Dr. Amanda Burke:

It is to smooth the pathway for people. We get criticised because people find it very hard to navigate but also, and I can understand it, referral agents will refer to a number of pathways to see who will pick the patient up quickest. That artificially inflates some waiting lists. A single point of access is the GP or any senior professional sending people to a single point where they will be clinically triaged. This, hopefully, also will include self-referrals down the line. This will allow us to say when something is for CAMHS or for primary care or for disability. As well as statutory agencies, around the table we will have our partner agencies. This means the main providers - and I do not want to be exclusive here - are the likes of Jigsaw, Pieta, Barnardos and SpunOut, can also pick up those referrals and see the young person. If they are not appropriate for that young person, that is not an issue, they will have been date stamped when they came in. However sometimes we see a young person and think that he or she is not for CAMHS but would be better off with Jigsaw. Such people will not be in any way compromised, they will go back in through that process and be re-referred to the Jigsaw process. It streamlines the pathways and referers do not need to worry about where they send people. We will then have absolute visibility of who is waiting for what, which we do not have at the minute, and we will be able to target resources accordingly.