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Recent Department of Health guidelines have emphasised the need to measure quality of NHS care, including the effectiveness of treatment, and patient experience (DoH, 2005). The aim of treatment is to improve quality of life for patients, although there are few reliable and valid quality of life measures for children (King et al, 2005). A report by the outcomes subgroup of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) External Working Group (EWG) stated that all child and adolescent mental health services should routinely audit and evaluate their work (Outcomes Subgroup of CAMHS EWG, 2003). Evaluation of interventions and services requires appropriate outcome measures (Bilenberg, 2003;Brann et al, 2001), which are sensitive to the specific intervention being assessed (Higginson, 1994) and feasible to use in the setting in which they are administered (Ramsay et al, 1995). According to the

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