Chamber and committees

Up to date information on membership, remit and dates of meetings are available here Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Joint Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We established the Digital Mental Health Programme in late 2020 to oversee ongoing development of cCBT and other digital mental health services. The development and expansion of digital services was supported by a national implementation team.

The number of available cCBT treatments has increased from 1 in 2019 to 27 in 2022. The introduction of self-referral treatments, Sleepio and Daylight have greatly increased access to digital treatments with 25,668 self-referrals in 2022, compared to 12,356 the year before.

These numbers continue to rise, with usage of cCBT programs increasing from 22,385 in 2020 to 66,163 in 2022. We continue to invest in the long term sustainability of digital therapies (including cCBT), including innovation, staff training, evaluation and inclusion.

The Scottish Government is investing £250 million in the National Drugs Mission over the life of the Parliament to save and improve lives of people who use drugs, including veterans. For the first time this year we will have data on the number of veterans accessing drug and alcohol treatment services, using the new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy). We will use this data to inform our work to better meet the needs of veterans who use drugs to support them to achieve their recovery goals.

The work of Armed Forces and Veterans Champions throughout Scotland is crucial to ensuring veterans can access the right support, guidance and services. The Scottish Government supports fully the work of the Champions in public sector organisations including Police Scotland, Local Authorities, the NHS, Department for Work and Pensions and Higher and Further Education institutions. I am chairing a roundtable with Local Authority Champions in late January.

We would encourage any service delivery organisation providing support to veterans to consider developing a veterans champion role.

The Scottish Government works with key veteran stakeholders, NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions and through the Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Joint Group to ensure we create the conditions for and drive forward progress towards the ‘Distinctive Scottish Approach to Veterans Health’ as set out by the Scottish Veterans Commissioner.

The action taken by Scottish Government against this set of recommendations can be found here SVC Annual Progress Report: Findings | (scottishveteranscommissioner.org)

The Scottish Government actively participates in a number of cross border networks through MoD/Department of Health Partnership Board and Department of Health and Social Care sub groups. These groups have UK wide representation and provide an opportunity to share information regarding veterans health.

In addition we have regular meetings with Office of Veterans Affairs and NHS England.

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors. Our approach reflects a combination of the following measures; the annual iMatter survey, feedback from local and national staffside and other stakeholder channels, academic research, data collected by regulators and partners and evaluation of nationally-led initiatives. In addition, the Wellbeing Champions Network is now well-established to provide feedback on areas of priority need, and to share best practice across health, social care and social work organisations.

We are continuing to work with leaders across health, social care and social work, as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff. We are working on a range of local initiatives designed to meet the basic and practical needs of staff, and their teams. This includes access to quiet spaces to support health and wellbeing, and the installation of lockers.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the Veterans in Custody Support Officer network to encourage breakfast clubs for veterans in Prison.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Veterans Fund provided funding to the Lothian Veterans Centre to run a weekly lunch-time club for older veterans providing a welcoming environment for companionship and peer support. More generally, the Scottish Veterans Fund has provided funding to several projects which provide support to veterans to integrate into the local community, such as an activity co-ordinator for veterans in FirstLight Café in Falkirk, or away days for veterans in the Huntly region through Networks of Wellbeing.

In the first year of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults in 2021-22, the Scottish Government provided funding to the 32 Third Sector Interface (TSIs) who were responsible for distributing the funding to local grassroots community organisations. Local application processes are underway for Year 2, with information on the organisations receiving funding to be published in June 2023.

Further information about the funded projects can be found in the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund: Year 1 - Monitoring and Reporting Summary, which was published in June 2022.

A table providing details of the awards made to grassroots community projects by area, purpose and value of each award has been placed in SPICe bib number 63970.

This information was provided by Third Sector Interface organisations in April 2022 based on awards made.

Since its inception in 2014, the annual budget for the Commissioner’s office has been £250,000. This is funded by the Scottish Government and covers the Commissioner’s remuneration, support staff, office and IT requirements and general running costs. The draft budget published on 15 December proposed increasing this to £280,000 in Financial Year 2023-24.

The UK Government has since funded the appointments of the UK Independent Veterans Advisor and the Wales and Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioners for which the Scottish Government do not receive any Barnett Consequentials.