‘Staggering’ 100 referrals made to child mental health services in Scotland every day, charity finds

A “staggering” 100 referrals are being made on average every day to Scotland’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), a charity has found.

Freedom of Information data obtained by Children First showed there were 36,659 referrals in 2023/24, with an acceptance rate of 74%.

The acceptance rate has decreased from 78% in 2019/20, though median wait times have come down from 12 to eight weeks over the same period.

The waiting times target is for 90% of children and young people to be seen within 18 weeks of referral, but this has never been met since its introduction in 2014.

The next release of quarterly statistics on CAMHS will take place on Tuesday next week – a decade on from when the 18-week standard was set in Scotland’s NHS.

Ministers have said the picture on CAMHS waiting times has improved since last year, though the last quarterly release saw performance fall slightly to 84.1%.

Children First chief executive Mary Glasgow said: “The fact that a staggering 100 referrals for children are being made for children’s mental health support daily is a sad reflection of growing up in Scotland today.

“This Christmas thousands of children will wake up full of fear and worry.

“Scotland’s children should be safe, loved and happy – not robbed of their childhoods. This must stop. As a nation we have a responsibility to protect their mental health and wellbeing, and to ensure they receive the support they need.

“We are calling on the Scottish Government to roll out more early help and support to stop children reaching crisis point, and asking the Scottish public to get behind our Christmas fundraising campaign to protect Scotland’s children and keep them safe.”

She added: “Ten years on the Scottish Government has not kept its promise to stop children getting stuck on waiting lists and children are often not getting help until they are in severe distress.

“We want to see more funding so that families can quickly get support for their children when they need it.”

Mental wellbeing minister Maree Todd said: “We are working to ensure that people get the right support, at the right time and in the right place. Waiting times are improving and in the first half of 2024, we saw the best national performance against standard since the 18-week CAMHS target was introduced a decade ago.

“But we know there is more to do and we are determined to drive further improvements to ensure young people get the support they need.

“That is why we have provided local authorities with more than £65 million, since 2020, to develop and deliver community-based mental health support for children, young people and their families.

“We have also invested £16 million a year to work towards ensuring every secondary school in Scotland has access to school counselling services.”