Committee
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 28 May 2024
28 May 2024 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Item of business
Suicide Prevention
Councillor Paul Kelly (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)
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Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to give evidence to the committee. As the voice of local government in Scotland, COSLA has taken a strong position on the importance of mental health and the wellbeing of our communities, as well as the need to tackle inequalities that contribute to suicide risk. We remain committed to working in partnership with the Scottish Government to realise the ambitions of our joint strategies: the mental health and wellbeing strategy, the self-harm strategy and creating hope together, our suicide prevention strategy. I acknowledge the significant progress that has been achieved in Scotland on suicide prevention over the first year of delivering the creating hope together strategy, both in developing its infrastructure and in the level of activity that has been developed and delivered. The establishment of a new delivery model—suicide prevention Scotland, which brings together key partners, sectors and communities at a national and local level—will also contribute significantly to achieving our vision of reducing suicide in Scotland. Our approach to suicide prevention aims to strengthen partnerships across communities, build on the collaboration between local and national work, ensure that the strategy is outcome focused and that lived and living experience remains at the heart of the work. I highlight the importance of the work that is taking place across local areas in Scotland, which supports the delivery of the creating hope together strategy. Local delivery of suicide prevention initiatives in our communities is led by local suicide prevention leads, who are key to driving work across local areas that responds to local needs. The work at that level is supported by locally anchored suicide prevention implementation leads, who are hosted by Public Health Scotland. They play an important role in ensuring that local action plans respond to local need, building connections across regions and helping to shape good practice and learning. More broadly, local authorities provide in communities a wide range of supports that contribute to suicide prevention, including through social work, education, welfare, homelessness and health supports or leisure services, to name a few. That support at a local level, across all preventive factors, is crucial. However, it is becoming more and more challenging for local areas to provide such support with limited resources, particularly as all local government services are under pressure and we continue to see the impact of the cost of living crisis. While celebrating the progress that has been achieved to date, it is crucial that we also acknowledge the challenging financial landscape and the wider system pressures within which the suicide prevention work has to operate. That includes the impact of cuts to core local government budgets, which will affect service provision that might already be in place, leaving a bigger gap between the current position and the asks of the strategy. We must recognise the size of the challenge that is ahead of us in driving forward the ambition of the strategy within the context of a system that is extremely stretched. Driving the work forward will require effective partnership working across all levels of society and sufficient capacity and resources to support our vision to reduce suicide deaths in Scotland, while tackling inequalities. The strategy’s whole of Government and society approach reflects the shared responsibility to prevent suicide, which must span right across society, recognising that no single agency can deliver on the suicide prevention agenda and that a collective approach is needed across public, private and third sectors. That will help us to realise the ambition that suicide prevention is everyone’s business. Local government is committed to continuing to work in close partnership with the Scottish Government and our partners across all sectors in order to reduce suicide in Scotland and tackle the inequalities that contribute to suicide risk. I look forward to discussing that in more detail in today’s session.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Our next agenda item is an evidence session with the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on suicide prevention in Scotland. ...
The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport (Maree Todd)
SNP
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 suici...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you, minister. Councillor Kelly, I invite you to make your opening remarks.
Councillor Paul Kelly (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to give evidence to the committee. As the voice of local government in Scotland, COSLA has taken a strong po...
The Convener
SNP
I will ask the first question. During our evidence sessions, it has been noted that death by suicide increased over the course of the every life matters stra...
Maree Todd
SNP
I am happy to start, and I think that Morag Williamson will probably want to come in and contribute a little as well. A number of things are significantly d...
Morag Williamson (Scottish Government)
You are asking about the trends that we saw over the course of the every life matters strategy and what that meant for how we developed the creating hope tog...
The Convener
SNP
The focus on inequalities could be quite challenging in the circumstances that we are in. What challenges do you foresee being the hardest to overcome?
Maree Todd
SNP
It is clear that poverty increases suicide risk—the link between the two is clear—and it is very challenging to tackle poverty in this environment. We have h...
The Convener
SNP
I put the same question to Councillor Kelly. What has been learned from the previous strategy, and what challenges might arise in tackling inequalities?
Councillor Kelly
The create hope together strategy has, as Morag Williamson covered, taken many important and successful elements of the previous strategy and embedded them. ...
Marie McNair (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP)
SNP
Some of my questions have been touched on, so I will just move on. Over the past few weeks, we have spoken with witnesses who have raised the issue of suicid...
Maree Todd
SNP
As you might imagine, as I represent Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, that issue is very close to my heart. Work is being done in collaboration with Samaritan...
Marie McNair
SNP
Councillor Kelly, is there anything that you or your colleagues from COSLA want to add?
Councillor Kelly
It is vital that we address the socialisation and rural aspects as part of the strategy. The same goes for the many issues that relate to specific groups and...
Eddie Follan (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)
I echo that. In response to the convener’s first question, one of the differences is that the every life matters strategy is a joint strategy: it is about na...
Haylis Smith (Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)
We meet local leads regularly on a monthly basis. They are able to help us to shape what we are doing nationally and are embedded in that work, regardless of...
Marie McNair
SNP
We also heard—apologies, go ahead, Morag.
Morag Williamson
We all want to have a go at this one. We were very thoughtful about the rural dimension when we were developing the strategy. One of our guiding principles...
Marie McNair
SNP
We have heard about the increased risk to people who are in prison and about the issues with getting adequate support when they move on from prison. Could yo...
Councillor Kelly
That is part of the work that is done when someone leaves prison. Support for them can be available through local authorities, which should be reflected in a...
Haylis Smith
Public Health Scotland is leading work to look at action plans for high-risk settings, such as prisons. I am working alongside colleagues in the Scottish Pri...
Marie McNair
SNP
Do you know of any charities that work specifically with people who are leaving prison? Sorry to put you on the spot. If you do not have the information, I t...
Haylis Smith
I do not have the information to hand. We recently visited HM Prison Edinburgh and spoke a lot with the Barnardo’s service there that supports families of pr...
Marie McNair
SNP
That would be really helpful. Thank you.
Maree Todd
SNP
We can certainly look at the work that we do alongside charities that work with prisoners. From previous roles in the Government, I know about the work that ...
Marie McNair
SNP
Holistic support is really important as well.
Paul O’Kane (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Good morning to the witnesses. I will focus on the potential impacts of the strategy for groups that are disproportionately impacted by suicide. In the evide...
Maree Todd
SNP
I am happy to start, but I am pretty sure that nearly everyone will want to contribute. We agree that it is not appropriate to take a one-size-fits-all appr...
Haylis Smith
There are a number of areas that we are looking at. The minister mentioned the changing rooms programme and its focus on football. Just recently, there has b...