Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 23 March 2022.
Thank you, Peredur, for that question. And as I said in response to Andrew R.T. Davies, of course I'm concerned that we've got young people waiting longer than they should. I do think that the waiting times situation is distorted slightly by Cardiff and the Vale. As I said to Andrew, two thirds of the children who are waiting in Wales are actually on the waiting list in Cardiff and the Vale. But we are taking a wide range of steps to bring waiting times down. We've made it very clear to all health boards that we expect them to take action to reduce waiting times. We are backing that up with funding, for which we're expecting to see developed plans setting out how they will bring waiting times down. I think it's very important to recognise too, though, that lots of the young people who are referred to specialist mental health services won't actually need a specialist service, and that's why we're also investing in those lower level services so that we can intervene much more quickly. It would be really helpful if all Members could encourage their constituents who contact them to take advantage of that lower level support that is available, because, unfortunately and understandably, some families do see specialist CAMHS as the gold ticket, really, and we really want families to access the support earlier on. I should say as well that, as well as the steps that health boards are taking to reduce waiting times, they should all have measures in place to make sure that young people are triaged appropriately, so that, if young people's needs change, they will be seen more quickly.
You asked about the commitment in the Labour-Plaid Cymru co-operation agreement. As you've highlighted, that commitment is to test sanctuary provision for young people in Wales. We currently have sanctuary provision for adults, but none for young people, and the development of those models are very important as part of our crisis care pathway for children and young people. So, as part of the agreement, we will be taking forward those pilots in different parts of Wales, so that we can examine them. But I should be very clear as well that what we want is for young children and young people not to be reaching crisis point, and that's why we are investing so much money and also focusing so much effort on our whole system reform, so our whole-school approach to mental health, and there's been another £12 million for that announced just today. That links to the early help and enhanced support in our NEST/NYTH initiative. So, the numbers we expect to use the sanctuary provision will be small, and we should be aiming for them to be even smaller, because we don't want young people's difficulties escalating.