Government CAMHS response has 'nothing new', says charity

7 January 2010 1 min read Joe Lepper Health

The government's response to the review of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) lacks long-term vision and offers little new to the sector, according to the charity Young Minds.

The charity is also concerned that is has taken ministers over a year to draft its response to the 2008 review.

Among existing initiatives detailed in the government’s response document, Keeping Children and Young People In Mind, is the rolling out of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme from April this year. This offers specialist support to five- to 13-year-olds and their families.

But Sarah Brennan, Young Minds chief executive, said: "These projects (TaMHS) are short-term. With funding ending in March 2011 and without a commitment from government to ensure their continuation, services are at risk of going backwards."

A spokeswoman for Young Minds added: "There is nothing new in this report, all it is doing is flagging up existing initiatives that we already knew about."

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