Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I am not aware of any disproportionate change in CHO 7 to how CAMHS clinicians conduct their work or business. I will certainly talk to the national clinical director for CAMHS in that regard and I will come back to the Deputy with a detailed reply. When a referral is made by a general practitioner, or indeed anyone else, to a CAMHS service or any other service, I am bound to rely on what the receiving clinician says about that referral. If he or she says that referral does not meet the criteria of their service, I am not in a position to second guess that.

Due to the complexities of referral pathways that parents, teachers and GPs are experiencing, since October 2025 and nationwide, I have created a single pathway of one front door for referrals to all specialist community healthcare services for children. Once that referral is made, the services cannot refuse it. It is the services behind that door, such as the primary care teams, CAMHS and disability services, that have to decide which is best placed to respond to the child. That is the best-----