DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5280-1
title: Mental Health of Young People Looked After by Local Authorities in Great Britain, 2001-2003
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys
title: APMS; Surveys of Mental Health and Wellbeing

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; The &lt;i&gt;Mental Health of Young People Looked After by Local Authorities in Great Britain, 2001-2003&lt;/i&gt; was the second major national survey focusing on the development and well-being of young people to be carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The first survey, carried out in 1999, obtained information about the mental health of 10,500 young people living in private households (held at UKDA under SN 4227). The 1999 survey has since been repeated in 2004 (held under SN 5269) - see also the full list of surveys in the series above.&lt;br&gt;
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The rationale for a national survey of the mental health of children and adolescents looked after by local authorities was exactly the same as that for the private household population. In order to plan mental health services effectively it is necessary to know how many children in local authority care have mental health problems, what their diagnoses are and how far their needs for treatment are being met. The extent of the morbid population needs to be known so that the resources and planning can effectively take this into account. The survey was first conducted separately in England in 2001-2002, and then conducted in both Scotland and Wales in 2002-2003. The data from each survey have been merged into one file for this deposit.&lt;br&gt;
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The primary purpose of the survey was to produce prevalence rates of three main categories of mental disorder: conduct disorder, hyperactivity and emotional disorders (and their comorbidity), based on &lt;i&gt;International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision&lt;/i&gt; (ICD-10) and &lt;i&gt;Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Revision&lt;/i&gt; (DSM-IV) criteria. Where there were sufficient numbers, the survey also aimed to provide prevalence rates of type of problem (eg separation anxiety, social phobia etc.) and to investigate the co-occurrence of disorders. The survey also aimed to determine the impact and burden of children's mental health problems in terms of social impairment and adverse consequences for others, and to examine service utilisation.