Whether it will provide an update on progress on implementing each recommendation in the 2018 report, Rejected Referrals Child and Adolesce…

Since the Audit of Rejected Referrals was published in 2018, Scottish Government has undertaken a wide range of work to implement the recommendations in the report and take forward whole systems reform of children and young people’s mental health services.One of the key actions we have taken to address the recommendations is to develop a CAMHS Service Specification: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): NHS Scotland National Service Specification (www.gov.scot) published on 2 February 2020, to set out clear standards for all CAMHS services in Scotland. This outlines how CAMHS services should be delivered and what young people and their families can expect from CAMHS. The National CAMHS specification includes a clear expectation that children and young people whose referral is not accepted for CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service, such as those provided by our community-based supports.The subsequent publication of the Neurodevelopmental Specification in September 2021 also addresses actions from the Audit of Rejected Referrals and ensures that children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs, receive support that better meets their needs, based on the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach.Another action to address key findings in the report was establishing community mental health and wellbeing services across Scotland. Not all children and young people need specialist services like CAMHS, which can lead to referrals not being accepted. This is why we are providing local authorities with £15m per annum to fund community-based mental health supports for children, young people and their families. Local authorities report that, in the first half of 2023, more than 58,000 children, young people and their family members accessed community-based mental health support.In addition, we have recently seen the best national performance against CAMHS waiting times since the 18 week standard was introduced in 2014. 1 in 2 children and young people referred to CAMHS now start treatment within 6 weeks, compared to 12 weeks pre-pandemic.The Audit of Rejected Referrals highlighted that improved patient-level data was required to provide further insight and intelligence into system performance. Therefore, the Scottish Government has also commissioned national patient-level data to help with service planning and improvement, for measuring the true impact of investment, and for telling the stories of people seeking and receiving treatment in CAMHS. Directors of eHealth have been commissioned to upgrade data systems supporting CAMHS to enable the collection of patient-level data. This work is ongoing.In parallel, and responding to recommendations in the report, Public Health Scotland have started publishing data from the CAMHS and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND), including referrals to CAMHS by sex, age and SIMD as well as reasons for referral not being accepted. Boards are also working with PHS and Directors of eHealth to enable the collection and publication of additional information in 2025.While we have made significant progress in improving mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people since 2018, we continue to work closely with Boards to understand the reasons for non-accepted referrals and to ensure that the criteria in the CAHMS specification are being met. The Joint Strategic Board for Child and Family Mental Health provides oversight across all areas of children and families’ mental health, with the aim of ensuring we continue to improve and develop services to help children and young people in Scotland.