Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 454-2023
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.
CAMHS Gloucestershire provides mental health and emotional services for all children and young people CYP. under 18 years old and registered with a GP in Gloucestershire. The service also provides support for these CYP who have health issues related to a moderate to severe learning disability. There have been several changes in CAMHS provision within the recent years: • In 2018 CAMHS Gloucestershire was awarded a Trailblazer site, securing funding for the implementation of Mental Health Support Teams MHSTs. – these now offer support to over 110 secondary and primary schools in Gloucestershire. • CAMHS is currently working closely with commissionaires to develop a coherent autism spectrum conditioDHD assessment and post diagnostic support pathway for CYP age 0-18. The current pathway provision is distributed between CAMHS over 11s., social communication and autism assessment service pre-school. and paediatrics under 11s.. • In 2021 CAMHS secured further funding for 16-25 service – Young Adult Service that work closely with general CAMHS and Young Gloucestershire. • Furthermore, CAMHS secured funding for CAMHS outreach team 0-18. to provide intensive support in community thus avoiding Tier 4 admission where possible. These different services and teams will have different waiting times. Children and young people with urgent need are prioritised and seen swiftly. Waiting times are notably higher in specialist autism service compared to general CAMHS teams. Responses to questions
1. The table below shows the number of children and young people CYP. who had been referred but had not yet had an assessment or been discharged on the specified date. Children may be open to more than one team within the service and so may have more than one referral. In this table, the young person is only counted once for each specific date. There was a significant increase in referrals in 2023 due to the change in commissioning arrangements for autism spectrum disorder ASD./ADHD Assessment Pathway within the county. The change triggered the review of recording process and decision to record all under 11 autism referrals from paediatrics and the acute therapy service on one clinical system RiO.. There has also been an increase in the number of referrals received by the service over the time period.
Date Number of waiting list
01/02/2017 612
01/02/2021 853
01/02/2023 1864
2. The table below shows the number of referrals received by the service for the calendar years specified. This excludes referrals from teams within the service. Calendar year Number of referrals received
2017 4366
2021 6449
2022 6935
3. The table below shows the average number of days between referral and a CYP’s first successful contact date by the year of their contact date. For example, for CYP whose first successful contact was in 2017, they waited an average of 35 days. For 2023, the figure is for 01/01/2023 to 16/02/2023. Some of the variation in average days waited between this time period and the other two may be because it is for a shorter time period. The 2023 data also includes the ASD/ADHD assessment pathway referrals.
Year of first successful contact Average days waited rounded down.
2017 35
2021 43
01/01/2023 to 16/02/2023 83
4. CAMHS Gloucestershire are not in position to provide this data due to the lack of the national definition of treatment. There is no national methodology to count this time. Please note that there is also some evidence that 1 session usually 1st contact. is enough to agree and plan the appropriate care or signpost to more appropriate service or resources outside the organisation itself. 5. Information to be provided
6. The table below shows the number referrals into the service for the calendar years specified that were signposted or referred on to another service. This excludes referrals from teams within the service. Children are not refused treatment if it is appropriate. However, due to the commissioning arrangements in Gloucestershire, CAMHS Gloucestershire closely liaise with other NHS commissioned mental health organisations within our county. Therefore, it is not uncommon that referrals received by CAMHS will be signposted or referred onto the appropriate NHS Mental Health Service such as TiC+, Young Gloucestershire, Hospital Education or TALC. This is to ensure that the child or young person gets to the right service directly and does not need to tell their story multiple times to different professionals. Referral outcome 2017 2021 2022
Signposted / referred on 998 1248 1460
7. The longest wait for a first assessment for a CYP on the caseload as at 07/02/2023 was 856 days. The young person in question was waiting on the autism spectrum condition pathway.
FOI Request
I sent a FOI request on Friday regarding CAMHS waiting times and budgets. I wonder if you could take into account the following clarifications as I can see some of my questions were a little opaque, apologies.
I would appreciate if you could consider the following questions:
1: The number of young people on your waiting list for a first appointment and comparable figures for 2021 and 2017. A snapshot for a single day in February for those years please.
2: The number of young people on your list who had an assessment but have not started any therapeutic intervention and comparable figures for 2021 and 2017.. PLEASE DISREGARD THIS QUESTION. INSTEAD ARE YOU ABLE TO TELL ME THE TOTAL NUMBER OF REFERRALS IN 2022, 2021 AND 2017?
3: The average length of time young people are waiting for a first appointment and comparable figures for 2021 and 2017. Are you able to give a snapshot of the average wait time now, plus the average wait time in 2021 and 2017 in whatever way you record this?
4: The average length of time young people are waiting between initial referral and treatment beginning and comparable figures for 2021 and 2017. 5: Your annual budget and comparable figures for 2021 and 2017. For CAMHS please, and the trust's budget.
6: How many young people referred in to the service were refused treatment in 2022, 2021 and 2017.
I wonder if you could also tell me:
7: The longest time any young person has been on your current waiting list as of the date of the receipt of this email.