THE number of young people waiting more than a year for mental health treatment has trebled in the past year, the country’s public service watchdog has revealed.

Audit Scotland said it was a “real marker of the pandemic’s impact” than the proportion of children and adolescents waiting so long had increased from 6 to 18 per cent.

Interim controller of audit Antony Clark said a third of young people were now waiting longer than the Scottish Government’s 18-week target for specialist treatment.

This has climbed from 26% in 2017/18 to 33% in 2020/21.

The target is for 90% of referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to start within 18 weeks, but only one of Scotland’s 14 health boards met it last year.

While NHS Ayrhsire and Arran saw 96% of CAMHS referrals on time, the Scotland-wide average was 67%, with NHS Forth Valley seeing just 39% inside 18 weeks.

This was despite the number of referrals falling 17% in a year because of the pandemic closing schools and reducing access to GPs.

Mr Clark said that, despite “significant investment” to create a more integrated system of GPs, health visitors and school nurses, the picture today was the same as in 2018.

In an Audit Scotland blog post, he wrote: “Serious concerns have existed for years about access to children and young people’s mental health services. 

“The pandemic’s impact has made the need for change more urgent.” 

However he noted the Scottish Government had announced an extra £40m for CAMHS,  published a new specification for the services people should get, and issued guidance on how schools could embed support for mental health.

A new Scottish Government and council board was also driving forward reforms.

“But there is a steep hill to climb and making it to the top will mean listening to and learning from the experiences of children and young people and their families,” he said.

Tory mental health spokesman Craig Hoy MSP, said: “Scotland’s most vulnerable young people are continuing to be miserably let down by the SNP Government. 

“It is devastating that almost a fifth of youngsters are waiting over a year to begin vital mental health treatment.

“Even prior to the pandemic, the SNP were failing to ensure young people seeking treatment were being seen as quickly as possible. The pandemic has turned this into a full-blown crisis.

“SNP Ministers must act now – there is no time to waste. We urgently need much more than warm words to tackle the mounting child and adolescent mental health crisis.

“We need urgent investment into frontline services delivered by health boards and third sector organisations.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton added: "Even before the pandemic services were a shadow of what they should be.

"This blog shows that since Audit Scotland last reviewed these services, the number of young people waiting more than a year has trebled. That's an indictment of SNP ministers who continue to treat mental health as a second-class service."