Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am happy to start, and I think that Morag Williamson will probably want to come in and contribute a little as well.

A number of things are significantly different. One is that tackling inequalities, which will be of particular interest to this committee, is ingrained as part of the core work in the new strategy, whereas, in previous strategies, there was recognised increased risk in communities who experienced inequalities, but there was a challenge in how to respond to that. We have built the tackling of inequalities in with the bricks of this strategy, and we hope that that work will deliver for those particular communities. Of course, often, people do not experience just one inequality, and that overlap has a particular impact.

I begin by welcoming the committee’s inquiry. Tragically, suicide continues to impact all parts of society, so we all have a role to play in preventing suicide. That includes us individually as MSPs and collectively as a Parliament. Suicide is, indeed, everyone’s business. I strongly believe that we must all talk more openly about suicide and deepen our understanding of its complexity. By doing that, we can tackle the stigma that surrounds suicide and help to find new ways to support people when they have thoughts of suicide.

I am very proud of the work that is happening right across Scotland to reduce suicide and I want to record my personal thanks to everyone who is already playing their part in helping to keep people safe and to support their recovery. I am impressed with the volume and range of evidence that the committee has already considered and I am pleased that our creating hope together suicide prevention strategy, has been described as “innovative” and “ambitious.” The strategy was developed through Scotland-wide collaboration with communities and the many partners who are working to prevent suicide. Listening to people with lived experience of suicide was key, as was learning from the past 20 years of suicide prevention in Scotland and around the world. That helped us to understand how Scotland’s approach could be more progressive.

First, the strategy recognises the importance of creating societal shifts, which we describe as outcomes, so that our environment protects against suicide, we are all better equipped to respond to someone who may be suicidal, and that anyone who is or has been affected by suicide in any way gets the right support. Secondly, we must tackle the inequalities and life circumstances that increase suicide risk, which are often called “social determinants”. Those include people living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, or living with addiction; people having care experience; having been in prison; and being LGBT, neurodivergent, or coming from some minority ethnic communities.

Much of Government’s policy and investment are already addressing those factors by, for example, tackling child poverty through our progressive Scottish child payment; addressing unemployment through our multimillion-pound investment in employability services; supporting people who are affected by substance use through our national mission; and improving Scotland’s mental health and wellbeing through the delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy, including through evidence-based approaches such as our world-leading distress brief intervention programme and action on self-harm. Although those policies are already helping to prevent suicide, we are going further by actively weaving suicide prevention into wider action across Government and society.

I will talk about our progress on delivering our strategy. Our first annual report will be published this summer, with an assessment from our national suicide prevention advisory group, whose members represent and advocate for many of the groups that are disproportionately affected by suicide.

I will touch on a few highlights. We have improved suicide awareness and the availability of peer support across our communities, used clinical evidence and our “Time Space Compassion” approach to suicidal crisis to drive improvements in statutory services and created new systems to capture data and evidence so that we can seize every opportunity to intervene and support someone who is suicidal. For example, we have introduced a suicide review and learning system.

The progress has been achieved thanks to our new collective delivery model, suicide prevention Scotland, which brings together partners and communities across Scotland to collaborate and learn about suicide prevention. It also includes our strategic outcomes lead partners, Samaritans Scotland, Scottish Action on Mental Health, Penumbra, Change Mental Health and Public Health Scotland, which are bringing their valuable leadership and expertise to bear to support delivery.

Looking ahead, our delivery plan for 2024-25 will be published shortly. That plan will continue the breadth and pace of work, including our drive to meet the needs of people who are at higher risk of suicide. It is backed by a significant commitment to double our investment in suicide prevention to £2.8 million by 2026, which is well on track. The wider financial context is extremely challenging, and I am sure that we will discuss how Government is continuing to prioritise mental health.

I thank our lived and living experience panels, whose unique insights continue to direct all our work. I restate the strategy’s aim, which is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life or is affected by suicide to get the help that they need and feel a sense of hope.

I put on record the correct annual cost of the suicide bereavement support service, which is £309,688 in 2024-25.

I look forward to our discussion and the outcome of the inquiry, which is welcome.

It is clear that poverty increases suicide risk—the link between the two is clear—and it is very challenging to tackle poverty in this environment. We have had 14 years of austerity. That political choice, which was made in Westminster, has had a profound impact on our public services and on our welfare system. Then we had the pandemic, which has stretched the health and social care system. We have also had Brexit, which has had a profound impact on our economy and on our societies. As we have come out of the pandemic, we have faced a cost of living crisis. There are real challenges in tackling poverty.

However, despite that, we in Scotland are taking measures that are making a difference. We are all very proud of the Scottish child payment, which prioritises money going into families with young children, recognising the profound impact that poverty has at an early age. That has lifted 100,000 children out of poverty. Obviously, that is a very long-term investment, and it is not a specific suicide prevention measure, but tackling poverty is a suicide prevention measure—make no mistake about it.

I have spoken openly before, particularly when I was the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, about the challenge of the interventions that we make here in Scotland, as it feels like we give with one hand and it is taken away with another. We have one hand tied behind our back, because the focus and approach is so different from our Westminster Government. That makes tackling poverty very challenging.

You have given me the opportunity to talk about the mental health and wellbeing communities fund, which is, as you say, a small sum of money. It has been £15 million per year since 2021 and, in the first two years of the fund, nearly 3,500 grants were dispersed, so we are talking about very small sums of money sprinkled like stardust across the country and doing really impactful, magical work.

The beauty of that fund is that it works closely with communities. It goes through a third sector interface, which means that it goes through people who really know what is happening in the community. I take pleasure in the fact that, everywhere I go, I can see the impact of that money in literally every community in Scotland.

I will fight for that money to continue, as you might expect, but I am pushing against an open door because we recognise the impact that it has and it meets a number of our targets. It is not solely about suicide prevention; it is about strengthening communities and, by doing that, we can achieve a huge number of our aims as local and central Government.

At Government level, there is certainly a recognition that our third sector organisations need to be valued and supported, and that multiyear funding would be a way of improving their sustainability. They spend a great deal of energy living hand to mouth and lose a lot of talent because of the way that they are funded. There was a commitment within Government to move towards more sustainable and longer-term funding, but then the pandemic hit, and there has been a challenge in getting back on course for that.

There is no lack of understanding at Government level of how difficult that is for our third sector organisations, and there is no lack of appreciation for the incredible and impactful work that they do. However, getting from the emergency footing that we have been on in the past few years to that more sustainable—

Given the challenging financial context that we face, I am happy that we have been able to increase the rates by 6.68 per cent. An additional £11.5 million is being invested through the local government settlement to do that. It is for local authorities to make decisions on how they spend their funding at the local level.

Traditionally, since 2010, the payments have increased in line with inflation. In the first few years of their existence—up to 2007, when the Scottish National Party Government came into power—they were not increased at all. From 2007 to 2010, we and local authorities negotiated the payment rates, and from 2010 to 2020, they were increased using the GDP deflator.

As you said, there have been above-inflation rises in the past three years. Unfortunately, the financial context this year means that that cannot occur again. However, in the financial context that we are experiencing, I am pleased to be able to increase the payments in line with the GDP deflator, as stated.

We have not done an impact assessment because it is not a new policy; an existing policy is being continued. We have not done a full impact assessment, but we expect this to support everyone who is self-funding in the system, which we think is around 10,000 people.

The £11.5 million is additional funding to fully fund the uplift.

I ask my official Clare Thomas to respond to that line of questioning.