Creating Hope Together: Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-2029

Outcome 4

Outcome 4: Our approach to suicide prevention is well planned and delivered, through close collaboration between national, local and sectoral partners. Our work is designed with lived and living experience insight, practice, data, research and intelligence. We improve our approach through regular monitoring, evaluation and review.

Priority: Embed a coordinated, collaborative and integrated approach.

Why is this important?

To tackle the inequalities which contribute to suicide and reduce deaths, a multi-agency partnership approach is required. Our work must be planned collaboratively, recognising that a range of national and local partners, across a range of sectors, all play a vital role in creating healthy and protective environments for people living in Scotland.

We have had a focus on data and evaluation from the outset, but feedback tells us that we need to do more to collate and disseminate this evidence, and be clear what it is telling us in relation to specific groups, and the interventions and support that meet their needs.

What do we need to do?

We need to collect and share data, evidence and the lived and living experience of people affected by suicide and to ensure the intelligence gathered is used to develop appropriate policies, interventions, support, and services. Our academic and practice evidence will support the identification of emerging issues, to enable an agile approach to reduce suicides. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the delivery of this action plan to review whether our work is having the intended impact.

Building on our work since 2022

We have made progress in generating evidence and collecting data to enhance national and local understanding of the factors which contribute to suicide in Scotland, in order to inform our work to tackle the inequalities that contribute to suicide.

What impact do we want to have?

We will continue to enhance the data available and build the evidence base by collaborating across sectors at local and national levels, to provide actionable intelligence to inform the planning and implementation of suicide prevention programmes aimed at addressing the inequalities that contribute to suicide and reducing suicides in Scotland.

In this action plan we will:

• continue to improve data on suicide deaths and attempts and contributory factors
• gather and share actionable evidence, experience, evaluation and horizon-scanning
• support planning and implementation of local suicide prevention programmes
• facilitate collaborative learning events and effective communications within and across the whole action plan

How will we do this?

Improve data on suicide deaths, attempts and contributory factors

4.1 Continue to enhance data collection on suicide deaths to increase our understanding of the factors which contribute to suicide in Scotland. We will work with partners in local areas and national organisations to make effective use of the existing data and intelligence and explore new sources of data, to inform suicide prevention activity at local and national level. We will explore/collect and review use of ‘attempted suicide’ data. This will include gathering timely information about suspected suicides to inform response and preventative approaches.

4.2 Continue to support the development and use of ScotSID reports. We will continue to explore ways to improve our data on suicide risk factors, including whether our routinely collected data can be linked to other national datasets, such as homelessness and the newly developed race and ethnicity index, which may provide additional analysis.

4.3 Continue to support the development and implementation of the multi-agency suicide review system at a local level. The approach should support collaboration across other death review processes, facilitate shared learning and support action locally. It should also work towards information and learning being available at a national level to enhance the existing available data.

Actionable evidence, experience, evaluation and horizon-scanning

4.4 Continue to build the evidence base to increase our understanding of suicide risk and prevention at a population level. This will include gathering and sharing actionable evidence through continued work with the Academic Advisory Group, engagement with the Lived and Living Experience Panel and the Youth Advisory Group, as well as learning from emerging practice, to address risk and support delivery of whole of government and whole of society approach. We will develop approaches to ensure that this wide range of evidence is shared in ways which are easy to understand and supports local and national action.

“The principle of these briefing papers is very helpful. The format of a brief summary of key points from the evidence-base is particularly useful given the breadth of scope of the role of suicide prevention leads.”

Suicide Prevention Scotland Network member

4.5 Use our academic and practice-based partnerships to identify emerging issues – including risks and opportunities presented by technology, such as increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – and as far as possible adapt our approach so that our responses can meet changing needs.

Share information and learning to support implementation

4.6 Provide national guidance and practical support to local suicide prevention implementation leads. This will include opportunities for networking, sharing learning, creating guidance and resources, and supporting local partners to measure impact of suicide prevention developments. We will also utilise learning, data and lived experience voice from local developments to help inform national policy and delivery. As part of this we will continue to deliver a range of national and regional opportunities for people to come together to share learning and network, to expand the reach of Suicide Prevention Scotland, and we will continue to deliver and explore effective methods of sharing information and updates through our communication channels and networks.

How this supports other outcomes

The actions that sit under outcome 4 will continue to act as an enabler across outcomes 1 to 3, ensuring that data, evidence and the lived and living experience of people affected by suicide is collected and shared to inform decisions at policy, service planning and delivery levels. Our work to support local areas enables local learning to inform national policies and practice. It also complements work under the other outcomes to build capacity and support local delivery to help achieve our ambitions within the action plan and to support our understanding of effective suicide prevention in different communities.