NHS Backlog

Zöe Franklin Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Zöe Franklin (Guildford) (LD)]

Before Christmas, I shared in this Chamber the issues impacting my Guildford constituents who are struggling to access support for special educational needs and disabilities. Today, I want to highlight an aspect of the NHS that is directly linked to the SEND issues that I raised: child and adolescent mental health services, better known to most of us in the Chamber as CAMHS.

Unlike many SEND-related issues, CAMHS sits not within the remit of education but in health, as it requires significant input from NHS specialists. The first step to getting help from CAMHS is usually a referral for an assessment. However, the waiting list for some people is up to three years. That is why I am raising the matter today. A long wait for an assessment leaves young people without support or a diagnosis and has wide implications. A young person’s mental health can deteriorate during that wait, which can lead to self-harm, lashing out and harming family members, and even suicide. Imagine going through that as a parent—watching, often helpless to support your child, while the system designed to help does not. Even if they eventually get a CAMHS assessment, there are well-documented shortages in medication and problems accessing therapies.

The son of one of my constituents was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in April 2020, but received no follow-up appointments. While his family said it was manageable initially, his school performance began to decline towards the end of 2021-22, leading his family to seek a review with CAMHS in February 2023. Twenty months on, the review has not taken place. His parents sought support to prepare him for his GCSEs, even if the medication had to be delayed, but they were met with a system unable to provide even basic support. They now face an indefinite wait with no resolution in sight.

Another constituent has been fighting for support for her 13-year-old daughter, who has been waiting more than two years for an ADHD and pathological demand avoidance assessment, despite the mother pleading for help for seven years. This single-parent family has endured systemic failure, leaving them suffering to an extent that I will not detail today. The prolonged wait for an assessment has taken a devastating toll on both their lives.

It is clear that action is desperately needed to ensure that the resources are there to support young people and their families through the CAMHS system and to ensure that medication shortages are addressed. How will this Labour Government work to recruit and train more professionals to clear the CAMHS backlog and ensure that the service can respond in good time—not years—to requests for assessments and support? Too many young people and their families are being failed by the current system, and it is time that that came to an end.

Children’s Hospices: Funding

Zöe Franklin Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Zöe Franklin (Guildford) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I start by thanking the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) for organising this very important debate on the funding of children’s hospices. I have had the sobering privilege of visiting Christopher’s children’s hospice, which is run by Shooting Star Children’s Hospice Association of the South East, just beyond the border of my constituency of Guildford, on two occasions in the past year. Each of those visits has left me with a lasting impression, as I witnessed the incredible work that the dedicated staff team do to support not only the children with life-threatening conditions in my constituency, and well beyond, but their families.

My reason for speaking today, just as so many others have done, is to highlight how challenging the financial situation that hospices are experiencing has become. We have heard that only a third of the funding required by hospices comes from the NHS and central Government, and the rest is sourced from charitable donations. We are really fortunate to live in a society where fundraising for children’s hospitals can keep them funded, but is that really how we should be providing the majority of the funding for crucial services for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions? The £25 million allocated by NHS England is intended to support children’s hospices, but the distribution through ICBs has led to significant delays in accessing that funding for the upcoming 2024-25 financial year, and there is a really troubling uncertainty whether it will continue into 2025-26 and beyond. That only exacerbates the already daunting task of financial planning for hospices.

Given those circumstances, it is perhaps not surprising that, in a recent survey of children’s hospices, Together for Short Lives found that hospices would prefer NHS England funding to be distributed centrally, according to an overwhelming 83% of respondents. That would provide the certainty and stability that is crucial to them. I am sure that everyone here can agree that children’s hospices play a vital role in our communities, and I want to put on the record today a really big, heartfelt thanks for the care that hospices and their honestly incredible staff provide to children and their families. I particularly thank Christopher’s in Shalford for the care it provides for my own local residents, as well as those across Surrey and beyond. Those families and their children are going through some of the toughest challenges imaginable. However, our gratitude is not enough. I really urge the Minister today to commit to a fair, long-term deal on funding for children’s hospices and to ensure that the NHS funding returns to being a centrally managed grant.