Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending September 2024
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 03 December 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 September 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 (below) for more information.
Main points
For the quarter ending September 2024:
- 89.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 84.1% for the previous quarter and from 75.6% for the same quarter ending September 2023. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.
- 3,801 children and young people started treatment at CAMHS in Scotland. This is a 13.2% decrease from the 4,377 starting treatment in the previous quarter, and a 18.9% decrease from the 4,686 starting treatment in the quarter ending September 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 10 weeks for quarter ending September 2023.
- 4,231 children and young people were waiting to start treatment at quarter ending September 2024 which is a decrease of 14.3% (707) compared to 4,938 in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 20.8% (1,113) from 5,344 waiting in the same quarter ending September 2023.
- 7,438 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in Scotland for quarter ending September 2024. This is a 14.0% (1,213) decrease from 8,651 compared to the previous quarter, and a decrease of 9.3% (766) from 8,204 referred in the same quarter ending September 2023.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 4 March 2025.
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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If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.
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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.