Seòmar agus comataidhean

There will be a huge amount of modelling in various areas. Some of that work is on-going, and we will continue to look at the results from the analysis. Obviously, a huge amount of work needs to be done in looking at the 1,300 or thereabouts responses and everything else that has come in from consultation events. I can assure the committee that a lot of work is going on, because we have to get it right.

I can also reassure the committee that—as was the case in my previous role—I am happy to come back to the committee to deal with such issues subject by subject if necessary, because that is how we get good legislation. I say to Ms Webber and every member around the table that there will be a lot of hard graft, because I am determined to get this right.

Can I tackle that point, because it is a big question, although it was a shorter sentence than Mr O’Kane’s previous point.

Some solutions have to be found locally. That is why we are having conversations with partners across the country to mobilise everything and to ensure that we do the right thing.

We do not have the luxury of not involving everyone. There must be collaboration and co-operation between Government, local authorities, health and social care partnerships, NHS boards and the third sector so that we can do our level best for everyone in these precarious times.

The cabinet secretary, Humza Yousaf, recently announced additional resources for hospital at home. It is a great way forward. I recently had the pleasure of meeting teams in Edinburgh and Lanarkshire. The deputy chief medical officer, Graham Ellis, is from Lanarkshire and has been a great advocate for hospital at home. That is why we are investing to expand the programme further, which is a good thing.

I cannot give the retention numbers off the top of my head, but we will furnish the committee with that information.

I have spoken to a lot of social workers. Last week, I spoke to criminal justice social workers, and I have spoken to social workers in children and families services and adult services over the past few weeks and months. It would be fair to say that there is a lot of pressure on them, as there is on everyone else, and things have been very difficult for them at points, particularly during the lockdown periods, because of the way that they work. However, folks have behaved admirably, and they have done amazing things over the piece.

In conversations with social workers, one of the key messages from them is that front-line staff should be more empowered. We must do that. Social workers sometimes feel that they are the poor relation of other professions, and we have to change that. Part of the conversation in the consultation is about whether we should move to a social work agency, which was Derek Feeley’s suggestion. There is that issue to consider, and we will look at the analysis on that issue.

One big bugbear of social workers is that they feel bound by the eligibility criteria, which are often set locally. As I said, we must work with COSLA in the short term to eradicate some of that, because we are not doing good by the professionals and front-line staff, or by the individuals and families whom they serve.

There is much that we need to do there. I touched on that earlier with regard to our ambition and vision for this parliamentary term to put mental health link workers into GP surgeries. I know—as others around the table will know—that, where that has happened already in pilot schemes, it has made a huge difference in relation to linkages. There is absolutely no doubt about that. That will make a big difference as we move forward, and we will talk more about that in the very near future.

Sure. Each local authority has done things slightly differently. There will be a lot of learning from that, because we will be able to see where performance is better, and to export and share best practice.

We have also provided local authorities with moneys for prevention work with young people. I have been keeping a close eye on that. Some local authorities have moved quickly to support services and to establish new services where they are required, while others are lagging behind; I am afraid to say that a few local authorities have not done very much at all. We are keeping a close eye on that, because I want to ensure that investment reaches the community groups that were—and still are—at the front line during lockdown. They have done great work in preventing young folk from entering acute services.

We need to look at a number of things. I have already mentioned that we will be doubling the budget over the course of this parliamentary session, and we have to ensure that every penny is well spent. At the moment, we have pilots going on in Ayrshire and Highland to support folks with experience of suicide. I think that the findings from those pilots will be very important and that they might well lead to a national roll-out.

I am also really keen to explore how much more we can do in communities. I have already mentioned the St Mirren event, but I have recently come into contact with a lot of small groups that are doing sterling work. The question is how we can build on that work.

Yesterday morning, I met the family of Chris Mitchell, who are trustees of the Chris Mitchell Foundation. Chris was a footballer whose professional career ended because of injury and who then carried out suicide. Some of the work that the foundation has been doing with football clubs could be expanded. Indeed, the Scottish Professional Football League has been carrying out other work that we should be building on. The fact is that we need to reach certain areas of the population that our normal health messaging sometimes does not get to, and we have to continue to adapt and think outside the box with regard to what is required in order to get this right.

There is work to do, but we should also recognise the immense partnership involving the Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the national suicide prevention leadership group.

One of the reasons for establishing the communities mental health fund, which we announced the other week, is to ensure that those kinds of groups can access funding. There is plenty of detail on the fund, and there will be more such detail that we will share with the committee. To be honest, I want those grass-roots groups to apply for that funding. That is why it is there.

That is absolutely vital. Let me give you examples of some of the cross-cutting work that we have done in the past couple of weeks. The committee will be well aware that, the other week, I held a joint debate with Angela Constance, the Minister for Drugs Policy, to look at how drugs policy and mental wellbeing work together. In the past couple of weeks, I met the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans on a number of issues but, at our most recent meeting, we looked primarily at what we need to do to improve mental health and mental wellbeing services for veterans in our community. Again, in the past few weeks, I met Jamie Hepburn in his further education role to see what more we need to do to support university and college students.

Mental wellbeing is a cross-cutting issue. The First Minister has made it clear to all her ministers that we should all work together to break down silos so that we are doing our level best for people. Although I have overall responsibility for mental wellbeing, every minister in the Government recognises that they have a role in ensuring that we do our level best for folk as we move out of the pandemic period.