I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Mental health services are governed by Scottish Prison Service Health Care Standard 3 which can be found at:

http://www.sps.gov.uk/Publications/Publication104.aspx.

Referrals may be made to mental health services as a result of screening and assessments that are carried out during a prisoner's time in custody. Any member of staff can also refer any concerns they may have about a prisoner's wellbeing to health care services .

In addition, there is a robust system in place that allows prisoners to self refer to mental health services at any time during their period in custody.

The Scottish Government funded NHS 24 to pilot telephone delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and guided self help based on a CBT methodology from July 2009 to July 2011, in five NHS board areas.

The pilot has been evaluated and the assessment made was that the telephone delivered CBT was not cost effective as a general Scotland-wide approach, but that the case was made for continuing guided self-help.

On that basis, the Scottish Government has continued the allocation of £200,000 to NHS 24, in 2011-12, all of which will now support the guided self-help work. In addition, NHS 24 has offered to make telephone based CBT available, on a cost recovery basis, to those boards that would wish to access it. It may be that NHS boards with remote and rural populations find the approach to be cost effective for them.

NHS 24 is currently engaged in development work to create a national approach to delivering computerised CBT.

The number of children admitted to an adult psychiatric ward are:

The figures above from the Mental Welfare Commission show the number of young people under 18 who were admitted to adult beds over a five year period. It should be noted however that monitoring of children admitted to adult wards only began with the introduction of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 in October 2005 and therefore only covers a six month period from October 2005 to 31 March 2006.

Sections 25 and 26 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 impose a statutory duty on local authorities to provide, or secure the provision of care and support services, and services designed to promote the wellbeing and social development for persons who have, or have had a mental disorder and who are not in hospital.

The new public sector Equality Duty, (Equality Act 2010), which came into force on 5 April 2011, requires all public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations in the course of developing policies and delivering services. These duties complement the duty under the 2003 act and are subject to enforcement under the Equality Act 2010.

Social work services provided by local authorities including those provided under sections 25 and 26 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 are subject to scrutiny by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS). Where SCSWIS identifies that services fall short of the expected quality local authorities will be expected to make the necessary improvements. In addition care services provided by local authorities that meet one of the definitions in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 are registered with and scrutinised by SCSWIS.

Under Part 2 of the 2003 act, the Mental Welfare Commission is under a duty to raise any concerns with certain bodies (including SCSWIS) about the provision of a care or social service provided by a local authority in relation to individual patients (section 8A). This power could therefore be used to alert SCSWIS to problems in the provision of a service at a local level, which would assist SCSWIS in carrying out their scrutiny role in relation to these services. The Mental Welfare Commission also have power under the 2003 act to bring to the attention of Scottish ministers any matters regarding the operation of the 2003 Act (section 6); this is another route by which the commission could raise concerns about the adequacy of the provision of social work services under sections 25 and 26 of the 2003 act.

Scottish ministers placed a legal duty on local authorities under the 2003 act, to ensure that these services are available to people who need them. They expect public bodies upon whom statutory duties have been placed by an act of the Parliament to comply with those duties. Failure to comply with a specific statutory duty could leave those bodies open to judicial review.

General practitioners (GPs) are, as independent contractors, expected to highlight and address their own education needs throughout their careers, and GPs can access a range of training courses and learning materials on mental health issues to help meet their development needs. Access to these is facilitated through utilising flexible formats such as e-learning.

Scottish Government funded training and development on mental health improvement and suicide prevention encompasses mental health first aid, applied suicide intervention skills training, safeTALK, and pre-hospital crisis intervention, and are available to all sectors and, while not compulsory, are widely advertised.

The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, a directorate of NHS Health Scotland delivers a range of services to promote health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

Advice is available to employers and employees through a dedicated website, confidential telephone line and network of healthy working lives advisers.

Workplace mental health and wellbeing is promoted to employers by provision of advice and information on good practices and policies. The Healthy Working Lives Award programme recognises employers who take positive steps to promote both physical and mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives runs a mentally healthy workplace training programme for employers. This covers many aspects of developing mentally healthy workplaces, including tackling stigma and discrimination, managing personal stress, supportive management practices and meeting legal requirements. The programme has proved to be very popular with a wide range of employers.

The centre’s advice line includes a service aimed at small and micro-sized employers (fewer than 50 employees) with a particular emphasis on providing advice to employers on managing staff who may have a mental health condition. This is being delivered as a pilot programme in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions and runs until March 2012.

This information is not held centrally.

Scottish Government officials have met with the DWP Work Programme Providers in Scotland and confirmed that specialist support will be provided to help people with mental health issues to find and remain in employment. In addition, Skills Development Scotland is working with Jobcentre Plus, other national partners and employability services funded locally through Community Planning Partnerships on better alignment of Employment and Skills Service. Through those links, adults with mental health issues will receive appropriate Careers Information Advice and Guidance.

Student teachers are given general tuition and guidance on how to recognise and support pupils with additional support needs, including mental health conditions, as part of a series of core and elective modules within initial teacher education courses.

In addition, there are many specific mental health awareness and emotional wellbeing continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities available for teachers. Identifying appropriate CPD opportunities and arranging to engage with them is a matter for individual teachers to agree with their local authority employers.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing people with the skills and training opportunities that will help them to find sustained employment. Skills Development Scotland, our national skills and training body, provides specific help to both young people and adults with additional support needs that includes those with mental health problems.