Meeting of the Parliament 13 June 2018
I thank the Liberal Democrats for bringing this timely and important debate to the chamber. I say right at the outset that we will be supporting their motion today. We will also be supporting Annie Wells’s amendment, but sadly we will be voting against the Government’s amendment, because although we welcome much of what is in it, it is a complacent amendment that fails to recognise the Government’s failures and fails to provide a coherent, long-term strategy to get to grips with the long-term impact of mental health services.
The debate comes just a few weeks after we debated the appalling situation with mental health services in Tayside, so perhaps the minister can give us an update on the progress with that. Do we yet have terms of reference and the appointment of an independent chair who has the confidence of the families? Perhaps she can address that in her closing remarks.
The debate also comes hot on the heels of some of the most appalling, distressing, shocking and shameful statistics on the time that mental health patients have to wait to get treatment under this Government, under the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, and under the Minister for Mental Health. More than 1,000 children are waiting longer than they should. Thousands of children have been rejected after being referred for help by their GP. Thousands of adults are waiting longer than the expected standard.
Although I welcome the fact that we have a Minister for Mental Health, that alone is not good enough. It is not good enough to have the symbolism of a minister. It is delivery that matters. It is the workforce that matters. It is services that matter. Most important of all, it is patients that matter.
However, in Scotland today, under the current Government, the number of children with recorded mental health problems in schools more than doubled between 2012 and 2016. In CAMHS, 1,147 young people waited longer than they should have for treatment in the first three months of 2018 alone. That is an increase of 60 per cent on the same period last year. A 60 per cent increase in one year is not a record of improvement; it is a shameful record.