Young people in contact with Hammersmith and Fulham's Youth Justice Service (YJS) are experiencing significant health needs, including a high prevalence of mental health issues, speech and language difficulties, and neurodevelopmental disorders. This was highlighted in a report presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board on Monday, June 22, 2026.
The YJS Wellbeing Team, a multi-disciplinary team embedded within the YJS, works to identify and address these needs early. Jacqui McShannon, Executive Director for People's Services, emphasised the importance of early intervention and partnership working to prevent these issues from escalating and to reduce reoffending.
The report revealed that 72% of young people open to the YJS in 2025 had contact with the Wellbeing Team, with 82% having mental health needs addressed. The specific mental health issues are described as quite stand out quite prominently there,
and the notable rates of diagnosed and suspected ADHD and ASD indicate many arrive with existing or emerging neurodevelopmental needs. Notably, 90% of young people with speech and language therapy (SaLT) contact had identified or suspected SaLT needs, a stark contrast to the 4.4% in the general child population. Communication difficulties were identified as a significant barrier for young people engaging with practitioners and understanding legal processes.
Councillor Alex Sanderson, Deputy Leader, noted that the report exposed how many needs reached the YJS after earlier systems had missed them. She welcomed input from non-local authority partners on how to go upstream
to identify and address these needs earlier.
Caroline Farrar, Managing Director of the Hammersmith and Fulham Health and Care Partnership, highlighted the number of young people with neurodevelopmental needs and the challenges in early identification and intervention. She suggested that aligning with SEND reforms could help spot these needs earlier in schools and nurseries. These reforms are moving toward earlier identification of SEND and health needs in schools, with the aim of intervening at an earlier stage without necessarily requiring a formal diagnosis.
Jacqui McShannon made a cheeky ask
for partners to consider providing small pots of funding to boost the wellbeing team due to unmet needs. She stated that there are more needs than actually we have the capacity at the moment to fully meet in the way that we'd want to.
The scale of health needs within the YJS cohort is described as dark when you look at it
compared to the general population. The YJS Wellbeing Team, while multi-disciplinary, is described as quite a thin team for the level of need that we've got.
The team's current composition includes a CAMHS Senior Nurse Specialist (4 days/week), Youth Justice Liaison & Diversion (Full time), Speech & Language Therapist (1 day/week), Educational Psychologist (2 days/week), Resilience Team (Min. 1 day/week, flexible), and Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (1 day/week). However, a precise overall staffing number and a quantitative measure of 'thinness' relative to need are not provided.
The Board was asked to endorse emotional wellbeing for children and young people as a shared priority and to consider opportunities for joint commissioning and pooled resources to improve coordination between services and address unmet needs. There are real opportunities to pool resource or pool opportunities to commission much earlier intervention approaches across the system, across social care, health, education and our voluntary sector partners,
which could lead to better shared data to understand need, address inequalities, and track outcomes for vulnerable groups.
Specific challenges related to joint commissioning and pooled resources were not detailed.
For more information, see the Public reports pack for the Health Wellbeing Board meeting on June 22, 2026.
