Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board

Overview

Supporting Children and Young People’s Mental Health remains a high priority for Scottish Government and COSLA as we seek to provide support to those impacted by the pandemic, and address the need to improve mental health services that existed prior to it.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board has been formed to continue to progress the aims of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board which met for the final time in December 2020. The Joint Delivery Board is jointly chaired by COSLA and The Scottish Government and is expected to run until December 2022.

Taking into account the changing needs of our communities, the board will oversee reform across relevant areas of education, health, community and children’s services and wider areas that impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. The board will focus on prevention and early support as well as promotion of good mental health and the services children, young people and their families’ access. The voices and experiences of children, young people and their families will remain central to decision making and service design.

The deliverables have been revised to meet new and ongoing priorities and agreed by Scottish Ministers and COSLA spokespeople and include:

continue to enhance community based support for emotional wellbeing/mental distress through ongoing investment and support for local partnerships
ensure crisis support is available 24/7 to children and young people
support mental health pathways and services for vulnerable children and young people, aligned to the work of the Promise
develop a support programme to enable the implementation of the CAMHS service specifications
agree and support the implementation of a neurodevelopmental service specification/principles and standards of care
developing a programme of education and training to increase the skills and knowledge required by all staff to support children and young people's mental health
work jointly with the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board to consider what is currently available and what is required in the future to support the mental health and wellbeing of 3-5 year olds across Scotland, and produce recommendations for further action
through a selection of appropriate media platforms we will ensure:
o information on the work of programme board reaches stakeholders, young people, parents and families
o information on the interconnecting work of other boards reaches relevant stakeholders
o information on how to access mental health support is available to staff supporting children and young people

Where appropriate the deliverables will be actioned by task and finish groups. Membership of these groups will be tailored to the specific deliverables, bringing together those best able to implement the necessary actions. These groups will also ensure that they connect with relevant groups e.g Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board and the Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

You can listen to an interview with the Chairs about the work of the board or listen to a shorter version.

Research/publications

Related groups

Newsletters

If you would like to sign up for the Joint Delivery Board newsletter please email CYPMHWJointDeliveryBoard@gov.scot

Find out about the work of the Joint Delivery Board

History of the Joint Delivery Board

An overview document detailing the history of the Joint Delivery Board (pdf)

Youth engagement documents

In addition, significant engagement with children, young people, parents and carers has taken place throughout the lifetime of the board. This has aimed to reach a wide demographic of children and young people, including seldom-heard groups. This has made a substantial impact on the progress made by the board’s Task and Finish groups and is directly informing board recommendations.

As part of the work of the board, it commissioned Early Years Scotland to consider what is currently available, and what is required in the future, to support the mental health and wellbeing of three-to-five year olds across Scotland, and to suggest recommendations for further action. Read the final Early Years Scotland three-to-five mental health happiness and wellbeing report.

We also commissioned Youthlink Scotland to work in partnership with Young Scot, Scottish Youth Parliament and Children’s Parliament to gather the views of children and young people’s on accessing information and support for mental health and wellbeing. Youthlink Scotland has published the final report.

The voices and experiences of children, young people and their families have been central to the work of the board over this period. We would like to thank Scottish Youth Parliament, Who Cares? Scotland, Early Years Scotland, Youthlink Scotland, Young Scot and Children’s Parliament for undertaking engagement and evaluation projects and directly supporting children, young people, their families, carers, early learning and childcare workforce and organisations/practitioners who support children and young people with their mental health. These groups have all contributed to the board’s work.

We are particularly grateful to all those who have shared their views with us. Your voices and experiences have informed resources developed and decisions made by the board’s Task and Finish groups in areas, including community-based services, crisis and neurodevelopmental support. Your voices and experiences have also directly informed the board’s recommendations in taking this work forward. The data and findings from our engagement exercises will help inform next steps for Scottish Government and COSLA in supporting mental health and wellbeing. They have also been published so what you have said can be heard more widely.

The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of community mental health services.

Thank you to everyone who took part.

Next steps

Following the conclusion of the JDB, as well as the associated Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board, and recognising the ongoing need to support infants, children, young people and families with their mental health and wellbeing; the Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed to progress this work through a new combined Strategic Board. This Board will have a strategic overview of mental health work spanning preconception, the perinatal period, parent-infant relationships, early years (up to 5), children and young people (5-24 year olds or 26 years for care leavers), their families and carers - with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups.

You can find out more about the work of the Joint Delivery Board and view the final report.

Information bulletin

Members

Members attending from the following organisations include:

COSLA
Scottish Government
SOLACE
Integration Joint Board (IJB) Network
Young person representation
Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board
Association of Director of Education Scotland (ADES)
Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
Social Work Scotland
CAMHS Lead Clinicians
NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
NHS Chief Executives
National Parent Forum of Scotland
Children in Scotland Forum representative (CiS)
Coalition of Care and Support Providers Forum representative (CCPS)

Publications

Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board: terms of reference

2024

Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports

2023

Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board minutes: February 2023

2022

2021

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