The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-12935, in the name of Martin Whitfield, on Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity on what it considers to be a successful first six months of its No Time To Wait campaign, which launched a pilot wellbeing and resilience service, The Haven, in September 2023 in Tranent, East Lothian, as an intervention to avert the potential mental health crisis facing children and young people in Scotland; notes that, since it opened, there have been 1,264 visits to The Haven, of which 274 were unique visitors who were directly supported by the service; understands that the service is fully funded by the charity, and aims to complement child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and to help prevent problems escalating to the point where professional intervention is needed; notes reports that Scotland’s mental health crisis affects children across Scotland, impacting their childhoods, their futures and their families’ lives, and further notes the belief that, without access to effective early intervention, there is a risk that the mental health problems of Scotland’s children today become the mental health problems of the adults of tomorrow.
17:20
I thank members on all sides of the chamber today, and across the Parliament, who have made possible this members’ business debate on my motion with regard to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.
Scotland’s children and young people are facing an unprecedented mental health, wellbeing and resilience crisis. That is self-evidently a challenge for children and young people and for their families, but it is also a problem for us all and for Scotland, because they are the future of Scotland—they are our future society and economy.
Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity has been keen to work closely with politicians and policy makers to tackle that growing problem. Last year, the charity commissioned research, which found that, sadly,
“nearly six in 10 families in Scotland have a child who”,
they believe,
“has experienced a mental health concern at some point in their life.”
Children and young people can face mental health challenges such as anxiety, low mood and issues relating to school. Early intervention is vital in addressing those concerns, as that can help both the child and their family not just to overcome such issues, but to thrive.
However, we are aware of the significant pressures on child and adolescent mental health services, which must focus on the most severe cases first. That often means that children with less critical issues are left without support, often for extended periods, and such a delay leads only to a worsening of their mental health, causing problems that could have been prevented with timely intervention.
Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity declared that there was “no time to wait” and, as a charity, it secured funding to launch its own pilot wellbeing and resilience service, which has now been fully operational for almost 12 months. That service has been transformational for the young people and their family members who have been able to access mental health support without having to be put on lengthy waiting lists or to meet tight criteria. The pilot wellbeing and resilience service resulting from the no time to wait campaign is designed to complement CAMHS in helping to prevent problems from escalating to the point at which psychiatric intervention is needed.
The haven wellbeing and resilience service, which is the site of the no time to wait service pilot, opened last September at the Fraser centre in Tranent in East Lothian. Data that has been collected over the first year of its operation is showing tangible results, which give the charity hope that Scotland’s paediatric mental health crisis is reversible. In the short time in which the service has been up and running, it has played its own part—albeit in a small way relative to the situation across Scotland—in alleviating the pressure on CAMHS by helping children and young people with their wellbeing.
I am grateful to my friend Martin Whitfield for giving way, in part so that I can express my thanks to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. As the parent of a child who spent some time at the sick kids hospital, as it was, I know about the work that the charity does. When a child goes into hospital, the whole family is put under immense pressure. It comes as no surprise to me, therefore, to learn that the charity is supporting young people in that holistic way, because that is what it has always done. The point that the member raises about the need to look at wider wellbeing in such difficult circumstances goes to the heart of what the ECHC, as an organisation, is, and what it does. Does the member agree with that point?
I can give you the time back, Mr Whitfield.
I am grateful for that intervention. From its inception, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity has always taken a holistic approach, from, in the first instance, providing pyjamas to children who come in with nothing, to offering cups of tea and rooms that allow parents just to have a break from it all, get a shower and take a few minutes to grasp what is going on.
That takes us to the heart of why Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity is so important, because it is partly what we would want for every child who comes into contact with any health service. It is right to note that the initiative that we are discussing is almost unique, in that the charity has stepped out of the hospital environment to work with children in the Fraser centre, where those children feel comfortable and safe. The centre is an environment that they know and understand, and the charity, in running the no time to wait pilot, fully understands that children require that confidence and need to be able to build connections, and that they do that best where they feel safe. The majority of attendees have mental health concerns around feelings of anxiety and loneliness and issues at school, or even around attendance at school. Those feelings can be reversed, and children can be helped, if the issues are handled early enough.
Around one third of those who have attended the haven have struggled with school attendance, and one third have reported self-harm. However, the early data shows that the children and young people who attend the haven are themselves reporting improvements. For example, more than 80 per cent report that their self-harm has reduced. Those are small successes, but to a child who has found it difficult to have their voice listened to, or a child who is concerned that they are putting pressure on their family because of how they feel and who is choosing to deal with that pressure in a self-harming way, it is an enormous thing to have that break and to start to see improvement.
