Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending March 2024
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 04 June 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 NHS Scotland for the quarter ending March 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 March 2024:
- 86.0% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 83.8% for the previous quarter and from the 74.2% for the same quarter ending March 2023. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 4,056 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is a 10.5% decrease from the 4,531 starting treatment in the previous quarter, and a 17.6% decrease from the 4,920 starting treatment in the quarter ending March 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 9 weeks for quarter ending March 2023.
- 5,557 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending March 2024 which is an increase of 0.7% (40) compared to 5,517 in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 27.8% (2,144) from 7,701 waiting in the same quarter ending March 2023.
- 9,403 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending March 2024. This is a 1.3% (124) decrease from 9,527 compared to the previous quarter, and a decrease of 10.9% (1,153) from 10,556 referred in the same quarter ending March 2023.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 3 September 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.