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WQ.144/2022
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATION BY DEPUTY K.G. PAMPLIN OF ST. SAVIOUR
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON TUESDAY 19th APRIL 2022
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 26th APRIL 2022
Question
“Will the Minister provide details of the current waiting list times for young people’s mental health services; and, for each such service, will he also provide details of the current levels of staffing and of any vacancies that may exist?”
Answer
Since the 21st February all referrals to CAMHS have been processed through the Children and Families Hub. A CAMHS nurse sits in the Hub and triage’s all referrals alongside the Hub team and Duty and Assessment Service Manager. All referrals are now allocated promptly and without waiting for an allocations meeting, and clinicians targeted with completing Initial Assessments within triaged time scales, which despite referral volume is going well. For general, non-urgent referrals, we aim to have Initial assessments completed within 36 days and in February 2022 they averaged 32 days. More urgent referrals are seen much quicker.
At the beginning of the year there were 90 young people on a waiting list for specific therapists, such as psychologists. As of today, this is down to 28 with a two month wait. All young people on this list continue to receive support from other members of the team whilst waiting for a particular specialist clinician. Further therapists are due to commence employment with CAMHS in the coming weeks which will reduce this list further.
Diagnostic assessments for autism remain within target at 3 months; with work being completed to address waits for ADHD assessments currently around 6 months. The new Neurodevelelopmental pathway will be launched in 2022 with further recruitment to support this in demand area.
Following initial government plan monies from January 2022, significant recruitment has already taken place. There are 43 staff currently at CAMHS, with 12 more permanent staff due to start in the coming weeks (some of which will replace existing agency / locum staff). The additional 12 include a new Consultant Psychologist, Psychologist, Assistant Psychologists, Behaviour Analyst, Mental Health Practitioners and a Nurse. In the next wave of adverts we will be seeking 2 Psychiatrists (locum staff currently in post), 1 Associate Specialist, 1 Nurse Prescriber, and 1 part time data officer. Depending on finance for 2022, or certainly with additional funding from 2023, we will be seeking 1 Lead Nurse (agency lead nurse in post), 1 Dietician, 4 Health Care Assistants and 4 Support Workers.