Catapulted into stardom in 1971, this long-dead Wiltshire thatcher became the cover star of Led Zeppelin’s legendary fourth album. Lot Long’s identity wasn’t revealed until 2023 when a researcher from the University of the West of England stumbled upon the image while looking through a photo album. An ordinary rural craftsman suddenly became interesting because a 70’s rock star had stumbled on his image in an antique shop and attached it to one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Obscurity is a destiny that most of us face; unless of course our history is bound to a memorable event, cause or perhaps a rock band. NHS figures suggest that nearly 350,000 children and young people will join the waiting list for mental health support in the year ahead. Each one of them as obscure as Lot Long. What will it take to make their lives as fascinating as the Wiltshire thatcher?

Not a week passes when the collective story of these young people is not told and re-told. Sometimes an individual story surfaces- only to return to obscurity when our indignation and outrage are absorbed by another news item. Young Minds has recently drawn attention to an alarming new data set. In the last 6 months, there has been:

• 4,424 new “very urgent referrals” for under-18s to mental health crisis care teams between April 2024 and October 2024, up 13 per cent from the same period in the previous year.

• 24,886 new “urgent referrals” to crisis care teams between April and October, up 13 per cent from the same period the year before.

• 5,483 new “emergency referrals” to crisis care teams between April and October, down 5 per cent from the same period the previous year.

The government’s response: “We will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers, provide young people with access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and a Young Futures hub in every community.” School leaders have described the rollout of this ambition as “glacial.”

Even if those 8500 workers were recruited today, it would be a year at least before they were active in the workforce. As it is, many who are in the role are facing burnout because they are unable to cope with the range of presentations needing specialist intervention.

There is no shortage of learned research evidencing the positive personal, societal and economic benefits of investing in early support for children and young people who are in need. As with almost all other areas of public policy though, things that require bold funding decisions are slow-moving.

The Led Zeppelin album that made an old man famous has sold 37 million copies. Imagine that a pound from every sale had been set aside. It would fund getting on for a million therapy sessions or a course of 6 for half of those 340,000 obscure young people joining the waiting list this year.

Brave choices must be made. There are 80,000 therapists and counsellors nationwide who are trained to work with children and young people. Let’s set them to work.