Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending December 2023
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 05 March 2024
- 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 2023.
CAMHS are multi-disciplinary teams that provide treatment and/or interventions for children and young people experiencing mental health problems. Where a child or young person is awaiting an assessment for a neurodevelopmental condition such as ASD, or ADHD, they may not be appropriate for CAMHS, please see the neurodevelopmental activity section of the data quality document for more information.
Main points
For the quarter ending December 2023:
- 83.8% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 75.6% for the previous quarter and from the 70.4% for the same quarter ending December 2022. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 4,531 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is a 3.3% decrease from the 4,686 starting treatment in the previous quarter, and a 19.7% decrease from the 5,641 starting treatment in the quarter ending December 2022.
- 50% of the children and young people starting treatment started within 6 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 10 weeks in the previous quarter and from 9 weeks for quarter ending December 2022.
- 5,517 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending December 2023 which is an increase of 3.2% (173) compared to 5,344 in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 27.5% (2,089) from 7,606 waiting in the same quarter ending December 2022.
- 9,527 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending December 2023. This is a 16.1% (1,323) increase from 8,204 compared to the previous quarter, and a decrease of 7.0% (714) from 10,241 referred in the same quarter ending December 2022.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 4 June 2024.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Brendan de Moor at phs.camh@phs.scot.
Media enquiries
If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.
Requesting other formats and reporting issues
If you require publications or documents in other formats, please email phs.otherformats@phs.scot.
To report any issues with a publication, please email phs.generalpublications@phs.scot.
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.