Joint review: How are children’s services, healthcare and education supporting the mental health needs of children and young people in Wales?
This will be a joint review alongside Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and Estyn.
The demand for mental health support is significantly above service capacity, according to information held by HIW. This is a national issue, which has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a high number of children and young people waiting for specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) assessment and intervention. Consequently, this can result in people not receiving the support needed and, in some cases, their mental health is deteriorating further.
The aim of our joint review, led by HIW, is to consider whether children and young people are receiving timely and effective support for their mental health needs. Our review will focus on children aged 11 to 16 in mandatory education and will consider the services available to support their mental health needs within healthcare, education, and children’s services, before referral to or assessment by specialist CAMHS.
Further information on the scope of the review along with terms of reference can be found on HIW’s website (External link).