Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending June 2024
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 03 September 2024 (Latest release)
- 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 NHSScotland for the quarter ending June 2024.
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 autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (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 June 2024:
- 84.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 86.0% for the previous quarter and an increase from the 73.8% for the same quarter ending June 2023. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 4,374 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is a 7.8% increase from the 4,056 starting treatment in the previous quarter, and a 14.1% decrease from the 5,093 starting treatment in the quarter ending June 2023.
- 50% of the children and young people starting treatment started within 6 weeks of referral, which is the same as the previous quarter and a decrease from 11 weeks for quarter ending June 2023.
- 4,942 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending June 2024 which is a decrease of 11.1% (615) compared to 5,557 in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 25.9% (1,725) from 6,667 waiting in the same quarter ending June 2023.
- 8,651 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending June 2024. This is an 8.0% (752) decrease from 9,403 compared to the previous quarter, and a decrease of 9.2% (874) from 9,525 referred in the same quarter ending June 2023.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 3 December 2024.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Brendan de Moor at 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.