Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times
Quarter ending December 2025
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 03 March 2026 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is sourced from the national Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) database and provides an update of how long children and young people waited to start treatment with CAMHS in NHS Scotland for the quarter ending December 2025.
This publication presents the Accredited official statistics derived from the aggregate national data collection on CAMHS waiting times and is to be considered as the most reliable source of CAMHS waiting times data. Due to the ongoing data quality and completeness issues, these data should not be compared to the developing CAMHS data presented in the statistics in development patient level Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND).
Unless otherwise stated, this publication presents adjusted waiting times data from October 2024 to December 2025. See the data quality document for more information on adjustments and how periods of patient unavailability are considered.
Main points
In the quarter ending December 2025:
- 90.0% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 91.5% for the previous quarter and from 90.6% for the same quarter ending December 2024. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS. The chart below shows performance in relation to this target over the past 4 years, illustrating the target was first achieved in quarter ending December 2024.
- 3,767 people started treatment in CAMHS. This is an increase of 4.7% (170) from the 3,597 starting treatment in the previous quarter but is 1.2% (45) less than the 3,812 patients who started treatment in the quarter ending December 2024.
- 50% of those starting treatment started within 5 weeks of referral, which is the same as the previous quarter, but an increase from quarter ending December 2024, when 50% began treatment within four weeks.
- A total of 8,841 children and young people were referred to CAMHS in the quarter ending December 2025. This is an increase of 1,320 (17.6%) from 7,521 referrals in the previous quarter, but a decrease of 57 (0.6%) from the 8,898 referrals in the quarter ending December 2024.
- At quarter ending December 2025, 4,056 children and young people were on a waiting list to start treatment in CAMHS (see the data quality document for individual board commentaries). This is an increase of 1.2% (50) people waiting when compared to the 4,006 waiting to start treatment in the previous quarter, but a decrease of 7.2% (313) from 4,369 waiting at quarter end December 2024.
Background
CAMHS consist of multi-disciplinary teams that provide treatment and/or interventions for children and young people experiencing mental health problems. Note that where a child or young person is waiting on an assessment for a neurodevelopmental (ND) condition, such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), they may not meet the national referral criteria as set out in the CAMHS national service specification, and therefore will not be counted in CAMHS statistics.
Please see the ND activity section of the data quality document, and the national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care for more information.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 2 June 2026.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Brendan de Moor at phs.camh@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.