7. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce waiting times for NHS Scotland’s child and adolescent mental health services. (S6O-02210)

We have set the conditions needed for long-term, sustainable improvement to CAMHS. That includes significant additional funding for CAMHS services and new community-based mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people. As a result, we are seeing sustained, positive changes in waiting lists, with a significant drop in the number of waits over 18 weeks. I absolutely recognise that we must see further sustainable improvement and reduced variation. We are continuing to provide tailored support to the boards that are facing the greatest challenges and ensuring that robust improvement plans are in place. Progress is being monitored closely.

I have a teenage constituent who has been waiting the best part of three years for a diagnosis from CAMHS. She could well be an adult by the time it comes through.

We learned this week that a Scottish Government pledge to recruit an additional 1,000 mental health specialists has not been delivered. Families such as the family of my constituent are now facing a crisis situation, so when is the minister going to make things better?

At the moment, we are seeing the most sustained positive changes in CAMHS waiting lists that we have seen for over half a decade.

I know that that is not much comfort to the member’s constituent who has been waiting for over three years. If the member wants to write to me about that particular case, I am more than happy to look into it.

However, the last four quarters have seen the highest figures on record for the number of children starting CAMHS treatment. The number of children starting treatment in the latest published quarter is comfortably the highest figure on record—5,548. That is up by 11.1 per cent.

The overall CAMHS waiting list has decreased by 9.3 per cent since the last quarter—a reduction of 777. The number of children waiting over 18 weeks has decreased by 31.9 per cent since the last quarter, which is a reduction of over 1,000 children. The number of children waiting over 52 weeks has decreased by 41.9 per cent since the last quarter, which is a reduction of 523 children.

That has been made possible by the hard work of the

CAMHS workforce, which has more than doubled under this Government.

Addressing the CAMHS backlog is only one part of improving the mental health of our young people. Research by the Mental Health Foundation last year found that 54 per cent of college students presenting to student mental health teams had moderate to severe symptoms of depression. Therefore, will the minister provide an update on when the Government expects to conclude the development of the student mental health action plan and when it expects the plan to be published?

I had a meeting recently with my ministerial colleague Graeme Dey, and that was the topic of our discussion. We are working closely on ensuring that the commitments meet the needs of the student population and that there is sufficient financial backing for the commitments that will be made. We will be more than happy to update the member as soon as we can.