Health minister John Hutton has announced this year's breakdown of a three-year £90m programme to boost children and adolescent mental health services.

Speaking on Friday, he said the government was spending £20m of the money this year - £16m will go on projects which are designed to meet new national objectives, which place an emphasis on reducing suicide, and £4m will be spent on innovative local authority programmes.

The money comes from the NHS Modernisation Fund and the government's CAMHS Innovation Mental Health Grant for local authorities.

Counselling

The £16m to health will go towards counselling for adolescents, family therapists, mental health task forces for schools and specialist services for victims of sexual abuse and those with learning difficulties.

The money will also be spent on providing more support for health visitors and link workers who work with children.

London gets the majority of the cash, followed by the South East, the North West and the Northern and Yorkshire health region.

Mr Hutton said: "This investment will help to ensure that vulnerable children right across the country have access to a proper level of service which, in some areas, has not previously been available."

The government will evaluate all the projects and publish the results in order to get a picture of what works best for children.

The announcement of the cash breakdown comes the week before an Audit Commission report on children's mental health services.

'Out of the ghetto'

A recent report by the Mental Health Foundation claimed one in five children suffered from a mental health problem.

The Foundation welcomed the £20m allocation, but warned more cash was necessary.

Its director June McKerrow said: "This area has been so neglected for so long that a period of sustained and continuing investment is needed to bring the range and quality of services that are required up to scratch."

She said funding specialist services was important, but said more needed to be done to get mental health "out of the ghetto and into mainstream consciousness".

The Foundation has called for the setting-up of a National Board for Children and Young People's Mental Health with local commissioners to co-ordinate all the agencies involved.

"We need to ensure that those professionals who may come into contact with children and young people - whether at school, at home or in GPs' surgeries - have a better awareness of mental health issues, and the support available," said Ms McKerrow.

"Only then will we be able to ensure that every child gets the support they need, when and where they need it."