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My final point is that paragraph 7 of the Auditor General’s blog tells us that the number of people waiting more than a year for the treatment has trebled in the past 12 months. That is a worry, but could it be a marker of the pandemic? That is a bit inconsistent with the Grampian experience, and I am not entirely certain that I understand why. Such a discrepancy probably merits further investigation when the committee has time. Could anyone offer a reason why there should be such a difference between the great performance in Grampian and the performance elsewhere in Scotland, if the trend is as the Auditor General says? Could you offer a possible explanation?

I will leave it at that, convener, and allow other colleagues to come in. Thank you to the panel for trying to answer those queries from me.

Hello. I am the constituency member for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.

That is really interesting. I have read the comment about Grampian in the papers, which is really impressive. However, being seen within an average of six weeks is referred to, and parents say to me that being seen is not necessarily the same as treatment. I hoped to get from the panel clarification or a sense of what exactly we mean by “treatment”. Some parents ask me about that. They say that having a meeting is not treatment, and they are still hoping and waiting for treatment along the line. There is a little bit of confusion there.

Does that explain the discrepancy that we are hearing about today? Dr Morton said that the period can be one to two years, and NHS Grampian says that the wait is an average of six weeks. Are we all talking about the same thing in relation to treatment happening for a young person? Are we talking about having a meeting or having treatment for a young person defined? Maybe Donna Bell could help with that.

Yes. If we are all talking about the same thing, why is there still such a discrepancy across Scotland three years on from the Audit Scotland and Accounts Commission report? Families are waiting for one to two years in some parts of Scotland, whereas people are turning things round within six weeks in another part of Scotland. What on earth is going on? What can we do to try to bring things into line with the Grampian experience perhaps?

Good morning, everyone. I will start with a question for Donna Bell about the 18-week standard. Will you clarify for me and constituents whom I represent what that means? When does the clock start ticking on the 18-week standard? Does it start ticking at the point at which a family has a meeting with someone to get a meeting with CAMHS? Is that the 18 weeks that we are targeting?

Alex, the standard says that treatment should start within 18 weeks. However, some parents say to me that they got a meeting within 18 weeks, but a meeting is not treatment. What constitutes treatment?

How do we ensure that a councillor gets the fullest picture of something? When an application is made, there will be opinions on both sides. For me, the question is whether a councillor should disengage from the process for fear of being lobbied and possibly forming a view as a result, or should embrace the process and declare that they have done so in order to allow the public to see that an objective assessment is still possible.

What are your views on what councillors can, cannot and should not do in relation to lobbying in respect of planning applications? The guidance seems to be clear that a councillor must not divulge an opinion in advance, but in my experience as councillor, the advice from senior officials was often not to engage at all with the supporters or opposers of a planning application. I always felt that that restricted a councillor’s ability to look at all the information that was available to enable them to make a decision.

Do you have any views on whether that is still a grey area in the code? Are you clear about whether councillors can meet people who are proposing or opposing a planning application? It is still a little unclear to me.

Last week, we chatted to Colleges Scotland. One challenge that we as elected members face—I think that everybody faces it—is how to move young people into the world of work. Do we need to do more with employers to understand their needs? You will know that recruitment almost dried up during Covid and it is fair to say that it has not recovered yet. On the other hand, we are hearing about the number of vacancies right across various sectors in Scotland. Do we need to do more to understand employers’ needs and to promote those needs in the education setting to assist and encourage youngsters to make positive transitions into the world of work and beyond?