CAMHS waiting times statistics for Northern Ireland (March 2023)

Published 14 June 2023

Theme: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) waiting time statistics for Northern Ireland
Purpose: For information - Experimental Statistics
Authors (statisticians): Jessica McCluney, Deborah Kinghan, Heidi Rodgers, Malcolm Megaw
Publication date:14 June 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 31 March 2023, there were 2,388 total waits for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) assessment in Northern Ireland, and of which 1,086 were waiting for more than nine weeks. Table 1 sets out the number of total waits for a CAMHS assessment in Northern Ireland from 31 March 2022 to 31 March 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 31 March 2022 to 31 March 2023

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

Trust	31 Mar 2022	30 Jun 2022	30 Sep 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Mar 2023
Belfast	652	648	611	682	773
Northern	673	898	938	1,011	873
Southern	282	290	225	287	429
Western	499	516	412	363	313
Northern Ireland	2,106	2,352	2,185	2,343	2,388

Table 2: CAMHS waits over nine weeks by HSC Trust in Northern Ireland from quarter ending 31 March 2022 to 31 March 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	31 Mar 2022	30 Jun 2022	30 Sep 2022	31 Dec 2022	31 Mar 2023
Belfast	271	354	373	375	435
Northern	310	575	720	690	496
Southern	3	0	0	0	0
Western	346	372	303	204	155
Northern Ireland	930	1,301	1,396	1,269	1,086

Figure 1: Total waits for a CAMHS assessment in Northern Ireland from April 2020 to March 2023

Download data:

Figure 1.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.XLSX (7kB)

Since a low of 1,132 total waits for a CAMHS assessment at 30 June 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.

Download data

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

Download data:

Quarterly data: 18KB

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.

User feedback

We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments on this publication, please contact the Community Information Branch: cib@health-ni.gov.uk