Youth Mental Health Needs More Than Awareness: Spark UK Calls for Sustainable Support and Youth Voice
Youth Mental Health Needs More Than Awareness: Spark UK Calls for Sustainable Support and Youth Voice
IFB Gaming signed Spark UK’s open letter calling for a more secure future for youth mental health services. The campaign highlights sustainable funding, continuity of support and the importance of giving young people a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them.
On 10 October 2026, World Mental Health Day, youth-led charity Spark UK took its campaign for the future of youth mental health support to 10 Downing Street.
Founded by teenagers in North Devon in December 2020, Spark UK delivered an open letter calling on the Government to protect essential youth mental health services, address uncertainty in charity funding and put young people and the organisations supporting them at the centre of future decisions.
According to Spark UK’s press release dated 12 October, the campaign had attracted 372 signatories, including 47 organisations and 91 young people. These figures reflect the position reported at the time of publication.
IFB Gaming was among the organisations supporting the campaign.
“Delivering the letter was a huge milestone for us as a small North Devon-based charity operating nationally. What started as a conversation in a coffee shop has turned into a national movement.” Conor Warren, Founder and CEO, Spark UK
Conor’s words capture the significance of the campaign: an initiative that began with a conversation has developed into a collective call for action involving young people, organisations and supporters across the UK. The challenge now is to turn that collective voice into sustained attention and meaningful change.
Why this campaign matters
Public conversations about young people’s mental health often focus on awareness, access to support and the importance of seeking help. These are important. But the availability of support also depends on the organisations, people and funding arrangements that make services possible.
Spark UK’s campaign followed the news that youth suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS had entered administration. Its letter argues that the loss of an established service must prompt a wider examination of how essential support is protected and sustained.
The concern is not simply whether funding is available for an individual project. It is whether organisations have the stability to retain staff, plan ahead, maintain relationships with communities and provide continuity for the young people who rely on them.
This raises an important question for policymakers, public services and funders: how can organisations be expected to provide consistent support if the systems that sustain their work remain uncertain?
For IFB Gaming, this resonates with a broader principle in our work on digital inclusion. Access to a resource is an important starting point, but meaningful participation also depends on the wider conditions that enable people to use it, benefit from it and continue engaging over time.
Digital inclusion and mental health provision are distinct fields, and one is not a substitute for the other. The connection is the wider importance of sustainable support, joined-up systems and meaningful participation in decisions affecting people’s lives.
Three calls for change
Spark UK’s open letter sets out three specific requests to the Government.
Protect the services young people rely on
Spark UK is calling for an urgent response to the gap left by PAPYRUS and safeguards to identify and protect essential youth mental health and prevention services.
The central concern is continuity: young people should not lose access to essential support because the organisation delivering it can no longer afford to operate.
Fix the way youth mental health charities are funded
The campaign calls for a fundamental review of funding, prioritising multi-year core funding and stable commissioning arrangements.
Project funding alone may not cover the staffing, infrastructure and everyday operating costs required to keep an organisation functioning. Sustainable provision requires attention to the conditions that allow services to retain experienced people and plan for the future.
Bring young people and the sector into decisions
Spark UK is asking the Government to convene a national roundtable involving young people, charities, grassroots organisations, the NHS, schools, mental health professionals and Government representatives.
The letter calls for this process to lead to a long-term, cross-sector plan, rather than another discussion that ends without practical action.
“This must not be a conversation about young people. It must be a conversation with them.” From Spark UK’s open letter
From consultation to meaningful participation
At IFB Gaming, our work explores the relationship between technology, participation, learning and the systems that shape people’s opportunities. Through our digital inclusion initiatives and resources, we encourage a broader understanding of inclusion.
Providing access matters, but so do confidence, capability, accessibility, sustained engagement and the ability to participate in ways that are meaningful to the individual.
This perspective informs how we think about wider social challenges. People should not be treated simply as recipients of services. Their experiences and perspectives should help shape the systems intended to support them.
Meaningful youth participation therefore requires more than inviting young people to share their experiences. It requires routes through which those experiences can inform decisions, influence priorities and contribute to accountability.
Youth mental health provision requires its own specialist expertise, safeguarding and evidence-informed practice. Our support for Spark UK’s campaign is not a claim that digital inclusion work can resolve mental health challenges. It reflects our belief that sustainable support and meaningful participation matter when organisations and policymakers respond to social needs.
What needs to happen next?
Delivering an open letter is an important campaigning milestone. The next test is whether its recommendations lead to meaningful engagement and practical action.
Spark UK’s requests provide a clear starting point: protect essential services, improve funding stability and bring young people and the organisations supporting them into decisions about their future.
For policymakers and funders, this means considering not only what services are expected to deliver, but also what resources, continuity and institutional support are required to make that delivery possible.
For organisations and community groups, it means continuing to make space for young people’s perspectives and ensuring that participation is more than a consultation exercise.
Across social impact, inclusion and community development, the principle is clear: sustainable outcomes require more than good intentions. They also require systems that allow effective work to continue.
Read the letter and add your support
IFB Gaming supports Spark UK’s call for a more secure future for youth mental health services and for young people to have a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that affect them.
Read the campaign’s full letter and find details of how to sign it.
Read the open letter → Visit Spark UK →About Spark UK
Spark UK is a youth-led charity founded in December 2020. It creates free mental health resources and campaigns designed to spark conversations around mental health.
Continue exploring IFB Gaming’s work
Our work considers how digital inclusion can move beyond access towards capability and meaningful participation.
Explore From Devices to Impact: the Digital Inclusion Toolkit →
Explore the IFB Gaming Stage Index →
Editorial note: This article reflects IFB Gaming’s perspective as a supporter of Spark UK’s campaign. The campaign’s policy requests and signature figures are attributed to Spark UK. The article does not imply a formal partnership between the organisations.
