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I welcome this debate on a topic that is rarely discussed so openly in the Parliament, and I welcome some of the honest debate from members today.

I am sure that, for many, the opportunity to see these issues addressed at a national level will be refreshing, and I trust that we will continue to shine a light on these very serious matters in the weeks and months to come.

I know that many teachers and support staff have raised concerns with all of us about this very subject—as we have heard—and they are right to do so. Not enough is being done. I believe that councils would love to do a lot more to help if only they had the resources to do so, which is at the heart of the matter that we are discussing.

In fact, I have spoken to a number of teachers who have reported incidents in which they genuinely feared that that they or a pupil would be seriously harmed. What is really remarkable is that, in those cases, the teacher’s primary concern was the wellbeing of the pupil and what had led them to act in that way. That tells us a lot about the caring and professional workforce that we have.

In many such cases, the problem is rooted in emotional and mental health needs and a lack of provision for young people when they need it most. Much of that stems from the serious poverty and neglect that are evident in parts of our country, which are often hidden but are always there.

I am sure that many of you know that we have young people living lives that would be unimaginable to most of us and to most people in our constituencies and regions. That all contributes directly to worsening emotional, mental and physical health across the country.

I am sure that the cabinet secretary will agree that there is a crossover of briefs here. She does not need me to remind her that, currently, only 70 per cent of children and young people are seen within 18 weeks of a mental health referral, which is well short of the Government’s already modest target of 90 per cent. That is happening in a climate in which more than 10,000 children and young people were referred to child and adolescent mental health services in quarter 4 of 2022 alone. That equates to thousands of children who are waiting endlessly for referral, and even those who receive one are often waiting well beyond the point that they can bear.

I am sure that the cabinet secretary will recognise that the toll that such waiting times and lack of support are taking on young people is often intolerable. Teachers see the result of those difficulties day after day, yet, as we have said, selflessly, they continue to serve.

I am afraid to say that the Government is letting young people and the school workforces down, and a little bit of honesty is needed. The Government has failed to deliver on class sizes, teacher non-contact time, support for pupils with additional support needs and mental health support for young people. It has also failed to address harmful online content, continuing inequalities and cuts to youth services. Our teachers and young people deserve better. They need more action, with greater urgency, to address those challenges.

The cabinet secretary has said in the chamber that she is aware of how teachers feel. I am sure that she knows that teachers are overworked, overtired and, in many cases, lacking the necessary support staff to assist them in increasingly difficult classrooms.

Trade unions have been pointing out these issues for years, often with no significant response from the Government. Education unions and others have repeatedly raised how vulnerable many teachers and staff are to assault or worse.

I am sure that we are all genuinely fearful that the problem could go further if we do not take it more seriously. We know of some of the harrowing and sometimes tragic experiences that teachers face across the United Kingdom—some of those have been mentioned today. There is no room for complacency. We cannot assume that things that are happening in other parts of the UK will not happen in Scotland. We are facing a serious challenge and we must act now.

A summit is welcome, but it is not enough on its own. We need to ensure that the experiences that have been set out in the chamber today and by those with lived experience are listened to, but, more important, acted on.

Teachers are workers just like anyone else and they deserve the same level of respect and consideration that we would offer to anyone in a workplace and, indeed, to anyone in our family.

We need to raise awareness among parents and pupils that this is a real and prevailing situation that requires every effort from people across the board. For the situation to be considered in a meaningful way, we must engage pupils, parents and professionals.

I reiterate that it is welcome that we are having this debate, but it should have been on Government time. Although today’s debate is useful, it is important that the Government raises the topic again, as we are running out of time to act. I thank all members for their contributions.

Thank you. Laura Skaife-Knight, you are quite new in but does anything spring to mind?

Have any of you had information about when we might get some movement on the set-up of the system? Have you had anything through the health boards? You indicate that you have not.

