Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending March 2023
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 06 June 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 March 2023.
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.
NHS Dumfries & Galloway data should be considered provisional and subject to revision. Please see the Data Quality document for more detail.
Main points
For the quarter ending March 2023:
- 74.2% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 70.2% for the previous quarter and an increase from the 73.0% for the same quarter ending March 2022. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 4,920 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is a decrease of 12.2% from the 5,601 starting treatment in the previous quarter and a decrease of 0.7% from the 4,954 starting treatment in the quarter ending March 2022.
- One in two of the children and young people seen started their treatment within an average of 9 weeks, which is the same as the previous quarter but an increase from an average of 8 weeks for quarter ending March 2022.
- 7,701 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending March 2023 which is an increase of 1.8% (138) compared to the previous quarter but a decrease of 26.0% (2,705) for the same quarter ending March 2022.
- 10,556 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending March 2023. This is an increase of 3.5% (355) compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 5.5% (555) for the same quarter ending March 2022.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 5 September 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.