Children referred to Devon Partnership NHS Trust’s mental health services face the longest wait for a first appointment out of any other NHS Trust in the South West.
More than 6,000 children have been referred to the Trust for mental health this year, with 1,460 currently on the waiting list.
Data obtained by Medical Negligence Assist via Freedom of Information Requests to all NHS Mental Health Trusts has found that children face an average waiting time of 13 weeks from referral to a first appointment at Devon Trust – more than double the national average of five weeks.
What’s more, the Trust confirmed that the longest recorded wait time as of the end of April 2024 was 427 days – that’s 61 weeks.
In the last year alone (2024), 6,151 children have been referred to Devon Trust for mental health, up from 5,326 in 2020 but down from 7,327 in 2023.
Elsewhere in the South West, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health NHS Trust reported an average waiting time of 61 days (8 weeks), while Cornwall Partnership confirmed a three-week average wait.
Somerset NHS Trust confirmed a 26 day average (3 week) wait from referral to first appointment while Gloucestershire Health and Care Trust could not provide figures due to its data storage methods.
The latest NHS figures show that child mental health referrals have now topped one million for the third year in a row.
For the last school year, there were a record 1.3 million referrals, marking a 71 per cent increase since 2019/20 when 759,772 were made.
The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza said she was ‘horrified’ by the national figures.
In a statement in September this year, she said: “I was horrified to see the latest NHS Statistics… For children and young people, each year is a significant portion of their young lives, so we need a fresh approach that intervenes much earlier to prevent children from reaching crisis point.”
Medical Negligence Assist also asked for the number of children currently on the waiting list for mental health services at each South West NHS Trust.
Devon Partnership reported the largest number, with 1,460 children waiting for mental health support as of September 2024.
Gloucestershire confirmed the second longest waiting list with 587 children, followed by Avon at Wiltshire Trust with 499.
The shortest waiting list was 84 at Somerset Trust, as of September 2024.
The Children’s Commissioner also said in her report:: “It is shocking to see so many children being referred to mental health services because they have reached crisis point. Many problems we see in children’s mental health services stem from local and national leaders failing to prioritise children’s mental health. We need fresh, long-term thinking when it comes to children’s mental and emotional health and wellbeing.
The growing mental health crisis among children in the UK has been linked to a number of factors including the effects of the Covid pandemic, rising poverty levels and the powerful influence of social media and cyberbullying.
Andy Bell, the chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health charity said: “Our research indicates that academic pressures, particularly those related to exams, have intensified in the last decade. Rising levels of poverty and inequality have also contributed to increased anxiety among children and young people, including factors such as financial stress within households and the impact of racism. Evidence also suggests that online harms, such as cyberbullying and pressures around appearance, are relentless and can fuel anxiety in children.”
Earlier this year, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, said the demand for children and young people’s (CYP) mental health services is greater than ever.
Sean Duggen said: “The numbers with a probable mental disorder have increased markedly since 2017, as have contacts with NHS mental health services with the unfortunate knock-on impact that too many are waiting months if not years to access support.
“While services are seeing far more children and young people, the increase in prevalence, demand, complexity and severity of need means that services are often struggling to meet that demand.
“And this is having a knock-on impact on other parts of the NHS, including general practice, paediatric services, emergency services, the voluntary sector, schools and local authority services.
“Services, such as GPs, referring into specialist NHS CYP mental health services are often frustrated by the long waiting lists and the fact that their referrals are not accepted because of the scale of the demand.”
Medical Negligence Assist offers specialist advice and support for mental health negligence.
They operate a 24-hour helpline and live chat service which you can access on their website.
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