Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as this is the responsibility of NHS Boards. However, the Scottish Governments expects NHS Boards to follow the National Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) specification, which includes a clear expectation that children and young people whose referral is not accepted for CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service, such as our community-based supports.

We have provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families. This £15 million per year funding will continue through the local government finance settlement from 2025-26. Examples include mentoring services, art-based therapies, digital services, whole-family supports, counselling services and supports involving sport or physical activity.

Individual local authorities decide which supports and services to put in place in their area based on the needs of their communities.

Standard 1.2 of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification relates to the offer of a first appointment. As set out in the Specification, Neurodevelopmental Services that are delivered locally are the responsibility of Children Services providers. A first appointment could be provided by a number of professionals within a range of agencies, including education, health and voluntary organisations.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on length of waits for neurodevelopmental services centrally. Our focus is on improving support. Our Neurodevelopmental Specification places an expectation on NHS and Children's Services to work together to implement standards, in line with GIRFEC. Crucially, local authorities have a statutory duty to identify and provide support for pupils with additional support needs, regardless of diagnosis.

There will always be referrals to CAMHS that are not accepted as CAMHS only provide the right support for a small proportion of children and young people. Children who require neurodevelopmental support are not reported in these statistics unless they have co-morbid mental health issues, but may be included within total referral figures, leading to lower accepted referral rates in some Boards.

The National CAMHS specification includes a clear expectation that children and young people whose referral is not accepted for CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service, such as our community-based supports.

We have provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families. This £15 million per annum funding will continue through the local government finance settlement from 2025-26.

We will continue to work with NHS Boards and partners to monitor the National Specification’s implementation, to improve services and support for children and young people and their families.

The Public Health Scotland CAMHS waiting times statistics capture children and young people who meet the CAMHS criteria. We continue to see a significant and sustained improvement in CAMHS waiting times, despite continuing high demand from children and young people who need mental health support.

The CAMHS waiting time statistics do not include children seeking a neurodevelopmental assessment unless they have a comorbid mental health condition because they do not meet the CAMHS criteria. This is stated in the publication of CAMHS statistics.

CAMHS is a specialist mental health service and is simply not the appropriate service for children and young people seeking diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental condition, unless they are seeking support for a co-existing mental health condition. For many young people, support through a neurodevelopmental pathway will be more appropriate.

I appreciate that the proposed closure of the main building at SRUC’s Elmwood campus will be deeply concerning for affected staff and students.

Although SRUC is an autonomous institution with responsibility for its own strategic and operational decision, I would expect them to ensure that they engage meaningfully with staff affected by these proposals, in line with our Fair Work principles and in doing so explore any alternative options which might see delivery of these courses remain in the locality.

I would also expect any affected students to be appropriately supported by SRUC throughout this period, and to receive timely information about the impact of any disruption on their studies and the options available to them.

A Scottish Government amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill will, if passed, confer a new power for relevant bodies to share information in connection with their new duties to prevent homelessness. This should help decision makers plan better services but will also mean that those seeking assistance do not have to share distressing information on multiple occasions with different services.

The Scottish Government published updated information sharing guidance in September 2022 as part of a suite of refreshed ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) policy and practice guidance, which is intended for practitioners and service leads in services that work with children, young people and families. This guidance promotes lawful, fair and proportionate information sharing that complies with all relevant legal requirements. The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with stakeholders to better understand local challenges around GIRFEC implementation, including information sharing, in order to strengthen its consistent, high-quality application across Scotland.

The National Care Service Bill, as introduced, contained two critical provisions, section 36 (information sharing) and section 37 (information standards), within part 2 of the bill to support our data and digital infrastructure across health and care in Scotland. Section 36, as introduced, sets out the power of Scottish Ministers, by way of regulations, to establish a scheme for sharing information in order that public health and social care services can be provided efficiently and effectively. This will allow safe, secure and efficient sharing of social care and health data across relevant care settings, including with the individual and will ensure up-to-date information is available to those who support and provide care.

We have provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community mental health and wellbeing services for children, young people and their families. This investment will continue with the baselining of £15 million per annum funding into the local government finance settlement from 2025-26.

The community-based supports and services are focused on prevention and early intervention, promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, and tackling emotional distress. Supports and services are available in every local authority area, and more than 300 have been put in place across the country, including supports for trauma, anxiety and depression. Local authorities have reported that nearly 83,000 people used the supports and services between July 2023 and March 2024, including more than 10,000 family members and carers.

In addition, we continue to provide £16 million a year to local authorities to ensure that all school pupils aged 10 and above have access to school counselling services, and local authorities have confirmed that services are in place across Scotland. We have also supported school staff to understand and recognise the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience through a professional resource, which complements 2021 guidance to support whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) service specification highlights that all children and families should receive support and services that are appropriate to their needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible. We continue to work with NHS boards to monitor the service specification’s implementation, to improve services and support for children and young people and their families.

We continue to invest in mental health services for children and young people and we have directly allocated £123 million to NHS boards and integration joint boards for a new enhanced mental health outcomes framework in 2024-25. The framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, including CAMHS. The priorities for the funding this year are to continue delivering improvements in CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorders and neurodevelopmental services, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform for mental health services.

Although there is a clear legal framework within which allocation policies must operate, local authorities have considerable discretion within these constraints to develop their allocation policy and practice to meet the needs of the communities in which they operate.

The code of guidance on homelessness aims to guide local authorities in their duties to assist people who are threatened with or who are experiencing homelessness. It sets out that local authority staff should ensure that accommodation and services are offered on the basis of a thorough assessment of the applicant's support or health needs and that these needs are addressed in a holistic fashion. We remain committed to a fuller review of the code of guidance on homelessness, in consultation with stakeholders – including those who represent the interests of children – once the new homelessness prevention measures have been introduced.

The Scottish Social Housing Charter sets out the outcomes and standards that all social landlords should be delivering for their tenants and other customers. This includes an outcome (outcome 12) that describes what councils should achieve by meeting their statutory duties to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Scottish Ministers will review the current charter in 2026-27 in consultation with stakeholders and this will provide an opportunity to ensure the charter continues to focus on matters that are important to tenants and others that use social landlord services.