Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 10 January 2017.
First Minister, the answer to the question that I asked you is that waiting times for CAMHS have not improved. The numbers of people waiting for over 16 weeks got slightly worse over the course of the year, and, as well as stagnating over the past year, the waiting times remain substantially worse than they were three years ago. Now, one explanation that you’ve given for this is that there are too many children being referred. For example, in November 2015, you said,
‘evidence suggests that around a third of young people referred to specialist CAMHS have no mental illness’.
And you said,
‘A further third have low-level difficulties that wouldn’t reach the threshold for treatment by a specialist service.’
And these sentiments were echoed by your previous health Minister. Do you stand by that view, First Minister?