Children in mental health crisis waiting up to three days in A&E for specialist bed in England | Mental health
Children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis in England are spending up to three days in an emergency unit before being admitted to a specialist unit, NHS figures show.
A pediatric nurse who works in the emergency room said waiting that long for people under 18 in acute distress was “frankly barbaric” but “it’s become much more normal.”
Some of those stuck in A&E become so troubled and disruptive that staff increasingly use medication to sedate them to control their behaviour.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the delays highlighted a “system-wide catastrophic failure” for NHS mental health services to intervene to prevent school-age children falling into crisis. It was stated that seeking help from A&E was often “damaging and potentially traumatic” for them.
Freedom of information requests made by the RCN to NHS trusts in England have revealed that the number of under-18s experiencing a mental health crisis and having to wait at least 12 hours before being admitted to a mental health unit has more than tripled from 237 in 2019 to 802 in 2025.
Three trusts – the Barts Health trust and the Lewisham and Greenwich trust, both based in London, and the Morecambe Bay trust in Cumbria – told the union that children and young people were waiting three or more days to get a bed in A&E.
One A&E nurse said such long waits were “extremely distressing” for patients and the staff caring for them. Another said: “A&E is seen as a great receptacle for all children who are disorganized or in crisis. But A&E is not a respite for children with mental health problems. It can often make their trauma worse.”
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) mental health research fellow Dr. Sam Jones said children experiencing mental health crises were now worse off than in the past.
“Alongside rising levels of poor mental health, the nature of need is changing rapidly. Problems are more complex and severe, younger children are affected, and rates of self-harm and eating disorders continue to rise,” Jones said.
The RCN estimates that around 500,000 people under the age of 18 have sought help for mental health problems in A&E units in England since 2019. Two-thirds (80) of the foundations from which he requested data provided it. The responses showed that hospitals treated a total of 330,367 such patients between 2019 and 2025.
When this number was extrapolated to include the 45 trusts that did not respond, a total of approximately 492,350 children and young people across all trusts were estimated to have serious mental health problems.
Prof Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said: “Half a million children and young people going to A&E in a mental health crisis is evidence of a catastrophic system-wide failure.”
The RCN and RCPCH are calling on ministers and NHS bosses to accelerate the rollout of a planned network of mental health emergency units so under-18s can seek help away from A&E.
Rebecca Gray, director of NHS Alliance’s mental health network, said: “Young people with mental illness often end up in hospital emergency departments and [are] facing very long waits in an inconvenient and even harmful environment. “This is a bad situation for both patients and staff.”
An NHS England spokesperson said: “Busy A&Es are not the right place for anyone in a mental health crisis, so children have access to 24/7 support through NHS 111, which combines crisis assessment, rapid intervention and home treatment where necessary.
“The NHS has also expanded mental health services, enabling 70% more children to access support than before the pandemic. Mental health support teams are also being established in schools to provide earlier help and prevention.”
