Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending December 2022
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 07 March 2023
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update of how long people waited to start treatment with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in NHS Scotland for the quarter ending December 2022. As of June 2022, CAMHS data are available via an interactive dashboard.
An update of referrals data from the experimental Child, Adolescent and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) has been published alongside this publication.
Main points
For the quarter ending December 2022:
- 70.1% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 67.9% for the previous quarter and similar to the 70.5% for the same quarter ending December 2021. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 5,548 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is an increase of 11.1% from the 4,994 starting treatment in the previous quarter and 19.1% from the 4,659 starting treatment in the quarter ending December 2021.
- One in two of the children and young people seen started their treatment within an average of 9 weeks, which is a decrease from an average of 10 weeks for the previous quarter but an increase from an average of 7 weeks for quarter ending December 2021.
- 7,563 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending December 2022 which is a decrease of 9.3% (8,340) compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 27.6% (10,449) for the same quarter ending December 2021.
- 10,201 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending December 2022. This is an increase of 19.4% (8544) compared to the previous quarter and 1.8% (10,021) for the same quarter ending December 2021.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 6 June 2023.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please email phs.camh@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.