National Study of Health and Wellbeing: Children and Young People

The publication series includes links to the latest report and all previous reports published by NHS England.

In 2023, the mental health of children and young people aged 8 to 25 years living in England was examined, as well as their household circumstances, and their experiences of education and services and of life in their families and communities.

Comparisons are made with 2017, 2020 (wave 1), 2021 (wave 2), and 2022 (wave 3) where possible, to monitor changes over time.

Interactive reports present time series data for common mental disorders. Three years of comparable data is available for 5 to 15-year olds living in England. 

England’s Official Statistics into child and young people’s mental health.

Three national face-to-face studies so far (1999, 2004 and 2017) involved over 9,000 children and young people aged 2 to 19 years in 2017.

The first follow-up study to the 2017 study was conducted in 2020. The second in 2021, third in 2022 and fourth follow-up in 2023.

2020 and 2021 studies focused on life during the pandemic.

2022 and 2023 studies covered adjusting to life since the impacts of the pandemic.

Survey findings are weighted and calibrated so representative of all Children and Young People in England

The survey asks about a range of topics to do with development, health and emotional wellbeing. The information will improve understanding of how different experiences can impact on health and wellbeing.  Over time, and for many different reasons, there can be changes in the health and wellbeing of both young adults and children. 

The survey helps policy makers, researchers, doctors and other health professionals get a clearer picture of the nation's health and wellbeing. It gives them the information to make the right choices for the future. The survey is used in policy development, in planning services and in monitoring trends and changes in the health and wellbeing of children and young people.

NHS England are the data controller for the survey. The survey is being carried out by NatCen Social Research and the Office for National Statistics who are co-data processors.

The 2017 survey was reviewed by an independent group of people called a Research Ethics Committee (REC), to protect the safety, rights, wellbeing and dignity of those taking part. The West London REC (reference 16/LO/0155) gave this survey a favourable opinion.

For the 2017 survey we chose children and young people at random to make sure we get a truly representative picture of everyone in England. 

2,370 children and young people who took part in the MHCYP 2017 survey took part in the wave 4 follow up.

The survey collects information about:

• health and well being 
• social media use
• service use and available support
• education and resources
• feeling about body and eating
• experiences during the coronavirus pandemic

Your answers are completely confidential and nobody can be identified from the results we publish. They are completely anonymous. 

The answers you give are put together with the answers collected from thousands of other people across England and the answers you gave. Anything that could identify you, such as name, address and date of birth are removed. The survey findings are anonymised. The statistics are published in a report and tables which are freely available on our website.

If you agree, we would like to link your responses to this survey to other data held about you by NHS England, Department for Education and the Office for National Statistics. This includes information that NHS England and the Office for National Statistics maintain on your NHS health record including in-patient/out-patient care, primary care, diagnostic care, mental health, cancer and records for when and the reason why people pass away. The Department for Education maintains information on your child’s education record, including educational achievement, absence, exclusions and special educational needs.   

This linkage allows research into how a person’s lifestyle and experiences can have an impact on their future health and education. By doing so, we can create evidence to inform decisions to improve services and policies which affect all children and families in England. If you want to remove your consent you can contact us at any time and no linkage will be conducted from that point on. 

The data will be treated as confidential, as directed by the UK Statistics Authority's code of practice for official statistics.

An anonymised and reduced version of the dataset will be made, so your name, address, date of birth, and other information that might directly identify you is removed. In addition, other data are removed or categorised into groups that are less detailed to ensure the risk of disclosure is remote. This process of disclosure control follows Government Statistical Service guidance.

This anonymised and disclosure-controlled dataset will be made available to national and local government and for the purposes of not-for-profit research. An anonymised version of the 1999, 2004 and 2017 data can be accessed by researchers via the UK Data Service Website. Use of the data requires approval from the data owner or their nominee and researchers must apply for access via a Special Licence application.

In the future, we may want to contact you about follow-up research on mental health and wellbeing.

We will only invite you to take part in follow-up research if you give consent during the survey for this. We will carefully review all proposals from researchers/organisations to conduct follow-up research before giving approval.

We will not pass on any of your details without your permission. NHS England will not approve any requests that are for commercial use.

If you are invited to take part in any future studies, you will be free to refuse if you do not want to take part.

If you want to remove your consent at any time you can contact us at anytime and we will update our records.

The content of the survey was designed following consultation with various stakeholders, including Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, Public Health England, Children’s Commissioner, Department for Education and academics and charities involved in mental health. 

Prior to the 2017 survey, a consultation for the survey content was conducted. Download the consultation report.

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