You may be familiar with the term CAMHS, which stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We are moving away from using 'CAMHS' and these services are now known as Children and Young People's Mental Health Services - or CYPMHS.
It can be difficult waiting for support having been referred to Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS). We are committed to seeing children and young people as soon as possible and strive to keep our waiting times as low as possible, however these can depend on the current demand for services and staffing levels. We aim to provide open and clear information about waiting times for each of the services you may be waiting to access. The following detail explains average waiting times from referral to initial assessment and then to treatment.
Please note: these are average waits and therefore you may find yourself seen sooner or slightly longer than estimated. Several factors can influence how long you may wait to be seen, and cases are triaged to identify anyone who may be at the highest risk and therefore require an appointment sooner.
Children and Young People's Mental Health Services
When you are referred to Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) - formerly known as CAMHS - you will initially be offered a Choice Assessment. If it's decided that CYPMHS can help, you will be offered a series of Partnership Appointments. You can view the waiting times for Choice Assessments and Partnership Appointments below for Wirral and Cheshire.
What does is a Choice Assessment?
A Choice Assessment appointment is the first appointment you will have with Cheshire or Wirral CYPMHS, where we will talk about you and how you are feeling. One or two members of the team will ask questions and take some notes and you will decide together whether CYPMHS is the best service to help you right now. We usually ask to speak with the young person by themselves at some point during the Choice Assessment.
What is a Partnership Appointment?
If we decide together that CYPMHS can help you, you will be offered a series of Partnership Appointments. A Partnership Appointment is a set of sessions of therapy with a CYPMHS worker. It is called Partnership because the CYPMHS worker, along with you and your family will work together to bring about the changes you need. Partnership Appointments can be group or individual based.
Wirral waiting times
Within Wirral CYPMHS, all referrals are screened by Wirral Access Team - the assessment service that receives the referrals and is the first point of contact with CYPMHS. The Wirral Access Team will also offer an assessment appointment, which is called a Choice Assessment. These wait times reflect the average time from referral to the first meaningful contact (ie assessment, either by telephone, video or face-to-face). As these times are averages, you may be seen sooner or later than the times given.
Choice Assessment
The average wait in weeks for a Choice Assessment with Wirral CYPMHS is:
2025
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | July |
Aug
|
Sept | Oct |
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Partnership Appointment
At your Choice Assessment, you will decide with the CYPMHS staff what happens next. One option is therapy or intervention, which we call a Partnership Appointment. These wait times reflect the average time from assessment to the first partnership / intervention.
The average wait in weeks for a Partnership Appointment in Wirral is:
2025
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | July | Aug | Sept | Oct |
| 5 | 21 | 24 | 20 | 25 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 19 |
Cheshire waiting times
In Cheshire, all mental health referrals for children and young people are screened by the Children and Young People's Mental Health Hub.
The hub will call you within a few days to discuss the referral with you, where they will take further information and agree next steps with you. This could be signposting to one of four 0-18 teams (depending on the area of Cheshire you live in):
- West Cheshire (Chester)
- Central Cheshire / Vale Royal (Winsford)
- Central Cheshire / South (Crewe)
- East Cheshire (Macclesfield)
The 0-18 team will offer you a Choice Assessment. These wait times reflect the average time from referral to the first meaningful contact (ie assessment, either by telephone, video or face to face). As these times are averages you may be seen sooner or later than the times given.
The average wait in weeks for a Choice Assessment in Cheshire is:
Choice Assessment
2025
We want to be transparent about the waiting times for our community Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services assessment and treatment. Recently, we've noticed some issues with how we collect and report our waiting time data and have updated our waiting times accordingly. This means that the waiting times shown on our website might be longer than we've previously reported but all waiting times listed should now be correct.
We understand that waiting for mental health support can be difficult, and we're working hard to improve our services. Here's what you need to know:
The waiting times you see may be longer than before
- This is partly due to how we're now counting and reporting the data
- We're committed to providing accurate information about waiting times
- We're continuously working to reduce waiting times and improve access to care
If you're concerned about waiting times or need support while waiting, please contact us. We're here to help and can provide information about other resources available in the meantime. We appreciate your understanding as we work to provide the best possible care for children, young people and families in our community.
If you need urgent mental health support at any point, please call NHS 111 and select the mental health option to access our 24/7 all-age mental health crisis line.
| Area | Month | Number of Young People Waiting | Average Wait in Weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-18 East Cheshire | June | 39 | 4 |
| July | 55 | 8 | |
| August | 42 | 15 | |
| September | 56 | 7 | |
| October | 61 | 8 | |
| 0-18 South Cheshire | June | 58 | 11 |
| July | 62 | 13 | |
| August | 50 | 11 | |
| September | 34 | 8 | |
| October | 41 | 4 | |
| 0-18 Vale Royal | June | 66 | 19 |
| July | 62 | 19 | |
| August | 70 | 14 | |
| September | 58 | 13 | |
| October | 67 | 12 | |
| 0-18 West Cheshire | June | 129 | 19 |
| July | 108 | 14 | |
| August | 91 | 13 | |
| September | 102 | 13 | |
| October | 87 | 11 |
Partnership Appointment
At your Choice Assessment, you will decide with the CYPMHS staff what happens next. One option is therapy or intervention, which we call a Partnership Appointment. These wait times reflect the average time from assessment to the first partnership / intervention.
The average wait in weeks for a Partnership Appointment in Cheshire is:
2025
| Area | Month | Number of Young People Waiting | Average Wait in Weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-18 East Cheshire | June | 39 | 4 |
| July | 55 | 8 | |
| August | 42 | 15 | |
| September | 56 | 7 | |
| October | 79 | 27 | |
| 0-18 South Cheshire | June | 87 | 20 |
| July | 77 | 25 | |
| August | 74 | 25 | |
| September | 79 | 34 | |
| October | 63 | 19 | |
| 0-18 Vale Royal | June | 34 | 32 |
| July | 27 | 21 | |
| August | 20 | 26 | |
| September | 24 | 27 | |
| October | 67 | 8 | |
| 0-18 West Cheshire | June | 68 | 32 |
| July | 87 | 21 | |
| August | 108 | 26 | |
| September | 110 | 27 | |
| October | 115 | 25 |