Others report improved communication skills, simply feeling better and more positive, becoming more involved in community projects and having improved self-confidence. That is absolutely the route that we would want for every young person. When I visited the haven, I had the pleasure of meeting a young person who was brilliantly articulate and asked incredibly difficult and challenging questions. She shared with me the fact that she was looking forward to taking her singing ability to a festival in East Lothian during the Edinburgh festivals, where I know that she performed brilliantly.
The Scottish Government has some of the broadest powers available to any devolved Government, and I welcome that, in relation to the programme for government, the First Minister has talked about finding local solutions to national problems, saying that one solution does not necessarily need to fit all scenarios. I can say, with honesty and passion, that, having had the opportunity to see the haven and the people who are working there, I know that the skill, passion, ability and empathy of the haven team is a solution. I ask the Scottish Government whether it will take that solution forward, because there is no time to waste.
17:28
First, I pay tribute to Martin Whitfield, whom it is—as he would say—a pleasure to follow. I commend him for bringing the debate to the chamber to allow us to raise awareness of and pay tribute to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, and for his on-going work as a parliamentarian on issues around children’s rights and wellbeing.
As Mr Whitfield has set out, the ECHC offers additional support to seriously ill babies, children and young people, along with their families, when they face a hospital experience. The charity offers a range of services that are designed to improve the hospital experience for children and young people by providing wellbeing support; facilitating arts activities; helping to make improvements to hospital spaces; and distributing grants to national health service teams to fund initiatives designed to enhance children’s care. It is clearly an important charity for the whole of Edinburgh and the Lothians and, as an Edinburgh MSP, I put on record my thanks for all the work that the charity does, and I pay tribute to it as an organisation.
Although the motion focuses on the haven initiative, I am reminded of an organisation in my constituency called the Junction, which I have talked about in the Parliament a number of times. Third sector organisations, initiatives and projects that facilitate mental health support, either by providing early intervention before there is a need for CAMHS or by relieving some of the workload of and demand on CAMHS, make an important difference. In raising awareness of organisations such as the haven in East Lothian or the Junction in Leith—and I am sure that other members across the chamber can point to local organisations in their communities—we should note that such local charities, with their local networks, local connections and local understanding and their being accessible to communities, really do make a difference, alongside some of the bigger charities. This is an excellent debate, because it focuses on those local charities, particularly the haven as part of ECHC.
The wider point in the motion about the need to support our young people because they are tomorrow’s population—the servants, the workers, the carers or the parents; you name it—cannot be overstated. It often crosses my mind, both in my constituency work and more widely, just how much younger generations are having to cope with, even compared with how things were at the turn of the century. Of course, history has seen harder times, but, internally or domestically speaking, young people have faced an austerity crisis attached to a financial crisis and then, one would argue, a Brexit crisis, followed by a pandemic. If we also add in external concerns about war and peace and climate breakdown, we see that young people are having to deal with a lot in their day-to-day considerations, not least with what is happening in their communities.
Does the member agree that young people—rather than children—feel an expectation on them to help those around them, including their families, that previous generations of young people perhaps did not? Does he agree that that is adding to the stress that already exists in families and which young people are absorbing?
I agree that that is part of it. The challenge for us, as parliamentarians, with the powers that we have in this institution, is how we relieve some of that demand, pressure and anxiety, and the expectation that comes with it. Devolution, now in its 25th year, has helped, and I am sure that the minister will touch on the additional support in schools and the social security support that are available, as well as the increased funding for mental health services and a reduction in the stigma experienced in seeking help with mental ill health.
We have made plenty of progress, but is there still much to do? Absolutely. For our young people, we should all focus on doing it.
17:33
I thank Martin Whitfield for securing this important members’ business debate. As Ben Macpherson has said, it is a pleasure to follow on from him.
Like Mr Whitfield, I have had the pleasure of meeting the team from Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity on two occasions, the first being here in the garden lobby of the Parliament, and then this week at the haven. When I visited the team at the haven in their home at the Fraser centre, Fiona O’Sullivan illustrated to me at first hand how committed the staff were to delivering innovative early intervention and family-focused services for young people who, as Mr Whitfield has said, are struggling with their mental health—often anxiety, but also depression and self-harm.
Since Covid, there has been a much greater focus on the mental health of children and young people and on the pressures faced by the CAMHS system. Much of that coverage has been negative in nature—about, for example, how the system is stretched, long waits and rejected referrals. Those problems should, can and, hopefully, will be addressed by ministers over time. However, solving them will, I suspect, never address the needs of every young person, which is why we need services such as the haven.
The haven does not work in isolation. Where it needs to, as it frequently does, it integrates seamlessly with the CAMHS system. It uses the same language and techniques, creating a continuum of care that ensures that children and young people receive the support that they need.
However, we must remember that the haven is a pilot, which I was acutely aware of when visiting this week. Although early-stage evaluation underlines its positive impact, its future is not a given, even in the microclimate that it occupies, in one town in one part of Scotland. At the moment, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity is entirely funding the facility; in the long term, however, it will need Scottish Government funding to make it sustainable and scalable across the country.
