The leader of the school and college leaders’ union has accused the Government of eroding local support services for children.

Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) president Evelyn Forde gave the warning at the union’s annual conference as she unveiled a survey in which 99% of those answering said provision of children’s mental health services was inadequate.

Of the 1,120 headteachers and principals in state-funded schools and colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland answering the survey 96% said not enough children’s social care services were provided.

A range of other services including educational psychology and local authority attendance support were also described as inadequate. Action suggested by respondents to fill the gaps included providing additional mental health and counselling support and employing more pastoral and attendance support staff.

Ms Forde told the conference: ‘The dedicated professionals working in local authorities and other local agencies are not to blame.

‘These support services have been eroded over the last decade by government austerity, by increasing demand, or by a mixture of both.

‘They simply do not have sufficient resources to be able to cope, and that has had a profound impact on the wellbeing of children.

‘And it has left us in our schools and colleges to pick up the pieces.

‘We’ve become a fourth emergency service. By default, we’ve ended up with the unsustainable burden of trying to fill in the gaps from budgets and workforces that are stretched beyond breaking point.’

A Government spokesperson said: 'We recognise the challenges that many families face in getting access to education, health and care that meets their needs.

'We recently published our plan for children’s social care, backed by £200 million, which will prioritise early help and intervention for families to help them to stay together where possible and overcome adversity.

'We are also investing £16.6m per year for the next two years for Virtual School Heads to provide dedicated educational support to children with a social worker, providing £79m for children and young people’s mental health services, and investing £21m for up to 400 more educational psychologists over the next two years.'