Child, adolescent, and psychological therapies national dataset (CAPTND)
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Report

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a bi-annual update on information relating to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) from the Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) in NHSScotland, for the quarter ending June 2025.

Improving data quality in CAPTND is an ongoing process, meaning data from previous quarters may not be directly comparable to the current reporting period. Changes in data over the past five quarters could be reflective of improved data quality of submissions, rather than necessarily representing an actual increase in service demand.

CAMHS are multi-disciplinary teams that provide treatment and/or interventions for children and young people experiencing mental health problems. Note that where a child or young person is waiting for an assessment for a neurodevelopmental (ND) condition such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), they may not meet the national referral criteria as set out in the CAMHS national service specification and therefore will not be counted in these statistics. PHS is commissioned to collect information on CAMHS, excluding ND pathway activity.

This release does not report on the neurodevelopmental (ND) pathway including those children and young people on the neurodevelopmental waiting list. Please see the ND activity section of the data quality document, and the national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care for more information.

Main points

CAPTND is a dataset in development that collates information for mental health services at patient-level and records each individual’s journey through the service from referral to discharge. CAPTND data are still under development therefore any inferences or conclusions from this analysis must be treated with caution, and should not be compared to the official aggregate CAMHS collection and waiting times.

For CAMHS data recorded in CAPTND, in the quarter ending June 2025:

• 8,134 children and young people were referred. This was a decrease of 791 (8.9%) compared with the 8,925 referrals in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 544 (6.3%) compared with the 8,678 referrals in the same quarter ending June 2024.
• Of the 8,134 referrals received, 55.7% were for females and 44.3% for males. These proportions have remained fairly static in the 15 months of reporting shown in this publication.
• The referral acceptance rate was 67.8%; lower that the acceptance rate of 69.2% in the previous quarter, and 72.6% accepted in the same quarter ending June 2024.
• 53,326 CAMHS appointments were allocated and reported in CAPTND across NHSScotland. This is an increase of 3.3% of total appointments since the previous quarter, and an increase of 17.1% since the same quarter ending June 2024. Note this may be reflective of improved data quality of submissions, rather than an actual increase in service demand.
• Of the 53,326 appointments recorded across NHSScotland, 5,033 had an attendance status of ‘Did Not Attend (DNA)’ resulting in a total DNA rate of 9.4% for all appointments.

Background

PHS is continuing to develop CAPTND and accompanying narratives. There are plans underway to review reporting methods and include additional measures such as waiting times from CAPTND when the data quality of further measures is deemed sufficient. NHS health boards are working with PHS and the Scottish Government to improve the consistency and completeness of the information.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 3 March 2026.