Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 28 November 2017.
Earlier this year, First Minister, StatsWales changed the way that waiting time numbers were being reported, removing the cases that were regarded as non-CAMHS pathways. This removed 1,700 children—some 74 per cent of the total—from the waiting list in one fell stroke. That makes historic comparisons impossible, but we do now have seven month's worth of new data, which means that we can see what has happened so far this year, and it's clear that waiting times for CAMHS are getting worse. Back in March, 87 per cent of children were waiting less than a month, and now it's 45 per cent. Back in March, no children were waiting longer than 16 weeks for that first appointment, and now one in five children are. That doesn't sound like a driving down of waiting times to me. You've previously argued that there are too many children being referred for specialist treatment. Do you still think that the problem with CAMHS is that too many children are being referred?