Chamber and committees

Latest available data published in February 2024 by Public Health Scotland in the Scottish Health Service Costs book confirmed that NHS expenditure on child and adolescent mental health rose from £97.9 million in 2021-22 to £114.8 million in 2022-23, an increase of £16.9 million or 17% - representing 0.75% of total NHS expenditure.

We continue to work with NHS Boards and Integration Joint Boards towards delivery of the commitment that at least 1% of their frontline health spending will be dedicated to child and adolescent mental health by the end of this parliamentary session.

Community views are an essential part of informing future service options. The community feedback gathered at engagement events in Kilcreggan on the 1st of October, Dunoon on the 2nd of October, and Gourock on the 3rd of October, along with the online user survey outcomes, is currently being analysed as part of the appraisal of the possible options. No decisions on the future service design of the Gourock-Dunoon and Gourock-Kilcreggan routes have been made at this stage.

The Gourock Dunoon Kilcreggan Infrastructure and Vessels Programme is working to develop resilient vessel and port design options. Preferred vessel options will be considered as part of the associated business case and any investment in new vessels and infrastructure will be subject to value for money and affordability considerations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31114 on 15 November 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Latest available data published in February 2024 by Public Health Scotland in the Scottish Health Service Costs book confirmed that NHS expenditure on mental health rose from £1.282 billion in 2021-22 to £1.307 billion in 2022-23, an increase of £25.1 million or 2% - representing 8.53% of total NHS expenditure.

We continue to work with NHS Boards and Integration Joint Boards towards delivery of the commitment that at least 10% of their frontline health spending will be dedicated to mental health by the end of this parliamentary session.

As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We remain committed to delivering increased mental health and wellbeing capacity in primary care and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan sets out a range of actions to achieve the ambition in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy to drive a shift in the balance of care across mental health to ensure a focus on prevention and early intervention in the community, including a focus on providing high quality mental health care within General Practice.

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019: Overview - Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019: overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) commenced on April 2024, the Act places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

Under the Act, there is a Duty on Health Boards to submit a report on how they complied with their legislative requirements. Following this, Scottish Ministers must publish these reports alongside setting out how they have taken into account and plan to take into account, in their policies for the staffing of health service, the information included in the combined report. The first Health Board Annual Reports are due 30 April 2025.

In addition to our investment in policing, to strengthen our approach to address violence, in May 2023, we published a Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland. This sets out our strategy to prevent violence, and where it does occur, to reduce the harm. The Framework takes a public health approach to tackling violence, with a focus on prevention at a primary, secondary and tertiary level. By using the research and available evidence, in collaboration with our partner organisations we can target those most at risk of experiencing violence (victim and perpetrator), as early as possible.

Through the Framework’s Action Plan, we are delivering a range of activity to prevent and divert people away from violence, supported by over £2m investment this year.

Funding is supporting partner organisations to carry out a range of activities in schools, hospitals and across communities to prevent and respond to people at risk of experiencing or engaging in violence. This activity is being taken forward by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence, YouthLink Scotland, Education Scotland and Police Scotland Youth Volunteers.

A progress update outlining some of the activity carried out over the first year of the Framework was published on 11 September 2024.

Tackling all forms of violence including knife crime is a key priority for this government.

Law enforcement and prosecution are essential in our overall approach to tackling violence, including knife crime. In addition to this, Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework uses a public health approach to address violence, including knife crime, that focuses on identifying and tackling the underlying root causes of violence. We want to prevent people from picking up a knife in the first instance.

Through the Framework and our partner organisations, a range of activity is being taken forward to divert people away from violence, including reducing knife crime. This includes supporting and monitoring the effectiveness and progress being achieved on the following;

• YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme which provides training to practitioners and engages directly with young people on the risks and consequences of violence including knife crime.
• Medics Against Violence’s schools education programme, which delivers violence prevention lessons within schools and other settings.
• The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit are working within communities to provide violence prevention training including the carrying and use of weapons.

We will also utilise national statistics to monitor levels of handling offensive weapon crimes, which includes knife carrying and would hope to maintain the improvements we have seen over the longer term.

As part of implementation of the Framework, we committed to developing a Measurement Framework which will monitor high-level progress towards the Framework’s vision over the long term. This will be published following publication of the findings from the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in 2025, thereby aligning it with the very latest national data available on violence victimisation.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing requirements are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board. Recruitment is a matter for health boards who will take into account turnover, retention, absence rates and budgets when making recruitment decisions. This can mean that vacancies fluctuate across boards and by specialism. It is for health boards to ensure safe and effective staffing levels, and recruit to these to provide services.