Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Primary care psychology itself is challenged because of the availability of qualified clinical psychologists and the demand for them. We are trying improvement initiatives specifically within CAMHS itself. The demand and the referral rates are very high. I made the comment before Deputy Ward came in that I think we have a serious question to ask. I would not answer it immediately but we do have a serious question to ask as to whether we continue to maintain more than 70 partially staffed teams or reduce them to 55 or 50 full teams with likely better effectiveness. We certainly continue to invest in those wider primary care well-being supports like Jigsaw and other interventions and we will continue to do that. The Mental Health Commission is due to report shortly in respect of a range of assessments of our CAMHS service. I do not wish to pre-empt what the commission will say. I have spoken to the chief inspector there in the past few days. I expect that will tell us a very challenging story and my focus is how our whole system, rather than just the expectation of CAMHS, responds to that. We have just appointed a national clinical lead for CAMHS specifically. A consultant psychiatrist will take that role. We have also just appointed a dedicate national lead, assistant national director for CAMHS, whereas before it was all merged with adult mental health. That itself is no silver bullet. We will continue to make progress. We have waiting list interventions and so on. For young people and their families, be it across CAMHS or across disability services, we are very challenged in our ability as a State to respond to children presenting with very complex needs.