

Cllr Marland has now accused the Tories of seeking "cheap publicity and negative headlines" in their outburst.

He told the Citizen the MK Labour Group was committed to ensuring the right help and support is in place to help children and young people both now and in the future.

"Saying otherwise using edited and selective quotes is utterly disingenuous and misleading," he said.

Cllr Marland added: "Presenting an amendment to a £200m budget on a Wednesday night in a council meeting that is nothing more than an amount of money with no indication on exactly what extra service it would fund is just a headline.

"Actions speak louder than words. The Labour Council has already commissioned more help for young people from the MK Youth Counselling Service (YIS) and from the YMCA, and we are working with Kooth to help provide young people with easy to access and safe support when they need it. Mental Health provision is commissioned by the NHS, and we are working with them to continue to increase support in an area that’s vastly underfunded by the Conservative government."

He said counselling was "only one part" of helping children.

"I make absolutely no apology for saying that children’s mental and physical health are linked, and as restrictions come to an end and we go into spring we need to be helping children recover by ensuring all children have more access no just to direct mental health support, but by improving mental health through other activities such as sport, physical activity, outdoor learning and play.

"My little boy misses his friends, his swimming and his football – they are vital to his mental health, and ensuring all children are able to do similar things is really what I think a council should be doing, and why we are funding that through our budget. It is utterly bizarre to say that’s not a good thing. It is sad that the Conservatives seem to be saying it is a choice between one form of support or the other. It isn’t – Labour is doing both and the Conservatives voted against it.”

The budget agreed last night does include £350k for 'Post-Covid Active:MK'. It states: "This funding will be set aside for more projects to help people recover physically and mentally from Covid-19 and improve public health by utilising our redways and open spaces."

There is a further £400k for a 'key infrastructure fund' to help ensure the community has access to indoor and outdoor sport facilities after Covid-19 to help with their physical and mental health.

The budget further allocates £500K for 'Tackling Climate Change Implementing the Climate Change Action Plan', £250K to help combat knife crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Liberal Democrats voted for these, but rejected the children's mental health motion.

Cllr Robin Bradburn, Lib Dem Finance spokesman, told the Citizen: “The Liberal Democrat Group voted against the Conservative amendment because, quite simply, there is already money for mental health in the budget. Annex R sets out £750,000 for two different schemes to help people with their mental health.”

“We Liberal Democrats also put forward £100,000 to tackle child poverty, which is inherently linked to mental health, and £50,000 to tackle loneliness and isolation.”

He added: “Unfortunately, what we saw last night, was opposition for oppositions sake."