Joint Strategic Board for Child and Family Mental Health minutes: 17 September 2025

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Nicola Dickie, Director of People Policy, COSLA, co-Chair
• Aileen Blower, Professional Adviser, Scottish Government
• Hannah Axon, Policy Manager, COSLA
• Roch Cantwell, Professional Adviser, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Scottish Government
• Angela Davidson, Deputy Director, Mental Health, Scottish Government
• Stephen Mcleod, Professional Adviser, Directorate for Mental Health, Scottish Government
• Emma Currer, Royal College of Midwives
• Emma Kennedy, PHS
• Wendy Van Riet, Director, NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• Ellen Moran, Principal Education Psychologist, West Dunbartonshire, Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
• Judy Thomson, NHS Education Scotland
• Emily Beever, Scottish Youth Parliament
• Mairi Macpherson, Deputy Director, Improving Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Government
• Laura Kerr, Social Work Scotland
• Gavin Philipson, Perinatal Lead, Managed Clinical Network, NHS
• Tracy Stewart, Scottish Council of Deans of Education
• Carsten Mandt, Senior Programme Manager, Perinatal Mental Health Network
• Ashleigh Macaulay, Perinatal Consultant Psychiatrist, West of Scotland Mother and Baby Unit
• Kandarp Joshi, Psychiatrist, Royal College of Psychiatry of Scotland
• Andrea Blair, General Manger Specialist Children’s Services, NHS GGC
• Madihah Iqbal, Team Lead, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Saskia Read, Policy manager, Widening Access to Higher Education, Scottish Government
• Rebecca Macpherson, Senior Policy Officer, Mental Health Strategy and Co-ordination, Scottish Government
• Steven Paxton, Senior Policy Officer, Student Equalities and Wellbeing, Scottish Government
• Ally Winford, Unit Head, Strategy and Co-Ordination, Scottish Government

Observers

• Peter Innes, Senior Policy Officer, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Katy Lister, Senior Policy Adviser, Children and Young Peoples Specialist Mental Health Services Delivery Team, Scottish Government
• Harriet Waugh, Self-Harm Policy and Distress Interventions, Scottish Government
• Suzi Macpherson, Unit Head, Trauma, Survivor Support & Veteran Mental Health, Scottish Government
• Chloe Duffus, Head of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Delivery and Improvement, Scottish Government
• Kathryn Chisholm, Team Leader Student Equalities and Fair Access, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Diana Beveridge, Head of Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative, Scottish Government
• Ali MacDonald, Public Health Scotland
• Andrew Watson, Director Children & Families, Scottish Government
• Carolyn McDonald, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, Scottish Government
• Carrie Lindsay, Executive Director of Education and Children's Services, Fife Council
• Gillian McCluskey, Director of Centre for Research in Education, Inclusion and Diversity, Scottish Council of Deans of Education
• Gillian Hamilton, Chief Executive, Education Scotland
• Haylis Smith, National Delivery Lead, Suicide Prevention, COSLA
• Martin Crewe, Director, Bernardo’s
• Alison Taylor, Deputy Director for Improvement, Attainment and Wellbeing, Scottish Government
• Laura Meikle, Head of Support and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government

Secretariat

• Kelsey Sclater, Policy Officer, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Hannah Worth Senior Policy Officer, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome and Introductions

Nicola Dickie (ND), co-chair of the Joint Strategic Board for Child and Family Mental Health (JSB) welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted apologies.

ND invited any comments or amendments to the minute of the 18 June 2025 JSB meeting. No changes were requested so they were approved.

Updates on actions:

• update JSB on the Psychology Workforce - outstanding
  • update on progress regarding Psychology workforce and enhanced support work being done with boards around demand for Psychological Therapies services will be provided at a future meeting
• SGa and Ali McDonald (AMcD) to meet regarding the review of the Curriculum for Excellence - outstanding
  • meeting scheduled for October
• the Awareness Raising and Promotion Implementation Group to provide  feedback on the GP toolkit - complete
• Stephen McLeod (SMcL) - Will be attending a workshop hosted by the Deep End group at the end of September. The feedback will be captured in the ongoing work of the Awareness Implementation Group - ongoing
• Hannah Axon (HA) has contacted Cheryl Burnett to discuss South Lanarkshire best practice example with a view to disseminate as appropriate - ongoing
• Barriers and Access to Support and Services Implementation Group to consider further parent representation - complete
  • Cheryl Burnett has been invited to joing the group
• invite Mental Health in Schools Working Group to present to the JSB - complete
  • HA presenting at the JSB today about this group
• due to some gaps in attendance at the last meeting, members to be emailed to provide further opportunity to comment of the refresh of the plan - complete

Update from Implementation Group Chairs (paper 2)

Barriers and Access to Support and Services Implementation Group – Aileen Blower

• the group continued to focus on barriers and access to crisis supports 
• there was a successful in person meeting of the group on 18 June which was well attended and at the August 13 meeting, a draft tool for design and development of Scottish Approach to Supporting Children and Young People in Crisis: Framework Overview was shared. The intention is to bring the draft framework to the JSB meeting in Dec, after further stakeholder engagement and gathering of evidence. 
• HA presented a proposal for the Barriers group to move to another piece of work on the Promise. 
• the group agreed to work with the Promise Scotland and plan 2030, by supporting the development of a Mental Health route map
• to facilitate route map work there are two in person workshops being facilitated by Promise Scotland
• the draft of route map to be presented to Barriers group by December

