Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target

Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC Scotland today is headlining their own Disclosure team’s interviews with teenagers from one Glasgow unit. It sounds tragic.

While taking nothing away from the unacceptability of the treatment reported, BBC Scotland also has a responsibility beyond that, to inform the public of the wider context so that one negative report does not, unfairly, come to represent reality for their audience.

The latest figures, from Public Health Scotland, tell another important and different story:

For the quarter ending September 2024: 89.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 84.1% for the previous quarter and from 75.6% for the same quarter ending September 2023. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS.

That’s an 18% improvement in one year.

Now, at the same time, and critics will jump on this, referrals also fell by 9.3% from the previous year, leaving a smaller 8.7% improvement. However, what does a reduction in referrals mean?

I’m not competent to comment but might it mean that the demand, the need, is falling, contrary to the dominant narrative.

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-september-2024/

11 thoughts on “Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target”

  1. The Tories cut NHS funding for 14 years. Austerity made people ill. Now the Tories are gone. The referrals might be deal with quicker and decline.

    Thatcher ‘Care in the Community’. Prison

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  2. Refferals in Scotland fall by nearly 10%. Meanwhile referrals in England ROSE by 10%.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/02/urgent-referrals-of-children-in-mental-health-crisis-in-england-rise

    English report has no reference to % seen within 18weeks, probably because they are also failing. Evidence report below about English children being sent hundreds of miles from family to access mental health services.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/02/urgent-referrals-of-children-in-mental-health-crisis-in-england-rise

    british bullxxxx onsrtists at it again.

    Dottieb

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  7. An article about NHS Scotland in Holyrood Magazine today has a very odd statistic. Am I missing something?

    See: Holyrood Magazine (February10, , 2025) Bed Bound: The chronic problem of delayed discharges is tying up resources across the NHS.

    Here is the text with the problematic stat (the named reference is to the author of a recent IFS report): ‘The honest answer is that it’s probably too early to tell, although Phillips says there are some signs of recovery in England’s NHS based on available data. Meanwhile, figures published last week showed more than 180,000 patients waited more than eight hours to be seen in Scotland’s A&E departments, the worst figure on record, ….’

    From the Public Health Scotland website:

    December 2024: ‘19,111 (14.7%) patients spent more than 8 hours in A&E (compared to 15,074 (11.5%) the previous month, and 12,359 (9.8%) monthly average for 2023).’

    Week Ending 26 January 2025: ‘3,351 (14.3%) patients spent more than 8 hours in a type 1 Department (compared to 3,338 (13.7%) the previous week, and 3,364 (12.5%) weekly average for 2024).’

    So where does the 180,000 come from? Of course the journalist omits to tell readers the time period to which the statistic refers. So is it plain wrong or some ‘secret’ aggregation of months statistics by the journalist to get to a big scary number?

    It’s also notable that in a paragraph which seeks to draw an unfavourable comparison with NHS England, the journalist opts to use an A&E waiting times performance metric – viz. over 8 hour waits – that NHS England does NOT report!

    The journalist could have reported on 12 hour waits in December 2024. Yes, this would have shown deterioration in the December performance both in Scotland and England but would have revealed how superior by far the performance of NHS Scotland is on this metric – and has long been so. Couldn’t have that!

    Or the journalist could have shared the December 2024 statistic for over 8 hour waits in A&E departments in Wales.

    Source: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Hospital-Waiting-Times/emergency-department/performanceagainst8hourwaitingtimestarget-by-hospital

    This source reports that of attendances at ALL emergency departments in Wales, 19.7% spent over 8 hours. Of attendances at ‘major emergency departments’ in Wales, the percentage spending over 8 hours was 26%. Recall in the latest week for which statistics are available, the equivalent figure for NHS Scotland was just 14.3%.

    None of the NHS emergency facilities across the UK are performing as they should regarding waiting times. No serious/reasonable commentator is suggesting otherwise. And I have no wish to understate or somehow sugar coat the situation in Scotland. That is not the point at issue.

    Exposing the partial reporting of NHS Scotland by most media outlets supposedly ‘serving’ Scotland is the motivation, the necessity. Too many persist in seeking to influence voters here by blatantly avoiding the provision of context, perspective, true/fair comparative assessments and candidly, avoiding any in depth, objective analysis of the underlying causes of the present state of the NHS across the UK.

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  8. £22Billion more going into the NHS in April. To mitigate the previous cuts. Scotland £2Billion will help mitigate previous cuts. More funding going in. Labour cut the winter fuel allowance. So more people will end up in hospital. No joined up thinking.

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