The number of children and young people waiting more than a year for specialist mental health services in Lewisham has dropped significantly in the last six months, following cash injections from NHS England.

Lewisham had a high number of children waiting more than 52 weeks for an assessment from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

In Lewisham, 96 children and young people were waiting more than a year to see a specialist, compared to five in Croydon, 11 in Lambeth and one in Southwark.

But this has now dropped to one in Lewisham - a “considerable improvement”, Caroline Hirst, children and young people joint commissioning service manager at Lewisham Council, said.

This was down to better contact with those on the wait list, with funding from NHS England, and a staff restructure, she said.

All children on the waiting list had now been offered an appointment.

Speaking at a children and young people select committee, she said: “In October 2018 we were discussing considerable concerns and a lot of work was undertaken over the last few months.

“In October we had 96 children waiting, by March 2019 we had 10 children waiting and as of today we have one person waiting on that 52 weeks for their first appointment.”

But the effort had to “continue indefinitely”, Lewisham Camhs service manager, Brenda Bartlett, explained.

She said: “We are very pleased to make the progress we have had but the effort we have put in has to continue indefinitely to ensure that the service never ends up that place again.”

This meant better recruitment of staff, and reliable processes and systems, she said.

“We are working on how we can better do that,” she added.

Cllr Liz Johnson-Franklin said: “The most important thing to recognise is that the children and young people and their families are able to have an improved service.

“We don't want to get ourselves in that position again,” she added.