ADHD referrals to CAMHS (FOI)

Request

​A

What is the yearly average of assessments for CAMHS or any other government org that delivers publicly funded ADHD Assessments on the island?

B

What is the ratio of children to adults on this 700-strong waiting list? 

C

What is the yearly cost of conducting these assessments and of Gov employees directly involved in the process?

D

What implications have staffing issues had in regards to this wait list, please give all detail in relation to periods of time the role has been vacant and assessments have not been undertaken due to this.

Response

A

Health and Community Services (HCS) has capacity for circa 200 ADHD assessments / review slots for adult service users per year.

In 2023, a total of 224 ADHD assessments were completed in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service). In Quarter 1 of 2024, 46 assessments have taken place.

B

Waiting list information has been provided separately for adults and under 18s in a Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in March 2024:

Waiting times for ADHD assessments (FOI)​

As this information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

C

Health and Community Services (HCS) response

The specific costs associated with conducting assessments cannot be isolated from overall service costs. HCS’ Adult ADHD Service costs for 2023 were £255,365, inclusive of staff costs and service overheads.

Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) response

In order to answer the yearly cost of conducting these assessments in CYPES, each ADHD client’s file would need to be looked at on an individual basis in order to see how much time was spent with each client, plus which employees were directly involved in the process and for how long. To produce the data would take in excess of 12.5 working hours. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

D

Health and Community Services (HCS) response

Freedom of Information is a mechanism to enable access to information held in recorded form by a Scheduled Public Authority. Whilst it is well documented that availability of specialist staff has impacted waiting lists, no quantitative analysis is available to show the specific consequence of this to HCS’ Adult ADHD Service waiting list. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) response

CYPES do not currently have any vacancies for the Neurodevelopmental (ND) service’s ADHD and Autism pathways. The only vacant role in the ND team is for the Learning Disabilities Nurse with the Job Description currently being evaluated ahead of recruitment.

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 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.