rters (77%) of survey respondents reported an increase in safeguarding demand over the past two years associated with children and young people’s mental health. This is also evident in the data returns. Young people with significant mental health and/or emotional wellbeing issues combined with unsupported neurodiversity needs and those with eating disorder presentations were among the concerns raised. In one local authority in the 18 Yorkshire and Humber region, a DCS reported a 40% increase in the number of young people presenting at Accident and Emergency departments following attempts to take their own lives between 2021 and 2024. These were mainly girls between the ages of 10 and 15 years, about half of whom had experienced sexual violence prior to their suicide attempt. Waiting lists and restrictive CAMHS criteria for accepting children and young people for treatment contributed to delays in accessing services and as a consequence to children becoming increasingly unwell. Long waits for diagnosis followed by further waits for access to treatment were seen to have become normalised. The lack of health resource to support these young people in a timely way, unless you have a diagnosis of a mental illness rather than poor mental wellbeing, autistic spectrum conditions or other ‘untreatable’ conditions, is resulting in the level of ill health and needs escalating rather than being managed and prevented. (DCS, County, South East Region) 2.6 Parental factors Figure 2: Children’s social care assessment factors for parents/carers. Source: SP9 respondents. The England numbers are extrapolated from 123 local authority responses based on the proportion of the England population. SP9 data show parental mental health, alcohol misuse and drug misuse as assessment factors have be