Professor Barry Carpenter, who chaired a national inquiry into mental health, said official figures do not take into account the high incidence of mental health problems among pupils with learning difficulties.

The most recent 2004 data from the Office for National statistics showed that 10% of children had mental health problems.

Prof Carpenter told the Times Educational Supplement: “If you combine into that figure what we know about children with special needs – for example, for every five children with special needs we know that three will have a mental health problem – I think overall the one in 10 is going to creep up as you get more vulnerable children and as homes start to feel the economic recession.”

Published by the Press Association

As parents are made redundant and have their salaries cut, the health and wellbeing of children may be damaged.

Of the doubling, he said: “It is one in 10 at the moment. I think over the next 10 years we will see it move to two in 10.”