DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-8467-2
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017: 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 class="x_x_x_MsoNormal"&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017: Special Licence Access&lt;/span&gt; survey (MHCYP) is the third in a series of national surveys of the mental health of children and young people. Previous surveys were carried out in 1999 and 2004. The 2017 survey was funded by the Department of Health and commissioned by NHS Digital and carried out by NatCen Social Research, the Office for National Statistics and Youth in Mind. The first in a series of follow-up surveys to MHCYP 2017 was conducted in 2020 - see SN 9128.&lt;br&gt;
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The MHCYP 2017 collected information about mental health and well-being from a stratified probability sample of children and young people living in England and registered with a GP. Information was collected on 9,117 children aged 2 to 19 between January and October 2017. The survey combines reports from children, their parents and teachers (depending on the age of the selected child). This survey for the first time provides findings on the prevalence of the mental disorder in 2 to 4-year-olds and spans the transition into adulthood by covering 17 to 19-year-olds. &lt;br&gt;
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The main aims of the survey were:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;to collect robust data on a range of topics relating to the mental health of children and young people;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to estimate what proportion of children and young people in England are living with a mental disorder (and the types of mental disorders experienced);&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;produce trends in disorders through comparisons with previous surveys in the series&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;enable the circumstances of children and young people with different mental disorders to be compared with those of children and young people without;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;improve understanding of the state of children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;inform the design of mental health services for children and young people.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Further information about the study can be found on the NHS digital webpage &lt;a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017" target="_blank"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017 [PAS]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the second edition (August 2021), a new version of the data file was deposited, with corrections included for two issues uncovered during subsequent analysis. More detail on these corrections can be found in the User Guide, which has also been updated accordingly.&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;