West Berkshire Council says the withdrawal of £100,000 of health board funding from the Emotional Health Academy has severely reduced early intervention capacity for children and young people.
The council says expanding emotional wellbeing or mental health provision needs extra funding from the Inetrated Care Board (ICB) or new cross-system investment, warning children with SEND, neurodivergent needs or mental health vulnerabilities could be hit hardest.
"This is a very important issue," Martha Vickers (Lib Dem, Newbury Speen) told last week's executive committee.
"It has taken a long time for this report to come out, which is disappointing, as is the report. "It comes across as quite negative - it is all about limited resourses. "We [on the children's mental heath task force] were also expecting the report to include input from the ICB, and public health." She said the picture wasn't complete without them. "This is extremely urgent work, becuase it is about our children's future and we need to get on and do something about it with our partners."
The council notes it is no longer commissioned to deliver mental health support teams (MHSTs), which now operate solely as an ICB-commissioned service, and says there are no extra staff or money in existing children's services to deliver all the report's recommendations.
A council children's team report warns that reprioritising existing staff would place unacceptable pressure on statutory safeguarding, SEND and early help duties. It says parts of the response will be taken forward through existing programmes including Family First, Best Start and Family Hubs, but further expansion needs ICB investment or cross-system agreement.
The report says cross-system work on neurodiversity, CAMHS access and wider mental health commissioning sits primarily with the ICB, supported by partnership work across Berkshire West. One recommendation is better communication and navigation of local services, such as a central hub and streamlined CAMHS overview, but bigger items need substantial coordination and workforce investment from the ICB.
The West Berkshire Conservative group welcomed the executive's cross-party approach to finding funding to speed up emotional wellbeing support for children and young people.
"Children's emotional wellbeing and early intervention support should never become a partisan issue," Conservative group leader Ross Mackinnon said. "Families do not care about political point scoring. They care about whether support is available when children need it, before problems escalate into crisis."
Mr Mackinnon added the Conservatives will engage positively in any cross-party work to improve access and accelerate delivery. "If working together helps secure better outcomes for children and young people in West Berkshire, then that is exactly what we should do."
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
