Cutting waiting times for children’s therapies in Barnet is a priority for health chiefs – but efforts are being hampered by a struggle to recruit staff.

Waiting times for children’s therapy assessments are between five and seven times as long in Barnet as in Camden, according to a report presented to Barnet Council’s children’s partnership board on Wednesday.

This is linked to the size of the workforce, which is five times as large in Camden as in Barnet, the report adds.

The figures were presented as part of an update on a review of community and mental health services by North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group (NCLCCG), which oversees healthcare in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington.

Speaking during the meeting, Dan Morgan, interim director of aligned commissioning at NCLCCG, drew attention to the difference between the waiting times in Barnet and Camden.

He added: “We know from the work we have been doing in terms of the recovery [from the coronavirus pandemic], there are long waiting times for children’s autism diagnosis. That is something we need to have a focus on. 

“As a result of the pandemic, we know now that CAMHS [child and adolescent mental health services] waiting times are a particular issue as we move through the pandemic, and it is a priority for us as part of our recovery.”

Dan told councillors that the CAMHS team had restructured as a result of the pandemic, and more investment had gone into the service. 

In July, it was revealed that North East London Foundation Trust (Nelft) had pulled out of a children’s therapy contract with Barnet Council after running into difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dan said that after a new provider was appointed, an action plan was put in place along with extra investment “to make sure we can clear some of the waiting times that are there”.

Health chiefs had invested in post-diagnosis support for autism and were looking at “digital solutions” for when children have been on the waiting list for a long time, he added.

David Longstaff, chair of the council’s children, education and safeguarding committee, asked when work to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic would be finished.

Dan replied that some areas would be recovered this year but others would take longer to return to pre-pandemic levels. He added that health chiefs would like to see waiting times cleared during the current financial year “but the challenge we will have is getting available workforce”.

The NCLCCG director continued: “Some of it actually isn’t to do with Covid. We have had long waiting times around autism diagnosis for a number of years […] there are some longer-term issues around workforce that we need to resolve.

“We have invested in the services, but the staff are just not out there, unfortunately.”

Dan added that recruiting and training staff would take “a number of years” and a “big push on workforce is going to be the key”.

Chris Munday, the council’s executive director of children’s services, said he had seen “some really good improvements in relation to some of our therapies assessment times”, but health partners “need to build on that and to continue to make that happen”.