Hansard

I begin by welcoming the committee’s inquiry. Tragically, suicide continues to impact all parts of society, so we all have a role to play in preventing suicide. That includes us individually as MSPs and collectively as a Parliament. Suicide is, indeed, everyone’s business. I strongly believe that we must all talk more openly about suicide and deepen our understanding of its complexity. By doing that, we can tackle the stigma that surrounds suicide and help to find new ways to support people when they have thoughts of suicide. I am very proud of the work that is happening right across Scotland to reduce suicide and I want to record my personal thanks to everyone who is already playing their part in helping to keep people safe and to support their recovery. I am impressed with the volume and range of evidence that the committee has already considered and I am pleased that our creating hope together suicide prevention strategy, has been described as “innovative” and “ambitious.” The strategy was developed through Scotland-wide collaboration with communities and the many partners who are working to prevent suicide. Listening to people with lived experience of suicide was key, as was learning from the past 20 years of suicide prevention in Scotland and around the world. That helped us to understand how Scotland’s approach could be more progressive. First, the strategy recognises the importance of creating societal shifts, which we describe as outcomes, so that our environment protects against suicide, we are all better equipped to respond to someone who may be suicidal, and that anyone who is or has been affected by suicide in any way gets the right support. Secondly, we must tackle the inequalities and life circumstances that increase suicide risk, which are often called “social determinants”. Those include people living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, or living with addiction; people having care experience; having been in prison; and being LGBT, neurodivergent, or coming from some minority ethnic communities. Much of Government’s policy and investment are already addressing those factors by, for example, tackling child poverty through our progressive Scottish child payment; addressing unemployment through our multimillion-pound investment in employability services; supporting people who are affected by substance use through our national mission; and improving Scotland’s mental health and wellbeing through the delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy, including through evidence-based approaches such as our world-leading distress brief intervention programme and action on self-harm. Although those policies are already helping to prevent suicide, we are going further by actively weaving suicide prevention into wider action across Government and society. I will talk about our progress on delivering our strategy. Our first annual report will be published this summer, with an assessment from our national suicide prevention advisory group, whose members represent and advocate for many of the groups that are disproportionately affected by suicide. I will touch on a few highlights. We have improved suicide awareness and the availability of peer support across our communities, used clinical evidence and our “Time Space Compassion” approach to suicidal crisis to drive improvements in statutory services and created new systems to capture data and evidence so that we can seize every opportunity to intervene and support someone who is suicidal. For example, we have introduced a suicide review and learning system. The progress has been achieved thanks to our new collective delivery model, suicide prevention Scotland, which brings together partners and communities across Scotland to collaborate and learn about suicide prevention. It also includes our strategic outcomes lead partners, Samaritans Scotland, Scottish Action on Mental Health, Penumbra, Change Mental Health and Public Health Scotland, which are bringing their valuable leadership and expertise to bear to support delivery. Looking ahead, our delivery plan for 2024-25 will be published shortly. That plan will continue the breadth and pace of work, including our drive to meet the needs of people who are at higher risk of suicide. It is backed by a significant commitment to double our investment in suicide prevention to £2.8 million by 2026, which is well on track. The wider financial context is extremely challenging, and I am sure that we will discuss how Government is continuing to prioritise mental health. I thank our lived and living experience panels, whose unique insights continue to direct all our work. I restate the strategy’s aim, which is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life or is affected by suicide to get the help that they need and feel a sense of hope. I put on record the correct annual cost of the suicide bereavement support service, which is £309,688 in 2024-25. I look forward to our discussion and the outcome of the inquiry, which is welcome.