Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists

(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment his Department has made of waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service referrals (a) as at 18 October 2021 and (b) before the covid-19 outbreak; and what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for those services.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 26th October 2021

No comparative assessment has been made as a national access and waiting times standard for child and adolescent mental health services has not yet been defined. NHS England and NHS Improvement have consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its clinically-led review of access standards. One such standard is that children, young people, and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. This consultation closed on 1 September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement are analysing the consultation responses to inform a recommendation to the Government in due course.

On 5 March 2021, we announced an additional £79 million in 2021/22 for children and young people’s mental health services, allowing around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services and 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services and accelerate the coverage of mental health support teams over 2021/22. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also announced a further £40 million in 2021/22 to address the impact of COVID-19 on children and young people’s mental health.

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