Before treatment
What happens to children whose referrals are rejected or redirected, or who are still waiting? Is there a clear, available route to support?
Walk with Phoenix · Evidence and lived experience
Beyond the target. Are children getting the help they need?
Read what Lisa sent to Scotland’s First Minister on 21 October 2026, then add your experience to the conversation.
Read the report and the letter
“Beyond the target: children still waiting, gaps in care and lives lost” brings together published evidence and requests for change. Lisa emailed the report to the First Minister on 21 October 2026, copying The Courier.
The report is dated 21 October 2026. Its figures cover different periods and populations; the dates and limitations are set out in the report. It acknowledges that the defined national CAMHS treatment-start target was met. It asks what happens to children outside that measure and whether support is sustained.
The question behind the headline
A first treatment appointment is one part of the story.
After the first intervention
Does appropriate care continue? Are families heard, risks addressed and changes in children’s wellbeing measured?
Neurodevelopmental support
Separate assessment pathways are outside the CAMHS waiting-time headline. Children with ADHD or autism may still qualify for CAMHS for coexisting mental health needs.
Accountable change
The report asks for independent scrutiny, a named lead, clearer outcomes and coordinated community, crisis and neurodevelopmental support.
Official context: Public Health Scotland’s June 2026 CAMHS release. Full sources are linked in the report.
Your experience matters
What should decision-makers hear?
Parents, carers, young adults and professionals: what worked well, where did you encounter gaps, and what would make the biggest difference? Share only what you feel comfortable making public. Please leave out children’s names, identifiable case details and individual staff names.
- Could you access support when it was needed?
- If a referral was redirected, was the alternative help available?
- Was support offered while waiting, and did it continue after the first appointment?
- What helped—and what should change?
Join the discussion beneath the Walk with Phoenix report posts on our social media accounts, or contact the campaign privately.
Comments are personal experiences and opinions, not findings about individual cases or a representative survey. We will ask permission before quoting an individual’s experience in future campaign material.
Sent 21 October 2026
Lisa’s letter to the First Minister.
Subject: Phoenix Birkett: meeting a target must not mean overlooking children still without help. The text below reproduces the accompanying email without email headers or recipient addresses.
Dear First Minister,
My son Phoenix will never reach adulthood. I am asking you to help ensure that other children do.
Please read the accompanying Walk with Phoenix evidence report. It brings together Scotland’s published death statistics, CAMHS waiting-time figures and documented gaps in support for children and young people.
When we met, you spoke about targets being met. I have examined what those figures measure. I recognise that the published national CAMHS waiting-time result meets the defined standard. But that does not answer the question families are asking: when our children need help, can they actually get appropriate, sustained support before a crisis escalates?
The evidence demands more than reassurance:
- Scotland recorded 22 probable-suicide deaths among 15–19-year-olds in 2024. Each was a young person with a life ahead of them.
- Parliamentary research identified 42,530 children waiting for neurodevelopmental assessment in March 2025—a separate pathway excluded from the CAMHS headline.
- A study published this month, examining historical referrals to one Scottish CAMHS service, identified eight referrals mentioning suicidal thoughts where no onward action was recorded after rejection.
- GPs, teachers and CAMHS professionals have described a gap between low-intensity support and specialist services, leaving some families without a workable route to help.
- The Mental Welfare Commission continues to document children entering non-specialist wards because specialist provision is lacking.
The report explains the dates, scope and limitations of each finding. I am not alleging that every referral decision is wrong or that these figures prove deliberate manipulation. I am asking why a narrow measure of access is being used to reassure families when substantial gaps remain elsewhere in the system.
A child whose referral is rejected still needs an answer. A child redirected to another service needs that service to be available. A child who misses an appointment may need someone to understand why. A first intervention does not establish that continuing care is sufficient or that the child is safe.
Phoenix had ADHD and sensory processing difficulties. My experience of his distress has made earlier recognition of crisis, including impulsive crisis, central to my campaign. His individual circumstances require proper investigation. The wider evidence requires action now.
I ask you to:
- Appoint a named minister and senior official to coordinate a substantive response to this report.
- Commission independent scrutiny of referral decisions, waiting-list removals, clock adjustments and what happens to children who do not enter treatment.
- Publish outcomes alongside waiting-time performance, including whether redirected children receive help and whether care continues after the initial intervention.
- Set out funded action to close gaps in community, crisis and neurodevelopmental support.
- Bring relevant authorities and families together on bridge safety, including physical safeguards, recognition of distress and timely intervention.
- Meet with me to agree concrete next steps, with responsibilities and delivery dates recorded.
Please provide a point-by-point response within 14 days. If a full response requires longer, please identify who is responsible and give a firm date. Where an issue falls outside one body’s remit, please explain who will address it.
I do not want another family to discover, after losing their child, that the system was meeting its target while their child’s needs remained unmet.
Phoenix’s life must matter beyond condolences. Please help turn the evidence and families’ experiences into changes that children can feel in their lives.
I have copied The Courier into this correspondence because these concerns are matters of public interest, and I want the evidence, requests for action and your response to be open to scrutiny.
Yours sincerely,
Lisa Birkett
Phoenix’s mum
Founder, Walk with Phoenix
phenature.co.uk
Attachment: Walk with Phoenix — First Minister Evidence Report