Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists
(asked on 28th October 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for mental health treatment in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last five years.
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in the Cheshire East local authority, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults in the Cheshire East local authority | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 5,262 | 148.8 | 51 |
2020/21 | 5,986 | 122.2 | 34 |
2021/22 | 4,285 | 156.3 | 43.5 |
2022/23 | 3,005 | 234.3 | 69 |
2023/24 | 5,165 | 206.4 | 51 |
Similarly, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East local authority, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East local authority | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 3,244 | 133.5 | 28 |
2020/21 | 2,854 | 71.1 | 17 |
2021/22 | 2,810 | 139.6 | 27 |
2022/23 | 3,615 | 197.1 | 46 |
2023/24 | 4,145 | 104.3 | 30 |
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults for the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 10,328 | 132.9 | 47 |
2020/21 | 10,474 | 115.6 | 27 |
2021/22 | 7,645 | 164.8 | 48 |
2022/23 | 6,210 | 218.1 | 56 |
2023/24 | 10,005 | 157.9 | 34 |
In addition, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in the Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and Chester local authorities combined, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old for Cheshire East, and Cheshire West and Chester local authorities combined | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 5,300 | 106.0 | 27 |
2020/21 | 4,732 | 63.1 | 14.5 |
2021/22 | 4,510 | 133.2 | 26 |
2022/23 | 5,715 | 172.9 | 44 |
2023/24 | 7,310 | 83.3 | 30 |
The following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for adults in England, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and second contact for adults in England | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of adult referrals with a second contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 1,137,746 | 82.1 | 20 |
2020/21 | 1,139,423 | 69.7 | 13 |
2021/22 | 1,188,529 | 63.6 | 15 |
2022/23 | 1,176,748 | 68.2 | 19 |
2023/24 | 1,289,417 | 72.3 | 20 |
Finally, the following table shows both the mean and median average waiting times, measured in days, for mental health treatment for children and young people aged under 18 years old in England, for the last five years:
Waiting time between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old in England | |||
Year in which contact occurred | Number of child referrals with a first contact in the year | Mean average waiting time | Median average waiting time |
2019/20 | 567,236 | 81.6 | 13 |
2020/21 | 568,703 | 75.3 | 7 |
2021/22 | 652,869 | 65.0 | 11 |
2022/23 | 674,702 | 69.7 | 13 |
2023/24 | 744,506 | 75.4 | 14 |
Source: Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS), NHS England
Notes:
- waiting time is measured in days;
- this data differs from published waiting times because rather than looking at just community mental health it looks at the full scope of data in the MHSDS, so will include neurodevelopmental referrals across all ages, and neurocognitive referrals, including a large number of dementia diagnostic referrals for adults, as well as other smaller areas of provision, such as services for gender identity and for addictions; and
- the statistics including waiting times for adult services for Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression are reported via a separate dataset and have not been included here.