As Mr Whitfield’s motion makes clear, 1,264 visits have been made to the haven since it opened, with 274 made by unique visitors whom the service supported directly. If we think in a cumulative way of those 274 individuals in a single town, we can just imagine the impact of such a service if it had reach across the whole of Scotland.
As the motion also makes clear, without places such as the haven, there is a risk that the mental health problems of Scotland’s children today will become the mental health problems of the adults of tomorrow. There is also a risk that, in the absence of alternative pathways and without early intervention, the problems of too many children and young people will reach such levels of acuteness that they will require in-patient CAMHS services, which are in very short supply in Lothian. Having visited the haven and spoken to the team, I know how committed they are to the principle of early intervention and non-time-sensitive care.
The service is open to young people themselves, which is important, but it is open to their families, too. Having talked to constituents as well as friends and family who have experienced their children going through such services, I know that they often feel locked out of the process of treatment, counselling and recovery.
With CAMHS, young people go into a service that generally has a deadline for each stage of the process; however, the facility at the haven does not and instead allows each child to go at their own pace. Another point that came out of the recent discussion that I had with the service was that families do not need to keep telling their story time and time again, which is traumatic for them. I got the impression that it is literally seeking to get it right for every child.
I know that Mr Whitfield has visited the haven, and I encourage the minister and others to do so. I know that it is very keen to invite politicians and other stakeholders, because it is only through that collaboration that it will be able to get the pilot on a long-term and sure footing. I also encourage senior representatives of East Lothian Council—the chief executive, the head of education and other senior officers—to visit and engage with the service, because only through council collaboration will it be able to drive change on the ground.
I will close not with my own words, but with those of the haven, which sum up what it offers and what I hope that it could offer right throughout Scotland, if we managed to put it on a sustainable financial footing. It says:
“We offer support in a fully accessible, relaxed and informal setting. We do this through a range of activities we know young people will enjoy. Or, if all you need is a cup of tea and a listening ear, we’re here to help you cope. Our team is there on the good days, the bad days, and everything else in between.”
That is the kind of service that we need at the heart of our communities, and I hope that the Government, local authorities and the third sector can work together to deliver projects out of the haven right across Scotland.
17:38
Like others, I thank my colleague Martin Whitfield for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am not surprised to see it under his name; I think that we can all agree that this issue and the rights of children and young people are always a priority for my friend on these Labour benches.
Martin Whitfield has spoken to me before about the excellent work of the no time to wait campaign, which, as we have heard, launched a pilot wellbeing and resilience service called the haven in September 2023 in Tranent. It is super to hear that others have been along to that; I think that the minister has also been.
From the discussions that I have had with Martin Whitfield about his visit, I know that he met the most amazing young people, such as we all have in all our communities. It is not just the young people but their families, too, who have benefited from the scheme. From Martin Whitfield’s experience, we know that the staff have also benefited from the service. As many people out there in our communities do, the staff are going way above and beyond the call to help our young people and ensure that we do not have young people unnecessarily going into mental health crisis.
As we know, the service is designed to work with and complement CAMHS. That is an important point—the more our local services join up with our public services, the better our outcomes will be. Providing a service that means that a young person might not have to go into a more psychiatric or clinical environment is a super intervention. My colleague Ben Macpherson mentioned other services out there that are doing that. We are so lucky to have those services, and we need to ensure that we work together to get it right.
Across the chamber, we all talk about taking a preventative approach, which, from the speeches that we have heard today and at other times in the chamber and in our committees, I think that we all believe in. That is why it is important that such members’ business debates take place.
For me, the important point is that we want young people and their families to know that they do not need to go into crisis and that there are services out there in the informal local space where young people and families can talk about their struggles, what they might do and what might help them. We are not just talking about the service; we have heard that the scheme has been successful. From its six-month report, we know that 52 per cent of those who visited felt that their situation had improved. That is an example of the lived experience that we talk about so much across the Scottish Parliament.
I was fortunate enough to visit Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity last year, which the haven is linked to. I could tell that it does tremendous work. On its website, the first thing that comes up when someone is going to donate is a message that says, “Will you give more than medicine to children in hospital?” That shows what the charity is seeking to do. The staff at the site that I visited showed me that the great facility there, which is mirrored at the haven site, is about understanding relationships and having a sense of play in normal space and in family time. It was very impressive.
The staff team is dedicated, and we know that young people are advantaged by having the service in the local community. We can all agree that we should get behind local community-based projects. I hope that the minister will refer to that in her closing remarks and that she will give us a sense of how we can all work together. Sometimes, members’ business debates allow us to have conversations about how we can all work together. I thank all the speakers in the debate, and I hope that our constituents can get the benefit of such services across Scotland.