Awareness Raising and Promotion Implementation Group – Stephen McLeod

• SMcL to attend the Deep End group workshop on Children and Young Peoples Mental Health
• the group have shared feedback on the GP toolkit with the relevant policy team
• on behalf of the group, Connect and Scottish Youth Parliament are doing some work with children young people and families, to seek views on ways to improve communications from services, discuss best practice and signposting. Their findings will be shared with the group and presented to Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) managers network and senior clinicians in December

Mental Health in Schools Working Group

At the previous meeting of the JSB on June 18 members queried work being undertaken in education to support Mental Health. HA provided the following update on the Mental Health in Schools Working Group:

• the Mental Health in Schools Working Group was established in 2019 to focus on the following three tasks:
  • professional learning resources
  • whole school approach to mental health looking at how mental health can be considered across the whole school environment
  • practical resources for school staff
• the group took a break in 2021 after completion of its tasks and creation of resources
• the group has recommenced and are now looking at evaluating the impact of these resources. This includes 
  • looking at how Mental Health resources are being used in school settings and what updates are required,  recognising the whole school approach 
  • articulating the role of education and the curriculum in terms of supporting suicide prevention and self-harm
  • considering potential gaps and further resources that might be required

Discussion

• Judy Thomson (JT) raised a question regarding additional support needs in school. Understanding the system is currently under pressure is there anything the JSB could help with?
• HA responded that it is something we can raise with the groups and think about the other pieces of work that are on-going.
• Emily Beever (EB) asked if there have been any interaction with the wider education reform work, not just around the curriculum content, but also around qualification and assessment models. Scottish Youth Parliament just published their manifesto and in the consultation work it showed a strong link between assessment models and poor mental health
• HA replied that Education Scotland are members of the group, enabling conversations to be fed back to the curriculum review process. The group has not specifically focused on the assessment models
• ND shared that from a COSLA perspective local government politicians have regularly raised the stress of exams on childrens wellbeing
• SMcL informed the board that he is attending a meeting, with more than half of the representatives being head teachers and will be meeting with Ali McDonald about a review of the Curriculum for Excellence
• Mhairi MacPherson (MM) raised some questions for consideration
  • how do we move as far as possible up stream and thinking regarding prevention?
  • in particular how the work around the schools working group connects to the ELC and connections from health visiting into the school system as children transition in?
  • how are we working the data we have of children’s first five years of life into the approach we are taking in schools and how can we strengthen that if we think that’s a gap at the moment?

Actions

• Secretariat – Circulate following links to the JSB:
  • Mental Health in Schools Working Group: terms of reference
  • Whole School Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework
• Secretariat – Circulate HA presentation to JSB
• HA – to meet with Mhairi MacPherson to discuss overlap of work with early years work

Student mental health action plan update

Steven Paxton (SP) presented on the Student Mental Health Action Plan which was published in Sept 2025 and the work of the Student Mental Health Action Plan Delivery Group.

No questions were raised by the group

Actions

• Secretariat – share SP’s presentation with the JSB

Presenting of JSB review process (paper 3)

ND explained to the group that the JSB is the third iteration of a joint board between Scottish Government and COSLA and we are keen to ensure we understand the progress that is being made.

Madihah Iqbal (MI) presented the review process to the group

• JSB has been in place for 2 years and the ToR sets out an expectation for regular review. With the significant changes in the policy landscape, including the publication of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Health and Social Care Reform publications, we are proposing to commence a review
• the intention is to develop an understanding of progress against JSB outcomes  and frameworks, considering what has helped or hindered progress and consider whether the government arrangements and objectives are still appropriate with the changed policy landscape
• given capacity challenges across the system, it was suggested that the review will be streamlined, with a focus on extracting high level insights to inform decision making, rather than conducting a lot of detailed analysis. It was suggested the review process commenced in October and conclude in January
• following the review we will draft a short paper, sharing with JSB members, COSLA and government governance structures for consideration

Discussion

• Roch Cantwell (RC) requested that the wording be changed to include Perinatal and Infant to reflect work board is doing in that area as well 
• Judy Thomson (JT) suggested representing parents and families in the language
• the JSB approved the proposed review and process. MI to provide an update at the December meeting

Any other business

Rebecca McPherson (RMcP) shared an update from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Leadership Board on the refresh of the Delivery Plan

• feedback from the JSB was very helpful and was included in information provided to the Leadership Board at the start of September
• the Leadership Board will be prioritising the ideas we presented to them so they make the most impact and align with the wider work of health and social care reform
• all feedback received to date has been shared with policy colleagues to support in the drafting process
• the next leadership board meeting is the 2 December and they will communicate any opportunities for feedback between now and then.

Close

ND thanked members for attending and advised that the next meeting of the JSB will be held on December 17