Up to a third of acute hospital beds set aside for children in hospitals across England are now occupied by children with mental health issues.
Doctors have said that many of the children are taking up acute beds as a result of care placements braking down or severe neurodevelopmental disorders.
Paediatricians told the Guardian that many children are not physically ill but cannot be place in children's homes due to the nature of their behaviour.
Richard Cross, head of assessment and therapy at Five Rivers, responded to this development in a post on the Five Rivers Child Care website.
Five Rivers is an independent fostering agency that is partnered with over 135 local authorities and NHS Trusts.
"The root of this problem lies in a lack of adequate assessment and provision early on," he said.
"Children coming into care need to be adequately assessed to find suitable homes that meet their psychological needs. Care providers looking after children who have suffered severe adversity need to be trained in and able to offer access to the right psychological support to address the altered states in children’s minds and bodies.
"The foster carers and residential home staff looking after them need to be highly trained, supervised and supported by psychological practitioners to ensure they can ‘stay alongside’ the children and young people as their nervous systems gradually calm."
Cross explained that in order to resolve this issue, their needed to be a rethink to the social care system, while bemoaning the shortfall in foster carers.
"Where children have experienced physical or emotional neglect and abuse, we see psycho-biological changes which adversely impact their mental and physical health," he added.
"Long-term exposure to these environments create survival responses in children. These are often experienced by others as challenging, emotional behaviours that can be confusing and difficult to manage, to the point where Accident and Emergency hospitalisation can seem like the only viable option.
"These reports break at a time where we have a projected shortfall of 25,000 foster carers by 2025 and a residential recruitment crisis. We need to rebuild a social care system that is non-judgemental, psychologically informed, and holistic in its understanding and approach to looked after children."
