Locking children with mental health problems in police cells should be banned, the Royal College of Psychiatrists urged yesterday.

The college has published six requests for an incoming government to improve mental health services.

It says children suffering with mental illness should never be placed in cells — and adults undergoing mental health crises should only be confined in this way “under exceptional circumstances.”

Labour shadow public health minister Luciana Berger said it was “a national scandal” that ill children were kept in cells.

Labour would put mental health at the heart of its integrated health and social care plans, she said.

Psychiatrists said everyone needing admission to a mental health ward should have access to a bed in their local area unless they required specialist treatment.

College president Professor Simon Wessely said he welcomed the discussion about mental health but added: “What we now need to see is good words translated into good deeds.”