I would like to raise today the difficulty in securing timely appointments with the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. From a response to a parliamentary question I raised last month, I can confirm that nationally, over 4,000 children are waiting for their first CAMHS appointment and 605 of those have been waiting more than a year. I will give one example from my constituency. A young person who was first referred in 2021 and later discharged, was then referred again in 2025. This was declined and a private assessment came back stating that this person needed urgent CAMHS intervention. The frustrating thing here, particularly around mental health, is that if the child had broken their arm, we would not be expecting a year for surgery or care. It should not be taking that long for mental health care.

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