Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1564), for those referrals for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) what was (1) the average waiting time, and (2) the assessment by CAMHS after the waiting period as opposed to the initial assessment from the referral.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1565), what advice they give to local clinical commissioning groups on the support they should offer children on waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, and to the parents of such children; and what assessment they have made of the quality of support commissioned by local clinical commissioning groups for such children and parents.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England and NHS Improvement have not published advice or guidance on support that clinical commissioning groups should offer to children on waiting lists and their parents/carers, nor have they assessed local approaches to providing this support.
Children and young people’s mental health covers a wide range of needs and there is no single service model. Commissioners and providers must consider the needs of children and young people and their families and set out how they will provide a range of services to form a comprehensive children and young people’s mental health offer in their local transformation plans.
These plans are whole-system plans that set out how local areas will work together to lead and manage change for children and young people’s mental health. These are refreshed and republished each year.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the total NHS budget is spent on child and adolescent mental health services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Approximately 1% of the total National Health Service budget was spent on children and young people’s mental health services in 2018/19 through clinical commissioning group spend and NHS specialised commissioning.
It should be noted that this does not include other areas that may include spending on children and young people’s mental health services, such as primary care and health and justice.
We are spending more than ever before to transform community mental health services, expand crisis care and improve services for children and young people. The Government has also committed to a further £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 of extra investment in mental health services to support 380,000 more adults and 345,000 more children.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of referrals of children from school-based teams are referred for treatment through child and adolescent mental health services; and what is the average waiting time between referral and treatment.
Answered by Lord Bethell
This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what reasons are given for the rejection of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services from school-based teams.
Answered by Lord Bethell
This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any evidence of deterioration in the mental health of those referred to child and adolescent mental health services in the period between initial assessment at the point of referral and treatment; and how they assess any such deterioration.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support is available to the children on waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, and to the parents of such children.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not hold information nationally on what support is available for children on waiting lists and their parents.
Local clinical commissioning groups commission a wide range of services based on the needs of their patients, and this may include additional or online support that might be helpful to children and their parents when on a waiting list.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of mental health trailblazer areas; and whether they plan to roll out the scheme more widely.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The first 59 Mental Health Support Teams will become operational very soon as part of the first wave of 25 ‘trailblazer’ areas, and 12 of these will also test the four-week waiting time for children’s and young people’s mental health services. In July 2019, NHS England confirmed a further 57 areas, where 123 new teams will be deployed from the end of 2020 to early 2021.
We are aiming to roll out Mental Health Support Teams to at least a fifth of the country by the end of 2022/23, with what we have learned from the first wave informing our approach.
Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the <i>Lightning Review</i> by the Children’s Commissioner published in May 2016 stating that "79% of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services stated that they imposed restrictions and thresholds on children and young people accessing their services", what are those (1) thresholds, and (2) restrictions.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The report, Lightning Review: Access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, was published independently by the Children’s Commissioner published in May 2016.
In the report, the Children’s Commissioner mentioned what they described as thresholds and restrictions to services. In the report these included the age of patients; the conditions that patients present with; the severity of conditions; and the severity of symptoms.