Welcoming the main parties' general election commitments to fund early support hubs
“We have long been calling for early support hubs to be established in every local area so young people can access early mental health support and advice in their community. After years of campaigning, we are proud to see a commitment to early support hubs in the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos.
The political parties have listened to our calls to fund the hubs. We would like to thank the thousands of young people and our colleagues from across the sector who added their voices to our campaign.
This is a fantastic win for the Fund the Hubs campaign. But the truth is that a manifesto commitment is only the first step. Whoever forms the next government must make their promise a reality. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The roll out must see sustainable funding for the network of services that are already embedded in local areas and establish additional hubs in currently underserved areas. Any national implementation of hubs must also not lose sight of their central function, providing early access and providing drop-in mental health and wellbeing support.
We look forward to working with the new government to support national implementation of the early support hub model, so that every young person can benefit from mental health support in their local community.”
Fund the Hubs campaign group
What we're fighting for
1 in 5 young people have a mental health problem. And often, they can’t get support when they first need it.
The earlier a young person gets support for their mental health, the more effective that support will be.
That's why we've partnered with other mental health organisations to launch the #FundTheHubs campaign. We're calling on the UK government to fund a network of early support hubs for young people across England.
Why are early support hubs needed?
Young people have struggled to get mental health support for years. And the pandemic has only made this worse.
More and more young people are now experiencing mental health problems. Today, 1 in 5 young people have a mental health problem. That’s up from 1 in 9 in 2017.
And too often, young people can’t get support when they first need it. Services currently available through schools and the NHS simply can’t cope with the need.
Hubs can help change this. They’ll give young people a place to get help before they’re in crisis. A place to improve their life chances.
Hubs will also help reduce pressure on the NHS, on schools and other local services.
In this video, our campaigners delivered a message to Rishi Sunak. His October 2022 spending review barely mentioned mental health. So they wanted him to know, it's time to #FundTheHubs.
Watch them talk about why hubs are so important. You'll hear first from Elsa, then Catherine, then Jenny, and finally from Elsa again.
How is the government supporting hub development?
The government have recently announced £4.92 million to fund 10 existing early support hubs for young people in England from January 2024 to April 2025 in order to deliver mental health support for young people. However since then, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have announced that they will be expanding this pilot to award an additional £3 million worth of funding. This means that a total of 24 hubs will now receive investment. We welcome this initiative and hope it will inspire long term funding for a nationwide roll out of early support hubs.
How do early support hubs work?
Hubs provide easy to access mental health support to young people who need it.
Anyone aged 11-25 will be able to drop into a service in their local area without an appointment or referral.
Their main purpose is mental health support. But hubs can also provide a base to help young people with other problems they’re experiencing. All under one roof. This could include:
- Employment support
- Housing advice
- Sexual health services
In some parts of England similar hubs already exist. Extra funding would support these existing hubs and create new ones in areas without them.
Who supports #FundTheHubs?
The #FundTheHubs campaign is run in partnership with:
- Young Minds
- Youth Access
- The Children’s Society
- The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition
- Centre for Mental Health
- Black Thrive Global
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
On top of this, 53 other organisations joined our President Stephen Fry in calling for early support hubs. Hubs have also been supported by Dr Alex George, the government’s Youth Mental Health Ambassador.
