30 November 2017
NHS Digital must be quoted as the source of these figures
Regional data available in this report
A breakdown of statistics on young people who have been referred for treatment or assessment1 with mental health services in England has been published today by NHS Digital2.
This is summarised in counts of people who had an open referral at some point in 2016/17 regardless of whether they accessed services in the period.
16-17-year-old females were most likely to have had an open referral with mental health and learning disabilities services out of all young people3, according to figures in the Mental Health Bulletin 2016-17.
11 per cent (69,000) of 16-17-year-old females in England are known to have had an open referral with NHS funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2016/174. Two per cent (1,300) of this group were admitted to hospital as part of their referral.
During the same period, eight per cent of 16-17-year-old males (52,000) in England are known to have had an open referral with these services.
Users of these statistics should bear in mind that the numbers presented in this year's bulletin do not include information from all providers of services5.
In total, more than 2.6 million people are known have had an open referral with mental health services at some point during the year. 560,000 of these were under 18 years of age.
This means that five per cent of people in England are known to have had an open referral with secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services during 2016/17.
Females aged 90 or over were most likely to have had an open referral with these services as a proportion of their overall population (19,000 per 100,000, or around 1 in 5 of their respective population). This will include people referred to these services because of mental health disorders such as dementia6.