We aim to ensure that all children and young people in Scotland have access to appropriate support for their mental health, at the right time, without stigma. We know that the Covid-19 pandemic has been exceptionally difficult for the mental health and wellbeing of many children, young people and their families.

Last year, we provided local authorities with £15 million to fund new and enhanced community-based mental health supports for children and young people. We will issue a further £15 million to councils this year, with almost £1.8 million going to the local authorities in Lanarkshire.

The services include supports for positive mental wellbeing as well as emotional distress, and are focussed on prevention and early intervention. The funding gives councils the flexibility to implement supports on the basis of local priorities. Establishing these services is a significant step forward in supporting the mental health of our children and young people; making sure they receive the help they need when they need it.

There are currently twenty community-based services in place across Lanarkshire, with further supports in development. For example, North Lanarkshire Council have put in place the ‘Active & Creative Communities’ projects, which offer sporting activities that promote mental health and wellbeing for children and young people aged nine and over. These include ‘Street Soccer’, a targeted resource supported by youth workers and coaches who can offer mentoring and link young people into other supports to help meet their wellbeing needs.

In South Lanarkshire, the ‘early help hub’ provides strengths-based support to families by listening to what they need at the earliest opportunity and ensuring they are on a pathway that meets their needs. Instead of waiting until families meet social work intervention thresholds, the hub works alongside families to determine what interventions may prevent problems escalating.

The local authorities in Lanarkshire have advised us that over 3,250 children and young people used community-based services in the region, in the second half of last year.

In addition, advice and support to parents with young children is available throughout Scotland through the ‘Wellbeing for Wee Ones Hub’ on Parent Club and the ‘Solihull Online child development programmes’. These resources provide families with young children with easy ways to support their mental health and wellbeing.

We also continue to invest in a range of measures to support children and young people in looking after their own mental health and wellbeing. This includes providing enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing available via the ‘Aye Feel’ website and social marketing campaigns, managed by Young Scot and through the ‘Mind Yer Time’ resource supported by the Scottish Youth Parliament.

CalMac Ferries ltd is not listed as a Relevant Authority in the Islands (Scotland) Act, and is therefore not subject to duties under the Act.

At the present time 25 of these diesel trains operate between Scotland’s key cities and their replacement is planned with electric or bi-mode intercity trains at the earliest possible time, which is expected to be when Network Rail has completed the electrification of all or most of the routes they serve.

The current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract is due to expire in September 2024. Development and planning work is currently underway by officials to consider potential options for future contracts and to create an engagement plan for key stakeholders and local communities.

This work would usually be at a more refined stage but has been impacted largely due to staff resources being redeployed over the past two years to manage the challenges presented by the Covid -19 pandemic. We will be announcing further detail in due course.

Following the pandemic and the move to a publicly owned ScotRail we are committed to encouraging people to return to our railway. We now have the opportunity to ensure that passenger services reflect changing passenger needs and travel behaviours whilst restoring the financial sustainability of rail services in Scotland.

On 9 May, I launched ScotRail’s 50 per cent off peak ticket offer. This fares offer, funded by the Scottish Government, is the latest ‘Yours to Use’ initiative and is focused on welcoming customers back to rail as the country continues to recover from the pandemic.

The 50 per cent off tickets can be purchased in the following ways:

• Online at scotrail.co.uk/sale
• By phone on 0344 811 0153
• Via the ScotRail app, using the promo code SRSALE in the railcards/promotions field

Earlier this year, I announced that our National Rail Conversation will offer rail staff, passengers and communities an opportunity to contribute to the future Vision of Scotland’s Railway. This will help us to fully understand what the people of Scotland want and need when it comes to choosing rail as their mode of choice.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

In 2021-22, through our Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, we allocated around £40 million to NHS Boards across Scotland to improve their Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Neurodevelopmental services for children and young people.

The Scottish Government understands that delivering service improvements can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability. Therefore to support this, £3.06 million from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund was allocated to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to build professional capacity within Boards to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Against a backdrop of a 6% increase in NHS Psychology staffing in 2021, we are also working in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland and NHS Boards to undertake a UK level National Psychology Recruitment drive. In addition, we are increasing the student intake for Psychology Masters and Doctorate training programmes and creating new roles, and Enhanced Psychology Practitioners in primary care, community, early years, and schools. These professionals can support the delivery of the National Neurodevelopment Specification, including contributing to diagnosis, but also importantly in training and support for universal services and delivering family support interventions tailored for children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Alongside the important role played by psychologists, other registered health and social work professionals can be trained in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnostic tools such as Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), and provide ASD assessment, contributing to diagnosis. Diagnosis is recommended from at least 2 professionals using a number of information sources, including parental reports.

NHS Scotland expenditure on mental health, including children and adolescents, is reported in the Scottish Health Service Costs , published annually by ISD Scotland.

Expenditure in financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21 in NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Dumfries and Galloway, identified as relating to mental health services delivered in hospitals or in the community aimed specifically at children and adolescents, is shown in Table 1. The financial resource allocated to reduce waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is not held by Public Health Scotland.

Table 1:

The Scottish Government national standard is that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. The publication for CAMHS waiting times for the quarter ending December 2021 can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

Table 1 shows the total number of patients seen for first treatment following referral to CAMH Services in NHS Lanarkshire and the percentage seen within 18 weeks for the latest published data for quarter ending December 2021.

Table 1 : Total number of patients seen and waiting times from referral to treatment, quarter ending 31 December 2021, NHS Lanarkshire

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-08215 and S6W-08217 on 10 May 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers