CAMHS waiting times statistics for Northern Ireland (June 2024)

Published 07 August 2024

Theme: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) waiting time statistics for Northern Ireland
Purpose: For information - Statistics in Development
Authors (statisticians): Deborah Kinghan, Heidi Rodgers
Publication date:07 August 2024
Issued by: Community Information Branch, Information and Analysis Directorate, Department of Health, Stormont Estate, Belfast, BT4 3SQ
Email: cib@health-ni.gov.uk
Webpage: Children and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) statistics

Encompass

Encompass is a new electronic patient record system that will create a single digital care record for every citizen in Northern Ireland who receives health and social care. It aims to create better experiences for patients, service users and staff by bringing together information from various existing systems that do not currently communicate effectively. The programme was first introduced in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT) on 9th November 2023 and will be rolled out on a phased basis across all Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts in Northern Ireland by the end of 2025. Further information about Encompass can be found at the link below: Encompass - DHCNI (hscni.net)

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

At 30 June 2024, there were NA total waits for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) assessment in Northern Ireland, of which NA 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 2023 to 30 June 2024 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.

Please note that due to the rollout of the new patient record IT system encompass, Belfast HSC Trust has been unable to provide data for June 2024. All analysis below therefore exclude Belfast HSC Trust and for this quarter. Caution must be taken when comparing Northern Ireland figures across the quarters.

Table 1: CAMHS total waits by HSC Trust in Northern Ireland from quarter ending 30 June 2023 to 30 June 2024

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

Note 2: Belfast HSC Trust waiting times for June 2024 are not currently available due to the roll-out of Encompass and are therefore excluded for June 2024. This also affects the Northern Ireland total.

Trust	30 Jun 2023	30 Sep 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Mar 2024	30 Jun 2024
Belfast	631	643	514	511	NA
Northern	793	663	697	611	548
Southern	399	380	429	434	331
Western	333	331	372	434	427
Northern Ireland	2,156	2,017	2,012	1,990	NA

Table 2: CAMHS waits over nine weeks by HSC Trust in Northern Ireland from quarter ending 30 June 2023 to 30 June 2024

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.

Note 3: Belfast HSC Trust waiting times for June 2024 are not currently available due to the roll-out of Encompass and are therefore excluded for June 2024. This also affects the Northern Ireland total.

Trust	30 Jun 2023	30 Sep 2023	31 Dec 2023	31 Mar 2024	30 Jun 2024
Belfast	378	448	284	253	NA
Northern	524	446	415	446	458
Southern	26	81	122	51	39
Western	214	214	233	276	288
Northern Ireland	1,142	1,189	1,054	1,026	NA

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. However, as the current quarter data does not include Belfast HSC data due to the roll out of Encompass, this quarter’s figures appear lower than usual.

Download data

The data presented in the figures and tables within this publication can be downloaded in excel format by clicking the button below.

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Quarterly data: 19KB

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 statistics in development. Revisions may have been made to previous figures.

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