17:43
I thank members for their contributions and I extend my congratulations to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of third sector organisations such as Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity in supporting work to improve mental health and wellbeing.
I was delighted to visit the charity’s hub at the Royal hospital for children and young people in Edinburgh last year to see the incredible work that it is doing to support children and their families. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care also visited the haven services recently, and I know that he found that visit inspiring.
Our vision is to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up in—a place where everyone’s rights are respected and where children and young people can access the right support at the right time from the right people, so that they grow up feeling loved, safe and respected. It is very clear that supporting good mental health and wellbeing is absolutely critical in that vision. That is not to say that it is straightforward. As other members have done, I acknowledge the many challenges that our children and young people face and the added pressure that growing up through the pandemic and in a cost of living crisis presents.
The mental health and wellbeing strategy, which we published jointly last year with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, rightly takes a whole-system approach, in the recognition that improving mental health and wellbeing must be a cross-Government priority. It recognises the need to place greater emphasis on early intervention and prevention, to improve access to and the quality of mental health services and to increase community-based support and services, as well as to support growth and alignment of the mental health workforce.
Those priorities are echoed in our funding. In the past four years, the Scottish Government has provided significant investment in support and services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. That includes an annual investment of £16 million to support the provision of counselling services in secondary schools that are available to all children in Scotland who are 10 years old and over.
Since 2020, we have also provided local authorities with more than £50 million to develop and deliver new and enhanced community-based mental health supports and services for children and young people and their families, and a further £15 million is available this year. Those supports and services are focused on prevention and early intervention, promoting positive mental health and wellbeing and tackling emotional distress. Where appropriate, the services offer an alternative to CAMHS by providing support in a community setting.
Supports and services are available in every local authority area. In the first half of 2023 alone, they were accessed by more than 58,000 children and young people and their families. Last year, I had the privilege of visiting one of those services—back on track in Edinburgh. It is clear from speaking to some who are receiving support just how vital that intervention is for children, young people and their families.
Our communities mental health and wellbeing fund for adults supports a range of community-led projects for those who are aged 16 years and older, with grass-roots projects benefiting from £66 million in funding since 2021. In seeking to go further upstream, we have provided funding to a range of children’s and young people’s organisations to create a suite of online resources, information and advice that supports the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people. That includes work that has been undertaken by Young Scot to build and promote the ayefeel online hub.
We have also funded the Scottish Youth Parliament’s Mind Yer Time resource, which was designed by children and young people to support healthy use of social media and screens. We have also worked with Parent Club to provide a range of advice for parents and carers on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their children and young people; most recently, new resources have been made available for the parents of teenage children.
We are seeing sustained progress in other key areas of support for children and young people’s mental health. In the first half of this year, we saw the best national performance against CAMHS waiting times since the 18-week standard was introduced 10 years ago. One in two children and young people who are referred to CAMHS now start treatment within six weeks, and CAMHS staffing has increased by more than 63 per cent in the past decade.
Although we have made progress, we are far from complacent. We are clear that long waits are unacceptable, and we remain committed to supporting all NHS boards to meet the expected standards. Likewise, we are committed to further enhancing support for children and young people at the earliest opportunity. That is why early intervention and prevention is one of the four key priorities that the new joint strategic board for child and family mental health has agreed. With COSLA and other partners, we will continue to pursue that, along with other priorities of improving support for children and young people in crisis, caring for those who are in vulnerable situations and continuing to enhance perinatal and infant mental health.
It is right to register that so much of the support—particularly from the haven—might not prevent young people from needing to see CAMHS. However, they will present to CAMHS in a better position than they would have been in if they had not had such support while they were working their way through the waiting list.
I am keen to see the outcome of the study that is being done. When I met representatives of the charity, I was hugely impressed by the work that it is doing, which is holistic. It helps children to access timely support and it might enable some to wait well while they wait for the NHS intervention that they undoubtedly need. I am keen to hear more about that.
One note of caution is that we all agree that local developments are usually the best. They can recognise the assets that are available in communities. The care and support that is available in the member’s part of the country, in Edinburgh and the Lothians, is very different from what is available in my area in the rural west Highlands. It is not so easy to pick up the learning from such single projects and spread it everywhere. However, as a Government, we need to be better and cleverer at learning and scaling when things work.
I restate my thanks and congratulations to all the staff from Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity for their unwavering commitment to supporting children, young people and families in the Edinburgh and Lothians area. I am grateful to them and to all in our third sector organisations who work tirelessly for the care, support and wellbeing of our children and young people. Those people play a vital role in supporting us to achieve our strategic vision of a Scotland that is free from stigma and inequality, where everyone claims their right to achieve the best mental health and wellbeing possible.
Meeting closed at 17:51.Air ais
Decision Time