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The children's mental health service has spent over £400,000 on commissioning private providers to allow young islanders to be assessed for autism through an online process.
Children's Minister Richard Vibert explained that the move was prompted by the "incredibly high" number of referrals for neurodevelopmental assessments in recent years – with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) receiving 852 requests for autism and ADHD assessments last year.
He said: "The level of referrals being received is much higher than staff capacity to deliver, adding to waiting list pressures."
The Minister was responding to a letter from the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel which asked for details about how the online assessment process works.
Constable Vibert explained: "The service has engaged a number of private providers to deliver assessments and add to capacity.
"An additional £400k Government Plan funding was allocated for this in 2024."
The Minister explained that one of these additional providers is an online assessment company called Options 8, based in the UK.
Last year, Options 8 completed 76 assessments, giving an autism diagnosis to 60 local children and young people.
Up until the end of September 2024, Options 8 completed 54 assessments, giving an autism diagnosis to 32 young islanders.
"Feedback received from families has largely been positive regarding their experience," said Constable Vibert.
"Having an online provider has given some families the option to have the assessment at home, reducing pressure to bring neurodivergent children to clinical appointments with all the impact that can have in terms of social and sensory issues, so has been very welcomed and well received."
The Minister explained that the CAMHS lead consultant psychologist manages oversight of all cases allocated to external providers, and joins the CAMHS neurodevelopmental service manager and commissioning lead to meet with the the external team quarterly to review cases and diagnostic outcomes.
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