We have just had Mental Health Awareness Week – and the leader of the council Bella Sankey and I attended an uplifting and positive celebration of the successful Citizens UK campaign on young people’s mental health.
Young people organised, with the support of Citizens UK, from schools and sixth form colleges across the city to put their demand to those of us who stood for election to Brighton and Hove City Council in 2023.
They asked for more mental health support accessible in school to support them.
We, as their local Labour administration, have spent £600,000 over the past three years to enable secondary school children to access mental health counselling.
I have heard from young people themselves about how helpful they found this service.
Their stories included how the counselling supported them through family breakdown, through dealing with body image confidence issues preventing harmful disordered eating taking hold early on and through friendship conflicts which had started to impact on one young person’s confidence and motivation to attend school.
It is clear to me that if we really want to improve the health and social mobility of children and young people who live in this city, effective policy-making means listening to their priorities.
That is why I am pleased to say we have built this service into our public health budget going forward and those young people who got organised, agreed their priority and then passionately campaigned for that mental health service have made a change that will support young people in Brighton and Hove going forward, long after they leave education for the workplace.
Being aware of the impact of poor mental health is one thing but we must match words with action. I am proud that Labour does the hard yards of making that action happen.
The adage that a stitch in time saves nine certainly applies here and we must continue to support our young people to thrive and look after their mental health with this service as well as new investment in youth facilities such as the brand new youth centre in Knoll Park.
Thank you to the young people who took part in the campaign, the youth workers who continue to support youth voice and choice and the community groups that deliver so many services young people absolutely love to attend such as the new MUGA (multi-use games area) in Rottingdean.
Councillor Emma Daniel is a Labour member of Brighton and Hove City Council and the cabinet member for children, families and youth services.
Citizens UK were lobbying before the last election on this issue, and I think all parties agreed to meet their asks were they to be elected (I think Lab, Greens and Lib Dems at least) – so I don’t think their campaign is one where it is appropriate to try and score political points.
It is good that it is one commitment that the Labour council has not u-turned on post election, but there is so much more to do on mental health, and with Labour austerity at national level impacting council budgets in the city – so many people are still being left behind and not able to access the mental health support they need, when they need it. I would like to see Cllr Daniel put match words with action and lobby her government to address things like the crisis in CAMHSs and be critical on the government’s lack of ambition to address it at speed, and to ensure that national funding backs up resources needed.
The young people who have driven this campaign definitely deserve credit, but I’m not keen on seeing politicians trying to benefit and piggyback on campaigners passion and determination on something so important like this.