HEALTH chiefs are ‘confident’ they can prioritise mental health services for young people despite GPs using allocated funds to help clear their deficit.

NHS Eastern Cheshire clinical commissioning group (CCG), which plans and buys the area’s healthcare, has confirmed it used Government funding allocated for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to help clear its £16 million deficit.

The funding – so far worth £435,000 – was intended for front-line services, but Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services across the county, insists it can still prioritise CAMHS.

Dr Anushta Sivananthan, medical director at CWP, said: “We recognise that the CCG had to make some difficult decisions around funding both mental health and physical health services in the last financial year, as they operate within a fixed budget.

“We would always make the case for additional investment into child and adolescent mental health services and we are confident that under the local health and social care partnership Caring Together, we can ensure that young people’s mental health services are prioritised in the coming year.”

Young people currently account for 20 per cent of all contact with NHS mental health services.

In 2015, the Government committed to spending an extra £1.4 billion on CAMHS over a five-year period to help boost front-line services for a growing demand.

But the CCG has instead used the money as a saving, and while it has pledged to spend nine per cent of its overall mental health budget on CAMHS – worth £1.75 million a year – it has ruled out any further investment as it looks to fulfil its legal obligation to balance the books.

Dr Ian Hulme, clinical lead for mental health at the CCG, told the Guardian: “The CCG and our partners are committed to securing the best possible mental health for the people of east Cheshire and we have continued to increase our investment in mental health services, not only in real terms but as a percentage of total spend.

“Since 2014-15, we have made an annual investment of £255,000 in CAMHS plus, since 2016-17, an additional £235,000 in services to reduce waiting lists for young people needing treatment for autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

“In 2016-17, we spent £1,750,000 on CAMHS.”