Suicide prevention action plan 2026 - 2029: equality impact assessment
Equality impact assessment (EQIA) for Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s suicide prevention action plan (2026 to 2029).
Development of the Second Action Plan
The first three years of implementation have provided valuable learning—not only through the significant progress achieved by Suicide Prevention Scotland, but also through external scrutiny. In particular, the Scottish Parliament’s Equality, Human Rights and Civil Justice (EHRCJ) Committee which undertook a focused review and made several recommendations to strengthen suicide prevention, including funding and resources; inequalities in suicide rates; lived and living experience and engagement; strategic delivery and accountability; and cross-government collaboration. These have been carefully considered in shaping the second action plan.
Our approach has also been informed by the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) whose members bring expertise from diverse fields and apply it to suicide prevention. In 2024, the group published its first annual report on year one of delivery (2023/24) and has since released its second annual report (2024/25). The insights from NSPAG have been instrumental in guiding the development of this next action plan.
Our suicide prevention efforts continue to be informed by expertise from practice, academic evidence through the Academic Advisory Group and local insights from Suicide Prevention Leads based around Scotland, who work closely with our Suicide Prevention Implementation Leads at Public Health Scotland.
We also continue to involve lived experience into all our work and regularly engage with both our Youth Advisory Group and Lived and Living Experience Group to ensure that the views of people with lived experience shape all of our work.