Creating Hope Together: Year 3 Delivery Plan - 2025-2026

Introduction

Suicide Prevention Scotland is the delivery collective responsible for implementation of Creating Hope Together – Scotland’s suicide prevention strategy and action plan. The strategy’s vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. We know that to achieve this, all sectors must come together in partnership, and we must support our communities, so they become safe, compassionate, inclusive, and free of stigma. Our aim is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life, or are affected by suicide, to get the help they need and feel a sense of hope.

The work to achieve this vision is led by a National Delivery Lead supported by Strategic Outcome Leads (SOLs) who form the leadership group and a range of delivery partners (see Appendix A for details). The leadership group make decisions about effective deployment of the staffing and financial resources to ensure the delivery plan is delivered and short-term outcomes achieved, and seek opportunities to connect to programmes led by partners to maximise impact.

The delivery plan for April 2024 – March 2026 published in 2024, set out the actions for delivery over the remainder of the current Creating Hope Together action plan. This plan for year 3 details key milestones over 2025/ 2026 and identifies the partner organisations who will support implementation.

The Creating Hope Together Year 2 Annual Report provides detail of progress to deliver the actions over 2024/ 2025. It sets out key achievements against the strategy’s guiding principles and provides full detail of the contribution each action is making towards the long-term outcomes set out in the strategy.

Progress on implementing the 2024-2026 delivery plan was reviewed through the monthly leadership group meetings with advice sought from the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) to support delivery and address any barriers to progress. NSPAG will continue to offer advice and guidance to COSLA and the Scottish Government on progress on the strategy and any changes needed to direction/ priorities, including through its annual progress report.

We continue to have an outcome focussed approach to our work recognising the importance of measuring the impact the work is having, and not just the delivery of the actions. The Outcomes Framework which accompanied the strategy and action plan has provided a theory of change which helps to demonstrate the contribution the actions have to achieving the outcomes. Over the last year we have worked to fully embed OutNav, an online tool which is used to capture the evidence to help demonstrate the contribution the activity is making to the outcomes; this approach is enabling robust monitoring and evaluation of the work across outcome pathways. This information is critical to understanding if our work is having the intended effects in shifting the four long term outcomes in our strategy, achieving our vision, and informing future priorities.

We have continued to deliver work which aligns to the strategy’s guiding principles and which creates and enhances opportunities for partners across public, private, third and business sectors to come together to network and share learning. The guiding principles are:

1. We will consider inequalities and diversity – to ensure we meet the suicide prevention needs of the whole population whilst taking into account key risk factors, such as poverty, and social isolation. We will ensure our work is relevant for urban, rural, remote and island communities.

2. We will co-develop our work alongside people with lived, and living, experience (ensuring that experience reflects the diversity of our communities and suicidal experiences). We will also ensure safeguarding measures are in place across our work.

3. We will ensure the principles of Time, Space, Compassion are central to our work to support people’s wellbeing and recovery. This includes people at risk of suicide, their families/carers and the wider community, respectful of their human rights.

4. We will ensure the voices of children and young people are central to work to address their needs, and co-develop solutions with them.

5. We will provide opportunities for people across different sectors at local and national levels to come together, learn and connect – inspiring them to play their part in preventing suicide.

6. We will take every opportunity to reduce the stigma of suicide through our work.

7. We will ensure our work is evidence informed, and continue to build the evidence base through evaluation, data and research. We will also use quality improvement approaches, creativity and innovation to drive change – this includes using digital solutions.

The Academic Advisory Group (AAG), Lived and Living Experience Panel (LLEP), Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and Practice Expertise have continued to shape our delivery. We have also continued to focus our efforts where there is a higher risk of suicide, expanding our reach and impact particularly with organisations working with people who are impacted by discrimination, stigma, inequality and wider social determinants of suicide. This approach remains central to our way of working ensuring we retain our commitment to have an approach which is well planned and delivered through collaboration and which is informed by practice evidence, lived experience insight, subject expertise and data and evidence – and which puts inequalities first.

The tables below set out work that has been completed against each action along with the milestones over the coming year. Actions are set out under the most relevant outcome, however, this is mainly for ease of presentation, the majority of actions have relevance across outcomes.

We will also be using our learning from delivering the first Creating Hope Together action plan to help identify and shape areas where action needs to be carried forward into the next action plan.

A budget of £2.8 million has been confirmed for 2025/26 to support delivery of the action plan. The indicative budget for each action is set out below. This funding represents the direct suicide prevention funding and this sits alongside the investment (funding and staff resource) provided by a range of other partners to support individual actions. In addition to these figures, the following commitments have also been agreed by the Suicide Prevention Scotland Leadership group and approved by Scottish Government to support and enable delivery of Creating Hope Together.

Funding purpose

Staff resource for delivery and leadership of the action plan

Funding (£)

£401,400

Funding purpose

Support to enable lived and living experience

Funding (£)

£213,830

Funding purpose

Academic Advisory Group

Funding (£)

£146,145

Funding purpose

Strategic Communications planning and delivery of events / printing etc

Funding (£)

£115,713

Funding purpose

Listening service and postvention support

Funding (£)

£136,000

Funding purpose

National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) – providing evidence to underpin action

Funding (£)

£76,364

Funding purpose

Learning resources (baselined funding for NES & PHS)

Funding (£)

£350,000