Clinical harm reviews are being carried out to see if 160 children in the county came to harm after waiting more than a year for mental health treatment.

North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) took over young people’s specialist and targeted mental health services in Kent and Medway last September.

Among them are 144 who have waited at least a year.

Another 19 young people from Medway, where NELFT also provides services, have also waited longer than 52 weeks.

NELFT took over children and young people’s specialist and targeted mental health services in Kent last September.

But with rising demand, changes to its role, and an inherited waiting list, it has struggled to treat and assess patients swiftly - with no sign of when the backlog will be cleared.

Board papers for May reveal that in Kent, excluding Medway, 3,869 young people were waiting for treatment and a further 1,100 for assessment.

Smaller numbers of children in Medway were also waiting for assessment and treatment – including 19 who had waited more than a year.

The board papers say “a clinical harm review process is in place”.

The seven CCGs in Kent say 1,481 children and young people have currently been waiting for more than 18 weeks for treatment to start.

Around £900,000 in “Future in Mind” funding – part of the government’s commitment in 2015 to put more money into young people’s mental health services - has now been earmarked to reduce waits.

NELFT is working on proposals to increase staffing and use technology to support as many children as possible.

A spokesman said: “NELFT is working on a waiting list trajectory to articulate when the waiting list will be cleared.

"Many factors will be taken into consideration when doing this, including staffing levels, recruitment, and continuing to assess clinical need and see new urgent referrals into the system.

They added: “We deeply regret some have been waiting much too long for their assessment or treatment, and we appreciate the distress this can cause.”

But the trust is expecting around 14,500 referrals in its first 12 months, compared with 10,500 the previous year.

Nick Harrop, campaigns manager at mental health charity YoungMinds, said: “While the quality of care that child and adolescent mental health services provides can be excellent, it can be desperately hard for families to access it.

"We receive calls from parents who have been waiting months for an appointment, and who simply don’t know where to turn.

"Sometimes they tell us that their children have started to self-harm or become suicidal during the wait – or that they’ve dropped out of school. which not only has a huge impact on their education, but also means that one of the parents has had to give up their job to look after them.

“The government must make sure that children’s mental health funding reflects the true scale of the need.”

Anyone in need of emotional support should call the Samaritans on 116 123.