What action it is taking to reduce waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Heath Boards to ensure a wide range of actions are in place to reduce waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This includes increasing funding over recent years to expand service capacity and provide over 320 additional staff, increasing capacity for cases by over 10,000. We are also continuing to support NHS Boards to redesign their services to improve efficiency and access.Thanks to the hard work and dedication of CAMHS teams across Scotland, we have now met the waiting times standard of Boards seeing 90% of those referred within 18 weeks for over a year and one in two children and young people referred to CAMHS start treatment within 5 weeks. The majority of Health Boards have now eliminated their longest waits of over a year and we are continuing to work with Boards to improve that further.The Government is also investing in early intervention and community-based supports, such as school counselling and third-sector services, to support children and young people and their families to address mental health issues earlier in order to reduce demand for specialist CAMHS.