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Health and Community Care Committee, 15 Jan 2003

15 Jan 2003 · S1 · Health and Community Care Committee

Item of business

Mental Health (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Barrie, Scott Lab Dunfermline West Watch on SPTV

I have listened carefully to what the minister has said about the three amendments in my name. She said that some of what they try to achieve is already covered by section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. One of the difficulties that local authorities and other agencies have had in relation to the implementation of that section relates to the definition of "children in need", the guidance that accompanied the act notwithstanding. It is possible to define almost any child as being in need of a particular service. In a world of scarce resources, particularly in relation to health and social work, it can be difficult to work out which people are more deserving of a service. That has been a particular problem with mental health services because of the lack of services for children and adolescents.Sometimes, children with specific mental and psychiatric conditions lose out because they fall into the broad category of people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties unless their mental condition is specifically mentioned as part of their disorder. Amendments 237 and 238 try to ensure that that small minority of young people do not lose out and go on to develop more serious conditions later in life, which is what I was talking about last week. Many people who are involved with adult psychiatric services would not have ended up in that situation if they had been helped at an earlier stage.If there is another way of ensuring that the aim of my amendments is achieved—I listened carefully to what the minister said about other legislation in relation to amendment 239—I would accept that that might be more appropriate. However, the aspect of working together is important. One way of ensuring that that happens is through the development of children's services plans, although I acknowledge that that is not in the minister's remit. In some parts of Scotland, local authorities and their partner agencies have worked closely together to come up with incredibly comprehensive and well-thought-through children's services plans, but that has not happened in other parts of Scotland. That might be a route by which some of what I am talking about might be achieved; it does not have to be done through primary legislation but can be dealt with in legislation that governs things that local authorities and other statutory and voluntary agencies need to do. It would be good if there were some sort of guidance to ensure that the mental health needs of young people were adequately reflected in children's services plans, which local authorities are required to have by the 1995 act. Perhaps the minister could feed that suggestion through to other ministers.