Letter from Convener to the Auditor General for Scotland, 20 October 2021
Dear Stephen,
Thank you for attending the roundtable evidence session on 7 October 2021 on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), prompted by Audit Scotland’s recent blog on this issue.
The Committee found the evidence session extremely helpful in establishing an up-to-date position on how CAMHS is operating in Scotland, and the significant impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the demand for these services.
As you will be aware, the Session 5 Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee (the Session 5 Committee) provided feedback on your strategic audit priorities and longer-term work programme in January 2021. In its response, the Committee welcomed your commitment to undertake a longer-term programme of audits on mental health-related issues.
The response also reflected on the serious issues raised both in Audit Scotland’s report on Children and young people’s mental health in 2018 and the Session 5 Committee’s subsequent report, published in 2019 on the provision of CAMHS services. The response also noted that “given the importance of the issues raised, further action was required to ensure the recommendations made in the Audit Scotland report were fully implemented” and that the Committee would therefore welcome further audit work being undertaken in this area.
During the roundtable evidence session, the Committee was concerned to hear that limited progress appears to have been made since Audit Scotland’s report in 2018. Indeed, rejected referral rates, waiting times for treatment and the availability of robust data on mental health services for children and young people are as much of an issue today as they were three years ago. As you will be acutely aware, the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly exacerbated a system that was already under significant pressure.
Following the evidence session, the Committee agreed that urgent action is required to address these systemic issues. The Committee encourages you to reflect on the Session 5 Committee’s call for further audit work, as well as the serious concerns raised during the evidence session, to consider how Audit Scotland may seek to review its work programme accordingly.
Yours sincerely
Richard Leonard
Convener