The chairman of the Bradford Community Health NHS Trust, John Watson, is right to be expressing concern at the long delays being endured by children with emotional and psychiatric problems before they see a consultant. We should all share that concern.

It is a sorry state of affairs that there are currently 500 such children in the queue. It says a great deal about the state of our society that the number of children needing help for a wide range of emotional disorders and disturbances appears to be growing. It is bound to put a strain on the trust's child and adolescent service.

But the resources must be provided to allow the service to keep up.

Currently more than 100 of those damaged youngsters have been waiting more than six months to see a specialist, with 27 waiting up to a year. These delays put a considerable strain on the children involved, and on their anxious families who must cope as best they can in the meantime.

But the problems spread well beyond the immediate household into the wider society. Surely the longer a child is left with its difficulties untreated, the harder it will to be help it, and the greater the chance of its problems leading to anti-social behaviour.

The trust's chief executive, Con Egan, has promised that waiting times will be reduced to less than six months in the short term with a long-term target of a maximum of three months. That will obviously be an improvement, but it should be regarded only as a start, not the ideal.

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