More than £300,000 has been pumped into children’s mental health services in a bid to drive down waiting times of up to two years.
Dr Peter Miller, chief executive of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), said that £315,000 had been 'made available’ to the trust after an inspection by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors found that some children were waiting up to two years for treatment.
Specialist community mental health services for children and young people was one of five areas looked at when CQC staff visited LPT in November and December last year.
Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times were highlighted by the CQC as one of the trust’s major failings.
The CQC report stated: “The trust had not ensured there were enough staff to meet the needs of the service.
"Many patients still faced long waits for assessment and treatment.
“Staff said this was due to having two consultant psychiatrist, one clinical psychologist and band 6 mental health practitioner post vacancies, short term and long-term sickness and parental leave.”
Sickness rates for county and crisis teams were 5.7 per cent - above the national average of 4.2 per cent.
Inspectors also criticised clinical premises where patients received care and said that they were not safe, clean, well equipped, well maintained or fit for purpose.
CQC staff noted that window catches had decayed and there was structural damage.
When answering the question, is the service responsive? the report stated: “Since our inspections from 2015 onwards, the trust had not taken adequate action to ensure that all patients received the service they needed in a timely way.
“A number of patients waited longer than expected for assessment and treatment.
“Staff could not always respond as quickly as they wanted to patient referrals due to a lack of resources.”
Inspectors said that staff, including managers, told them that there was a 34 week wait for patients with ‘medium’ and ‘low’ risks to receive a ‘routine’ assessment, despite the NHS constitution recommending no more than an 18 week wait for treatment.
Patients with ADHD and autism often faced the longest waits with 161 children waiting between one and two years.
Mental health in Leicestershire
Dr Miller told the joint health overview scrutiny commission, consisting of members from Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council, that the money is already being put to use to shorten wait times.
He said: “CAMHS is a complicated area. We are seeing a small reduction in waiting times already.
“By May, there will be a reduction. The number of people waiting over a year will have about halved, that’s still not where I want to be.
“The wait should be around an 18 week wait for treatment. I can’t say at which point we will meet that standard.”
Read the full CQC report here.
