The teenager was diagnosed in 2019 but was referred to CAMHS in 2024 and has been waiting for mental health support since then.
He said, “It’s very difficult to deal with because while you are on a waiting list you are not able to reassure your child when they will be able to get help and that makes the problem worse because it’s all that anxiety not knowing”.
“If, say, your child broke their leg you wouldn’t think it is fair to make them wait for two years to have their legs fixed […] it seems that mental health seems to take a lower priority than physical health which is just as debilitating”.
According to NHS England Mental Health Services Dataset, the median waiting time from the referral date to first contact recorded in 2020-21 is 35 days, in 2023-24 it hit a high of 83 days and more recent stats show in 2024-25 records 63 days. This data includes services in all secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services.
The number of people aged under 18 who are waiting for secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services increased by more than 2,500 from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Newbury Liberal Democrats MP Lee Dillon, who supports the petition said he has seen many parents in Tunney’s situation.
He added “families across Newbury and West Berkshire continue to contact me with the same story children deteriorating while they wait, parents desperate, and a service so stretched that early intervention simply isn’t happening. These are not isolated cases; they are part of a wider pattern caused by years of underfunding, under staffing, and a lack of political urgency.”