Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of referrals of children with mental health issues referred for treatment from (1) GPs, and (2) other health professionals, are treated through child and adolescent mental health services; what is the average waiting time between referral and treatment; what are the reasons given for any rejected referrals; and what thresholds must be met for referrals to be successful.
The information cannot be provided because a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s health services has not yet been defined.
We are piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas to inform the development of a new national access and waiting times standard.
Information is not collected centrally on the clinical thresholds used by services to determine access to treatment or whether referrals meet these thresholds.