Thank you, convener. This report looks at children and young people’s mental health services across Scotland.
Services are under significant pressure. Demand is increasing. Over the past five years, the number of referrals to specialist services has increased by 22 per cent. Children and young people are also waiting longer for treatment, with over a quarter of those who started treatment in the last year waiting more than 18 weeks.
The Scottish Government’s mental health strategy focuses on early intervention, but in practice this is limited. The current system is geared towards specialist care and responding to crisis, rather than identifying young people with issues and helping them at an early stage. Access to early intervention services such as school counselling varies across Scotland.
The system is also complex and fragmented, making it difficult for children and young people to get the support they need when they need it. Accessing the right services needs to be easier for children and young people, their parents and carers and the professionals who work with them.
We found examples of good practice and projects aimed at improving services. The challenge is how to sustain improvements in the longer term, especially when projects rely on short-term funding.
Data on spending, performance and outcomes is limited. We do not know with any accuracy how much is spent on mental health services for children and young people, or what impact that spending has. The information that we have indicates that it is a small proportion of overall mental health spending.
Without a clearer picture of what Is happening across all four tiers of the system, it will be hard to make the improvements that are needed. That will require the Scottish Government, national health service boards, councils, integration authorities and voluntary organisations to work together with children and young people to bring about a step change in how support is provided.
As always, my colleagues and I will do our best to answer the committee’s questions.