Bridging the gap: children and young people’s mental health

The second house I bought when I moved to Manchester was in Little Lever, a small village just outside Bolton. Little Lever has a huge country park nearby and the Bolton and Bury Canal runs close by. I was lucky in that my house had a large garden, which allowed me to keep goats, ducks, as well as my hens, and still grow vegetables. I became famous for walking my goats on a lead to the country park. I had many wonderful years living there and only moved, because I wanted a house with an even bigger garden.

For whatever reason, I have never been back to Little Lever, which is a shame as there were plenty of wonderful places to walk there. One of my favourites was along the canal towpath towards Bolton Town Centre, past a strange and mysterious place called Nob End. Whilst the canal still had water in it, it was no longer navigable. The locks had disappeared and many of the buildings along the canal were derelict and mere sad reminders of a much more prosperous past. Nob End was the setting for the iconic film, Spring and Port Wine, a story about a stern father and a lenient mother dealing with the challenges of raising their four children in working-class Bolton. If you haven’t seen the film, it is definitely worth watching on DVD.

Many years ago now, I saw both Little Lever and Nob End in the news. The artist Liam Curtin designed and built a footbridge over the canal made entirely from Meccano parts, all of which, including the nuts and bolts, were accurately scaled up by ten times.

Now some readers might have to be of a certain age to know what Meccano is, but as a child, I loved playing with it. Basically, it is a metal construction kit, where children can build all kinds of things simply by bolting together metal parts that are punched with holes. It was/is a brilliant toy that allows a child to give full reign to their imagination. There were Meccano children and there were Lego children. I was a Meccano child. Same kind of toy, and these days both offer far more creative and contemporary versions than those in my childhood. I think today, Lego is probably more popular. My grandchildren love Lego, and the last gift I bought for one of them was the Ford Anglia from the Harry Potter film.

Lego was first created and sold in Billund, Denmark. Today there is a visitor’s attraction, just a few hundred yards from the original Lego factory - somewhat predictably, perhaps, it is called Lego House. Apparently, it is a place that contains some 25 million Lego bricks and has some of the world’s largest and most complicated Lego structures. It offers a highly interactive opportunity to explore the Lego universe. All for a day ticket costing just £30 (plus flights to Denmark). The experience sounds a million miles away from the experience offered last week at the Brick Fest Live event in Birmingham, which is actually just 869 miles away from Billund.

It was billed as having over a million Lego bricks on display or that you could play with and would allow families to enjoy mind-blowing creations from around the world. The reality was apparently something quite different. Reportedly, there were just a handful of stalls, a Lego play pit and a very expensive café in the vast exhibition centre at the NEC. It did cost just £18 (plus trains to Birmingham) to gain admission. It resulted in a huge backlash on social media, with people complaining it was a waste of their time and money. Judging by the sheer volume of comments, to say visitors were disappointed would be an understatement.

Last week, I found myself in a place where I could empathise with the Brick Fest visitors. I attended a workshop facilitated by our (Greater Manchester) Integrated Care Service colleagues. It was held in Manchester, and there was no admission fee, although car parking came to £9.50. The workshop explored population heath and prevention. The aim was to provide an overview of the approaches and priorities for improving population health and tackling health inequalities across Greater Manchester. All the workshop participants were Non-Executive Directors from NHS provider Trusts across the city. We were there to look at how NHS Trust Board members could address health inequalities and prevention as part of our core business. We had been provided with a 56-page slide pack that provided some context, and examples of the priorities being pursued. I was both disappointed and dismayed that mental health (and wellbeing) was not mentioned on a single slide. Whilst getting people to stop smoking and reducing avoidable diabetes and cardiovascular disease is clearly important, many of our emergency departments are filled with folk, who present with mental health issues. Some of these folk are using emergency departments as their access to ‘primary care’ and others because of the long waiting time from referral to receiving care from services.

This is particularly the case for children and young people. There are more than a quarter of a million (270,300) children and young people, who are still waiting for mental health support after being referred to mental health services. In 2023, some 40,000 children and young people had waited over two years for the help and support they needed. The opportunity for children to grow, learn and explore the world through play is important. Toys such as Meccano and Lego are brilliant in this regard. However, as children and young people grow, ensuring health and care services are available to help them as they encounter life’s challenges is equally important.  We need to build bridges to better mental health and wellbeing, and not out of Meccano or Lego. The bridges we need, must be built with love, compassion, understanding and shared care.