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Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 761, tabled on 18 July 2024

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been waiting over six months to access CAMHS support in Birmingham.

Answered on

5 August 2024

The following table shows the number of referrals to Birmingham mental health services for those aged 17 years old and under, those referrals who received first contact, and those referrals who received first contact within six months of the referral date, over each of the last five years:

Year

Referrals

Referrals who received first contact

Referrals who received first contact within six months of the same year

2019/20

22,265

8,946

1,607

2020/21

19,936

7,880

1,444

2021/22

27,435

10,594

1,681

2022/23

25,252

7,831

1,403

2023/24

34,879

7,500

385

Source: data taken from the Mental Health Services Dataset, published by NHS England.

Notes:

  1. in some instances, it may not be expected that a first contact would be recorded, for example those received by triage teams may be closed without a contact, with a new referral being opened once triaged instead; and
  2. a cyber incident between August 2022 and March 2023 impacted several providers submitting Mental Health Services data, therefore some individual providers may not be able to submit complete data.

Finally, as of March 2024 the number of referrals still waiting for first contact, having waited at least six months and regardless of when the referral started, is 15,181.