Self-Harm: Children

Department of Health written question – answered at on 21 January 2016.

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Photo of Luciana Berger Luciana Berger Shadow Minister (Mental Health)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people under 18 have been admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm in each year since 2010.

Photo of Alistair Burt Alistair Burt The Minister of State, Department of Health

While information on the number of children and young people admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm is not available, the table below shows the total number of admissions in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

The table provides a count of finished admission episodes with an external cause of self-harm and a patient age between 0-17 years for 2009-10 to 2014-15. This is a count of admissions, not people as the same person may have been discharged on more than one occasion during the same year.

Year

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

Admissions

12,944

13,995

13,231

14,780

19,577

19,647

Source Hospital Episode Statistics data

In 2013, specific guidance around the recording of self-harm codes on patients admitted via accident and emergency was issued to all providers. This may explain the increase between 2012-13 and 2013-14; which means that figures between these two years cannot be fairly compared.

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