DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-9322-1
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2021: Special Licence Access
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys
title: MHCYP

description: &lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Surveys&lt;/span&gt; (MHCYP) series provides data about the mental health of young people living in Great Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The MHCYP was first carried out in 1999, capturing information on 5 to 15-year-olds. It was conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Department of Health (now known as the Department of Health and Social Care, or DHSC), The Scottish Health Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. The following survey in the series was conducted in 2002 and focused on children looked after by their local authority. The third survey was conducted in 2004 and collected information from 5 to 16-year-olds. Follow-ups to this survey were conducted after 6 months and again after 3 years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;NHS Digital commissioned the 2017 survey on behalf of the DHSC. It collected information on 2 to 19-year-olds living in England. The survey was carried out by a consortium led by NatCen Social Research, which included the ONS and Youth In Mind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The MHCYP 2020 survey was a Wave 1 follow-up to the 2017 survey and was conducted under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020, as directed by the then Secretary of State for Health. The Wave 2 follow-up was conducted in 2021, and Wave 3 in 2022.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;Further information can be found on the NHS Digital &lt;a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveys-directions-2021/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-surveys" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;A similar series covering adults, the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Adult Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt; is also commissioned by NHS Digital. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2021: Special Licence Access&lt;/span&gt; (MHCYP) is the second in a series of follow-up surveys to the MHCYP 2017 survey (see SN 8467). The 2021 MHCYP was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and commissioned by NHS England. The survey was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen Social Research), the Office for National Statistics, the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The MHCYP surveys provide England's Official Statistics on trends in child mental health. The MHCYP 2017 was conducted face-to-face and involved data collection from a random sample of children and young people (aged 2 to 19 years). MHCYP 2017 participants who agreed to be re-contacted for future research were invited to take part in the MHCYP 2020 follow-up survey. In the 2020 survey, participants were asked to confirm that they were happy to continue to be re-contacted for future research. Therefore, the achieved MHCYP 2021 sample for this (Wave 2) follow-up was based on 3,667 children and young people (now aged 6 to 23 years) who took part in MHCYP 2017.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The three main aims of MHCYP 2021 were:&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;to compare mental health between 2017 and 2020 - the likelihood of a mental disorder was assessed against completion of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in both years;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to describe life during the COVID-19 pandemic;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to present more detailed data on the mental health, circumstances and experiences of children and young people by ethnic group during the COVID-19 pandemic (where sample sizes allow).&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;