Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to define a national (a) access and (b) waiting times standard for wider child and adolescent mental health services.

Twelve areas have been chosen to pilot a four-week waiting time for access to all children and young people’s mental health services. There are already two condition-specific waiting time standards that apply to children and young people with eating disorders or psychosis.

The current four-week waiting time pilots will test not only what it takes to achieve and maintain a four-week waiting time, but also how best to define and measure this access to specialist children and young people’s mental health services. The pilots will also evaluate the impact of a four-week waiting time on any other services and assess any impact on wider outcomes for children and young people. This will help inform any future decisions about a national waiting time standard for children and young people’s mental health services as a whole.