A “heartbreaking” surge in demand for children’s mental health services has led to a council call for extra government funding.

Greenwich councillors agreed to press the government for more money to establish in-school mental health experts.

It comes as a report shows the number of children self-harming in Greenwich has nearly doubled in the past four years.

Councillor Anthony Okereke moved a motion to pressure the government to release more funding to deal with the growing problem.

Cllr Okereke said at Wednesday’s council meeting: “In the last four years the number of children who have self-harmed has increased by 49 per cent. The is a horrifying figure and it gives an indication of the scale of poor mental health wellbeing in children in this borough.

“Despite the government’s assertions that funding is at a record level for mental health, Greenwich Child Adolescent Mental Health Service funding was reduced in 2016 and remained fixed.

“We can see emotional wellbeing among children and young people is not being given the attention it needs.

“I am calling on the government to provide a designated budget for emotional wellbeing via the authority of schools to establish an in-school expert team for mental health.”

Cllr Mariam Lolavar supported the call, adding the increase in self-harming is “heartbreaking”.

She said: “Providing funding to local authorities for additional support in schools is one step the government can do.”

The number of under-18s being admitted to A&E for self-harm is increasing in Greenwich, and research shows 57 per cent of NHS trusts are unable to meet demand for under-13s struggling with mental health.

The opposition proposed an amendment to the motion calling for the council to try to be a trailblazer area that would secure part of the government’s already-announced £300m in children’s mental health funding.

Conservative leader Matt Hartley said: “There’s no disagreement about the scale of the problem and its urgency. We agree that more resources are needed – but what the motion misses is that extra resources have been announced.”

The amendment was not accepted by the council, which said more funding was necessary.

The cabinet member for education said the council wants to see specific funding for mental health in schools.

“This is one of the issues that comes up time and again”,  Cllr David Gardner said, “As schools have struggled to balance the books, funding has remained stagnant.

“The areas that have been cut back are teaching assistants, who provide emotional support, and then specialists in emotional wellbeing and mental health support.

“It’s been a necessity to protect teachers. Having ring-fenced funding will make an incredible difference to schools.”

Council leader Danny Thorpe said increasingly teachers were being asked to be “social workers, and food banks, and all sorts of things.”

He said: “We must make sure those who are properly qualified to provide mental health support for our young people must be there to provide it.”

The council voted unanimously to call for fully funded mental health services including in-school experts for pupils.