The Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys (MHCYP) series provides data about the mental health of young people living in Great Britain.The MHCYP was first carried out in 1999, capturing information on 5 to 15-year-olds. It was conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Department of Health (now known as the Department of Health and Social Care, or DHSC), The Scottish Health Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. The following survey in the series was conducted in 2002 and focused on children looked after by their local authority. The third survey was conducted in 2004 and collected information from 5 to 16-year-olds. Follow-ups to this survey were conducted after 6 months and again after 3 years.NHS Digital commissioned the 2017 survey on behalf of the DHSC. It collected information on 2 to 19-year-olds living in England. The survey was carried out by a consortium led by NatCen Social Research, which included the ONS and Youth In Mind.The MHCYP 2020 survey was a Wave 1 follow-up to the 2017 survey and was conducted under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020, as directed by the then Secretary of State for Health. The Wave 2 follow-up was conducted in 2021, and Wave 3 in 2022.Further information can be found on the NHS Digital Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys webpage.A similar series covering adults, the Adult Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity, is also commissioned by NHS Digital.  The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2020: Special Licence Access (MHCYP) is the first in a series of follow-up surveys to the MHCYP 2017 survey (which in itself was the third survey of its kind - see SN 8467 - with previous MHCYPs carried out in 1999, 2004). The 2020 MHCYP was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and commissioned by NHS England. The survey was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen Social Research), the Office for National Statistics, the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter. The MHCYP surveys provide England's Official Statistics on trends in child mental health. The MHCYP 2017 was conducted face-to-face and involved data collection from a random sample of children and young people (aged 2 to 19 years). MHCYP 2017 participants (now aged 5 to 22 years) who agreed to be re-contacted for future research were invited to take part in a follow-up online survey in July 2020. Therefore, the achieved MHCYP 2020 sample for this (Wave 1) follow-up was based on 3,570 children and young people who took part in MHCYP 2017, with both surveys also drawing on information collected from parents. The two main aims of MHCYP 2020 were: to compare mental health between 2017 and 2020 - the likelihood of a mental disorder was assessed against completion of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in both years; and to describe life during the COVID-19 pandemic.Latest edition informationFor the second edition (September 2024) a new version of the data file was deposited, with derived variables included that had not been populated in the first edition. Children, young people, mental health, demographics and household composition, economic activity, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), general health, loneliness, family functioning, service contact, experiences of education or work, COVID-19 status, social impacts of COVID-19 on family life, activities and social support.