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
Haylis Smith
Watch on SPTV
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 been a new element of the campaign by FC United, which targets men through football. We are doing work on how those campaigns target specific groups, recognising that tackling inequalities is part of our vision and one of our guiding principles. Those campaigns are one way of identifying work and targeting work at specific groups. We held an event at the end of November last year, which we called building connections, which is us recognising that we have not always got this right, but we want to do better. We brought together a wide range of trusted organisations that work with people with protected characteristics or with people who face stigma, discrimination and inequalities, to hear from them about how we can better work with them to help support those communities. We are working now to deliver new sessions over the course of this year, and we have some planned to focus on work around specific groups. The work that I described earlier with the SCDC, on community-led action research, will target two groups of populations of interest this year. We are beginning to build our understanding of what work needs to be done to support those groups. Another area, which Morag Williamson touched on, is building our understanding of what the contributing factors to suicide are. We are building in work to review deaths by suicide. We are bringing in a new system that will help to collect that information, which will help local areas to identify gaps in provision and support for people. That will also help us at a national level to shape the work that we do in the coming years and help us to understand better what we need to do.
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...