Young people face a crisis of belonging – we can’t treat our way out of it
3 min read
Ask a teenager where they go after school, and a growing number will struggle to answer.
One in five young people tell us they feel out of place where they live. That finding, from our Good Childhood Report 2026, published earlier this month, is easy to skim past. It shouldn't be. After fifteen years of tracking how children feel about their lives, we are still seeing their wellbeing decline, and this year's report helps explain why.
The independent Fonagy Review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism has now put numbers on the consequences. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, rates of mental health conditions have risen from around one in six in 1993 to one in four in 2024. Few who work with young people will be surprised. But while much of the focus will rightly be on treatment, waiting lists and specialist support, we also need to pay attention to the conditions that help young people thrive before problems spiral.
Our research points upstream and to the importance of belonging. Young people with higher wellbeing are more likely to report that they feel connected to their community, having adults they trust, and having somewhere they feel welcome. Increasingly, those things are missing. Increasingly, many young people tell us these connections are harder to find. Three quarters of the professionals we surveyed say there are fewer places for young people in their area than in previous years. More than eight in ten say there aren't enough appropriate places for young people to spend time.
These findings matter because they highlight what young people tell us. As one young person put it in our report: “When you have a genuine interest, when you have something you’re able to engage in, like volunteering, like going to the gym, like doing some kind of sport, that becomes a much more concrete sense of belonging that I think serves young people a lot better in the long term in terms of their wellbeing.”
With so many young people reporting that they feel disconnected from their communities, these findings should serve as a warning: the social infrastructure that supports wellbeing is being steadily eroded. Feeling connected, valued and part of a community is closely linked with wellbeing, yet many of those spaces and opportunities that foster those connections have been lost over time.
The Fonagy Review recognises this, and its backing for community-based Early Support Hubs is welcome. They offer somewhere safe to go, alongside advice and trusted relationships before difficulties become crises. But hubs cannot succeed in isolation. They need to sit within communities that still have places for young people to be.
Every young person should have a trusted adult they can turn to, a welcoming place to go in their neighbourhood, a say in the decisions that affect their lives, and a clear route to more help if they need it.
None of this requires new bureaucracy. The trusted adults could be found in services which already exist, joining up schools, youth services and community groups rather than creating another standalone service. It is about making the system work around the child, instead of expecting the child to navigate the system.
Nor is this only a moral argument. Our research with PBE earlier this year found that expanding access to early support could generate up to £56bn in economic benefits – around £14 for every £1 invested. With public finances under pressure, prevention is not an extravagance. It is a smart investment.
The Fonagy Review has given the government a diagnosis few will dispute. The challenge now is to match that with action. If we are serious about improving outcomes for children, we must invest in the building blocks of belonging.
Mark Russell is CEO of the Children's Society
