Appointments made and cancelled by CAMHS (FOI)

​​​​​​​​Request

A

Please advise the number of Child, Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) appointments that are made by CAMHS staff with children and then cancelled by CAMHS staff before the appointment in the last three years. Please provide a breakdown of reasons for the cancellations.

B

Dr Darren Bowring is quoted on X (formerly Twitter) as stating that there are no temporary staff employed in CAMHS; please give the exact number of temporary staff in CAMHS and the Neuro Diverse team, including those with a job title including "Locum". Please advise the duration of these temporary contracts for the last three years. 

C

How many UK based mental health nurses are used by CAMHS to initially screen referrals? Why are UK based mental health nurses used over island based ones? What is the name of the company used in the UK by CAMHS for initially screen referrals and how much does that cost?

D

​Given that there are fully formed arguments against the use of the Specific Learning Difficulties (SNAP) assessment in ADHD screening, which is also based on decades old research and not the modern understanding of ADHD, please advise why CAMHS uses a 26 question SNAP assessment instead of the full 90 questions? ​

E

Please advise how many written complaints there have been about CAMHS inaction or the service provided in the last three years? 

F

Please advise how much CAMHS or the Government of Jersey paid the Jersey Evening Post for the recent publicity in the newspaper? 

Response

A

The number of CAMHS appointments that are cancelled by CAMHS staff and the reasons for the cancellation is not held in a recorded form. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

B

Dr Bowring tweeted a link to a Jersey Evening Post article on 29 February 2024, about ADHD which involved an interview with the service manager of the Neurodevelopmental Service. Dr Bowing responded to a follow up tweet to confirm that there are currently no temporary or agency staff in the Neurodevelopmental Service. 

There have been 21 Locum staff employed by CAMHS over the last three years. The contracts range in duration from two weeks to covering the last three years and continuing.

The Department has determined that to disclose the length of each contract would likely breach the privacy of individuals therefore disclosure control has been applied under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

C

CAMHS does not employ UK based nurses. 

D

The SNAP is sent as a preliminary screening tool for initial generic assessments. At this stage the brief version is acceptable.  It is not used in isolation, though one screening tool alongside a comprehensive mental health assessment. The long version of Conners is used as part of the formal ADHD diagnostic assessment.

E

Between 1 March 2021 and 1 March 2024 CAMHS received 38 written complaints via the Customer Feedback Management System (CFMS). Of these 16 of these included reference to ‘Attitude and behaviour, 15 of these included “How I access your services”, seven of these included “Mistake was made”.

F

No payment was given.

Articles applied 

Article 3 - Meaning of "information held by a public authority"

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.​