My question is linked and is about socioeconomic factors and deprivation. Lynne Glen’s points were well made. Do you or other panel members want to highlight anything that we can consider when we think about how to help?

Gordon Jamieson, is there anything that you would like to add?

That is helpful—thank you.

Thank you for all the detailed information. My question might give you a chance to give us some homework. The Scottish Government has committed to the development of a national centre for remote and rural healthcare for Scotland. What might your aspirations for such a centre be?

The committee has also committed to trying to undertake an inquiry into remote and rural healthcare. Do you have anything that we should specifically direct it to? Please give us some work to do.

Is there anything that is particular to women and girls, or is the issue more general? Do some socioeconomic factors specifically affect women and girls?

That is helpful. Thank you very much.

Despite the harrowing stories from today’s debate, I am pleased to be closing it on behalf of Scottish Labour. Why? Because the Government needs to be held to account. Given the minister’s contribution, it is absolutely right that we in Labour focus in our time to lead debates in the chamber on the crisis in mental health that is impacting so many across our country and putting significant pressure on NHS and community services.

The minister is new to post and “confident”, and I hope that she delivers. However, after reading the SNP amendment and listening to the minister’s contributions, people could be forgiven for thinking that all was well with the provision of mental health services in Scotland, but there has been a failure by the Government, and we need to be honest about that. I ask back-bench SNP members to be honest, because part of their role is to hold their front-bench colleagues to account. Yet again, the SNP pats itself on the back, blames every factor other than the obvious one—its governance—and still refuses to see the urgent need for systemic change in this area.

Across the chamber, we all agree that nothing is more important than the wellbeing of our population. That includes their physical, economic and social wellbeing; critically, it also includes their mental wellbeing. As we have heard in the debate, and as is set out in Labour’s motion, there are almost 30,000 children, young people and adults on waiting lists. Adults from our most deprived areas are more likely to experience anxiety and depression and, tragically, are more likely to die from suicide.

Despite all that, the key commitment to hire 1,000 mental health specialists to help to improve community mental health services has not even started to be delivered. That is not representative of a Government that prioritises mental health treatment. It is representative of a Government whose inability to address staff shortages undermines efforts to improve care—a Government that is no stranger to a strategy but which has a poor relationship with delivery.

As my colleague Jackie Baillie mentioned, and as our motion says, the number of mental health-related calls to NHS 24 was almost seven times higher in 2022 than it was in 2019. We all accept that the pandemic had a significant role to play in that, but it would be disingenuous to suggest that that is when the problem started. The challenges that we face today with the delivery of mental health services in Scotland are a result of long-term inaction by the Scottish Government. Our communities, our mental health workforce and our patients deserve so much more.

We must all echo the call of my colleague Jackie Baillie for at least 11 per cent of the overall NHS budget to be directed towards mental health services. I urge the Government to look at that again. I also ask the minister to address the question that my colleague asked about the research and analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Proportionately, Scotland’s mental health budget is less now than it was a decade ago. Will the SNP Government address that?

We must also look at how the budget can be targeted and our investment focused on community-based services. As well as having a focus on early intervention and CAMHS for our young people, we need to address the root cause of the loneliness and isolation that members of our elderly population experience. Such targeted spending must be underpinned by a willingness to support people in our most deprived areas to tackle the prominent and divisive health inequalities that exist in Scotland.

Our call for the provision of a dedicated mental health worker in every GP practice and a mental health A and E department in every health board so that patients can be fast-tracked should not be seen as controversial. The minister should get behind some of the suggestions that have been made.

The crisis in mental health treatment in Scotland is concerning and damaging. Time and again, it is our most vulnerable who are let down by the Scottish Government. It knows—as, I am sure, do SNP back benchers—that its performance in this area has been unacceptable. We must be honest and look to shift in the right direction. More warm words and self-congratulatory comments will not cut it. The mental health crisis demands action, and if the SNP will not deliver, it should step aside, because someone has to.