Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 11 May 2022.
Thank you, James. And what you've said is really important, because obviously we don't want young people's problems to escalate. That's why our whole emphasis in Welsh Government is on early intervention and making sure that children and young people have the support at an early opportunity, preferably in the environments where they live their lives, such as school. So, we've got a whole-school approach, which we're continuing to invest very substantial sums of money in, and which myself and the education Minister are driving forward. We're taking forward our NEST framework, which is our early help and enhanced support mechanism, across Wales. But we also recognise that, for children who need specialist support, they need to have quick access to specialist CAMHS.
Clearly, the pandemic has had an impact on CAMHS waiting times, and we are aware of that and working really closely with health boards to improve waiting times. I should say that, as I highlighted in my last questions, four fifths of the children and young people who are waiting for CAMHS appointments in Wales are in Cardiff and the Vale. So, that is distorting the situation slightly. But, just to reassure you, we've announced, out of the £50 million extra that we secured for mental health services in the budget, there is £10 million of service improvement funding going out to the health boards. All of them have been told that improving CAMHS waiting times is a priority and they'll all be expected to set out their proposals for driving down those waiting times.
In addition to that, we've asked the delivery unit to do a review of specialist CAMHS in Wales, which will look at the whole piece of specialist CAMHS and, in particular, look at the data as well, because what we're finding is that we're not measuring the same things. Different health boards have different structures, and it's really important that we know exactly what is happening so that we can have a consistent approach in Wales. But just to assure you that making sure that things don't have to reach crisis point is a top priority for me.