More than 52,000 children in Essex who have been abused or neglected are being let down by a postcode lottery in mental health, the NSPCC estimates.

The charity analysed local plans setting out how clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) setting out how they will care for children’s mental health.

Research shows that children who have suffered abuse are twice as likely to develop clinical depression.

The NSPCC rated the plan in Essex as "amber", meaning plans had made some reference to the needs of children who have been abused, but were inadequately planning for their care.

In the East of England, there are at least 238,000 children who have suffered abuse are estimated to live in areas of the East of England with inadequate mental health plans.

In Essex, this number is estimated as 52,480.

The NSPCC is calling on every NHS Clinical Commissioning Group in the East to urgently include the needs of children who have suffered abuse in their strategies.

NSPCC trustee and clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron said: “Failing to plan is planning to fail, and alarmingly most CCGs are setting themselves up to fail children who have already been through abuse and trauma.

“It is unacceptable that despite the huge number of children estimated to have been abused, and the known link between abuse and mental health problems, the vast majority of our health services do not have a proper strategy for how to take care of these children.

“CCGs need to urgently review and improve their plans so that they are fully prepared to help children when they need it most. And Government needs to hold CCGs to account to publish high quality plans in a timely fashion every year.”

The NSPCC analysed CCGs’ published mental health plans, known as Local Transformation Plans, and gave each plan a traffic light rating based on how well it had factored in the needs of children who have been abused.

In the East, seven out of ten were given an amber rating – meaning plans had made some reference to the needs of children who have been abused, but were inadequately planning for their care.

Buckinghamshire (Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern), Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes received a red rating having made no reference whatsoever to the needs of children who have been abused.

Government has stipulated that CCGs must update their plans annually, and the NSPCC is calling on all CCGs to include strategies for meeting the mental health needs of children who have been abused in their 2017-18 updated plans and all future plans.

Nationally 62% of CCGs were given an amber rating and more than a fifth (21%) were given a red rating.