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We are still analysing the responses to the consultation, and we know that we have more work to do to consult with stakeholders about our proposals before final decisions are taken by the Cabinet.

In all of the work that we do on the national care service, and whether services are in or out of it, we have to take a joined-up approach. We know all too well from stakeholders that transition periods can sometimes be some of the most difficult times for people, and that there does not seem to be the link that should be there when people move from one service to another. Legislation on that has changed recently, but there is a question about when is the right time for change and whether that change is the right thing to do. More joined-up approaches are required.

I can give an example—it is the starkest one that I have—of where we sometimes do not get it right and can confuse people and do too much rather than have a systematic right approach for folks. The other week, one of my officials was talking to a young person, who has a lot of things going on in their life and is involved with 15 different agencies. The question that that young person asked was, “Who do I listen to in all of this?” Often, what that person was being told was contradictory, according to them. I think that we can all agree that that is not the right approach for a young person, so we have to ensure that, in the future, we do not have those kinds of examples and that everything that we do is person centred.

The message that I get from a lot of young folk is, “I want somebody I can trust to deal with me.” There is absolutely no reason why the good practice of having a lead person, which is happening in many places, cannot be followed across the board.

Whether children’s services are in or out of the national care service—the initial responses to the consultation show that the majority are in favour of them being in it—we have to make sure that the linkages are right and that we take a person-centred approach, as opposed to the current situation in which, in some cases, we have a bit of a postcode lottery. No matter what, we want a national quality standard so that folks know the service that they can expect.

Beyond that, again no matter what, we have to listen to the voices of lived experience. The places where services are working well are the ones where young folk are at the heart of helping to shape services and where there is the maximum amount of communication, collaboration and co-operation. No matter what, that is what we need to see across the board.

We will write to the committee about that, too.

Holistic whole-family support and the whole family wellbeing fund are absolutely vital in getting this right as we move forward. You will hear from our other colleagues that, in terms of the work that needs to be done, along with the multidisciplinary and multi-agency approach that is being taken, we are taking a cross-cutting approach in Government in order to get this absolutely right for families across the country.

We have real ambition on this issue. The work is largely being led by other ministerial colleagues, but we are all involved in the overview of the matter in the group that is chaired by the Deputy First Minister. This is an important issue. This is one of the main policy planks that will help us to move beyond just getting it right for every child to getting it right for everyone.

Again, that involves work that we are doing at the moment. A huge amount of my time since I got this role last May has involved talking to stakeholders—I talked earlier about the young man with those 15 interventions. Sometimes, we have situations where families have a huge amount of interventions but there is not that holistic approach. The national care service and new standards can make a real difference there. However, we also need to change the culture around how we support families, because we know that where there are too many interventions, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes the trust factor is not there and you do not get the positive results that we want.

As well as the multidisciplinary approach and the multi-agency approach, we need to ensure that, in order to get this right, we have folk in play that families can trust. That will make a real difference. That is why I and other colleagues are quite excited about the way that we can approach this issue in order to improve and modernise the situation for families across the country.

I will be very brief, convener. Local authorities also have the ability to use the children and young people’s mental health services money for sporting activities that support children’s wellbeing. Ms Mochan will be well aware, I am sure, of the various projects that are going on in East Ayrshire, but one of the investments that East Ayrshire Council has made is in its vibrant communities project, which includes multidisciplinary community sport support, including sports coaches, for example. There is flexibility in that resource.

Of course, although we have invested £50 million over this year and next year, our ambition, as part of the Bute house agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens, is to double that investment over the course of this parliamentary session. Flexibility exists for local authorities to use that money for mental wellbeing, because we know that sport has a vital role to play in that.

The perinatal mental health clinical network has set out a series of five national pathways, which cover pre-conception advice, psychological support for mild to moderate concerns, specialist assessment for severe and complex needs, emergency assessment for MBU admission, and specialist assessment and intervention for parent-infant relationship difficulties.

We are developing animations to increase the accessibility and awareness of those pathways. Four health boards have fully developed local pathways for perinatal mental health, and a further seven boards have pathways in development. Boards are also developing specific pathways on birth trauma, neonatal loss, anxiety and needle phobia.

I have gone on the record many times saying that we do not want anybody to be waiting, and we are doing all that we possibly can to ensure that we are delivering for people. We will continue to invest in the recovery and renewal phase in relation to bringing waiting lists down, whether they are for child and adolescent mental health services or psychological therapy services.

We have to take the right actions in this area and, in our service delivery, we must make sure that we have a joined-up approach to dealing with perinatal mental health. The work that we are doing with health boards is extremely important, but we need to go much further in ensuring that those on the front line know exactly what services are available and can direct folk to them.

I will give an example from my discussions with the LATNEM—Let’s All Talk North East Mums—women’s group, where there were mixed responses to some of my questions. It is fair to say that some women thought that their GPs were absolutely fantastic at getting it right for them. In other cases, folks were very unhappy indeed with their initial contact with GPs and they were not signposted to the right services. We have work to do to change that. We need to make sure that everything that we are doing across the country is being filtered down to those on the front line and that they know exactly what services women need and are signposting them and referring women to them.

On the development of services, I note that we require not only the acute services that we tend to concentrate on when we talk about waiting times and waiting lists, but also community services. We need to get it right in communities across the country, and that means that the investment that we have put in needs to be spent wisely on developing those community assets. Beyond that, we also need to ensure that our investment in the third sector is there to allow those organisations to play a real part, with their expertise, in helping women and their families.

For example, I met Home-Start Aberdeen on Friday in a constituency capacity, although, as is always the case, we strayed on to some ministerial matters. Those folks have a lot of experience of dealing with women and families, and their experiences and the information that they gather have to lead to the improvements that are required for us to get it right for women and families across the country.

Hugh Masters might have more to say on the subject.

I will let Hugh Masters come in, as he might cover what I was going to say.

Workforce and sustainability are at the centre of all the programme board delivery plans. Last year, the workforce sustainability group was established to explore the issue across all sectors of the perinatal and infant mental health services. NHS Education for Scotland has been expanding training places on commissioned programmes as well as ensuring that additional perinatal and infant mental health training is provided across a range of professions. That investment will result in 51 additional psychological practitioners by the end of 2021-22. There is a huge amount of work going on, not just in relation to training and getting folk in but on training others to recognise exactly what is required in this context.

As the committee knows, I have said that we will look at a new workforce strategy for mental health services within the first half of this session of Parliament. We are well on the way in this area and we can see that in the recruits we are managing to get in.

I will be brief, convener. Ms Mackay’s question was on universality and access to services. As the committee well knows, I have an ambition to ensure that we set high-quality standards across the board in mental health services. I have talked about what we have already done with CAMHS and what we are doing now with psychological therapies.

In perinatal care, we are proposing the introduction of a service specification, which will be absolutely vital in ensuring consistency of care and in promoting joined-up care pathways. While we do that, we will also have national and local conversations with the third sector and people with lived experience to ensure that we get the specification right and can adapt it accordingly. We will carry out that vital work to ensure consistency of care across the board.