Meeting of the Parliament 09 December 2015
Mr Hume raised that point in his speech. I am just coming to the subject, so I will address his point in a moment.
The services that I mentioned are vital in helping survivors to access the range of support that they so desperately need. That is why, in the past few days, 20 organisations have been notified that they have been successful in securing funding of almost £1 million for innovative partnership projects. I will be happy to provide details to any member who wants them. I hope that the funding for that range of organisations demonstrates that our approach is not entirely health based or a so-called medical model.
That brings me to the point that Mr Hume made. There is a role for our national health service. He rightly identified some of the challenges that we face in mental health services, and I recognise that we have those challenges. In responding to them, we have invested an additional £100 million over the coming five years into mental health services. We have seen more people being treated through the services that we provide, but I recognise that we have to do more. That £100 million will bring forward a range of services that will offer improvements, including in the area that Mr Hume touched on a moment ago.
We must not forget that, without the dedication and bravery of survivors who have spoken out about their experiences and campaigned relentlessly to have their voices heard, the progress to date could not have been made. Graeme Pearson urged me to listen to the voices of survivors, and of course I assure him that we will always listen and look to respond.
In that regard, there have been some comments about the nature and scope of the inquiry. The original call for an inquiry related to in-care settings, and there was a call to extend it. We have listened to those calls, and the inquiry remit has gone beyond just institutional care to include foster care and other forms of residential care such as independent residential schools.
We would do well to remember that survivors do not always speak with one uniform voice. There are different points of view among survivors, and there are a range of views on the remit of the inquiry and on all the matters that we are discussing today. The remit aims to strike a balance, to seek truth and to address failings, and also to report according to a timescale that is meaningful and acceptable to survivors. Going forward, decisions will be for the chair of the inquiry to make.
I see that I am coming up against the time, so I will move to the final area that I wish to touch on, which is where we go in relation to our funding to support survivors. Over the past year there has been extensive engagement with survivors and the organisations that support them. That has allowed the Scottish Government to take stock of how far we have come and has given us the opportunity to hear survivors’ views about the things that matter to them. In May we announced investment of £13.5 million over five years to expand and enhance the current model of support for survivors of in-care childhood abuse.
Mike Russell was absolutely right to mention the need to focus on outcomes for survivors. That is our approach. The support fund is designed around the personal aspirations and outcomes that survivors wish to see. The fund will enhance and expand the current range of services to give survivors access to the information, resources and support that are important to them in meeting their individual psychological, physical, social, education, employment and housing needs. That list does not represent a medical model of support—it is not an entirely health-based model; it is a model that recognises that the needs of individual survivors will be different and specific to them as individuals.