CAMHS waiting times statistics for Northern Ireland (March 2023)

Published 9 August 2023

Theme: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) waiting time statistics for Northern Ireland
Purpose: For information - Experimental Statistics
Authors (statisticians): Deborah Kinghan, Heidi Rodgers
Publication date:9 August 2023
Issued by: Community Information Branch, Information and Analysis Directorate, Department of Health, Stormont Estate, Belfast, BT4 3SQ
Email: cib@health-ni.gov.uk
Webpage: Mental health and learning disability statistics

Children and Young People waiting for a CAMHS Assessment in Northern Ireland

At 30 June 2023, there were 2,251 total waits for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) assessment in Northern Ireland, and of which 1,205 were waiting for more than nine weeks. Table 1 sets out the number of total waits for a CAMHS assessment in Northern Ireland from 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023 by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust, and Table 2 sets out the number of those waits that were longer than nine weeks over the same time period.

Table 1: CAMHS total waits by HSC Trust in Northern Ireland from quarter ending 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023

Note: CAMHS services in the South Eastern HSC Trust is covered by Belfast HSC Trust.

Trust	30 Jun 2022	30 Sep 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Mar 2023	30 Jun 2023
Belfast	648	611	682	773	631
Northern	898	938	1,011	873	888
Southern	290	225	287	429	399
Western	516	412	363	313	333
Northern Ireland	2,352	2,185	2,343	2,388	2,251

Table 2: CAMHS waits over nine weeks by HSC Trust in Northern Ireland from quarter ending 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023

Note 1: CAMHS services in the South Eastern HSC Trust is covered by Belfast HSC Trust.

Note 2: To avoid personal identification, all figures lower than five have been converted to the number three. The Northern Ireland totals have been adjusted accordingly; therefore, may vary slightly compared with other sources.

Trust	30 Jun 2022	30 Sep 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Mar 2023	30 Jun 2023
Belfast	354	373	375	435	378
Northern	575	720	690	496	587
Southern	0	0	0	0	26
Western	372	303	204	155	214
Northern Ireland	1,301	1,396	1,269	1,086	1,205

Figure 1: Total waits for a CAMHS assessment in Northern Ireland from June 2019 to June 2023

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Since a low of 1,107 total waits for a CAMHS assessment at 30 September 2020, the number of children and young people waiting for an assessment of CAMHS in Northern Ireland has been increasing with a peak of 2,388 total waits at 31 March 2023.

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Metadata

The statistics presented here derive from monthly returns completed by each HSC Trust in relation to Mental Health Outpatients Waiting Times. These returns are submitted to the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) for validation and subsequently shared with the Information and Analysis Directorate (IAD) in DoH. This summary report is created by IAD, and was published on the Department of Health website for the first time on 14 June 2023. The figures will, until further notice, be deemed as Experimental Statistics.

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