Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Initial Monitoring Report and Monitoring Framework

Short-Term Outcome 4: A strengthened community-driven approach, which includes the third sector and community-based services and support, is supported by robust commissioning processes and adequate, sustainable funding.

Short Term Outcome 4 (STO4) of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy describes that a strengthened community-driven approach to mental health support is supported by robust commissioning processes and adequate, sustainable funding.

Metrics for monitoring STO4 are grouped under two core components of the outcome:

1. Robust commissioning processes

2. Adequate and sustainable funding

Table 18 presents the specific metrics grouped under each component.

Table 18: Metrics for Monitoring Short Term Outcome 4

The following sections present each of these components and associated metrics in detail, offering insight into baseline measures and observed changes related to STO4.

1. Robust commissioning processes

The first component of STO4 outlines that a community-driven approach is supported by robust commissioning processes. There are two metrics used to monitor this component.

Percentage of Local Partnership Groups including each member type

Local Partnership Groups (LPGs) help decide how the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is allocated locally. Their involvement ensures that commissioning decisions reflect a broad range of perspectives, including lived experience, a feature of a robust commissioning process.

The Year 3 (2023/24) Monitoring and Reporting Summary of the Scottish Government’s Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund provides the percentage of LPGs that included different member groups.

Table 19 shows the proportion of LPGs that included different member types in 2023/24. The most commonly represented were Health and Social Care Partnerships (93%) and local authority (other) representatives (84%). Representation from people with lived experience was high at 81%.

Compared to previous years, the largest increase was in representation of suicide prevention leads (+11%), while the biggest decrease was in Health and Social Care Partnerships (-7%, down from 100% in 2022/23).

Table 19: Percentage of Local Partnership Groups including each member type, 2023/24

Source: Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - Monitoring and Reporting Summary

Number of community mental health and wellbeing funded projects aimed at supporting at-risk population groups

An indicator of robust commissioning is the extent to which funded projects prioritise groups at greater risk of experiencing poor mental health and wellbeing.

The Year Three (23/24) Monitoring and Reporting Summary of the Scottish Government’s Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund provides data on the number of community-based projects that supported at-risk groups. These at-risk groups were identified by the Fund as priority populations. TSI areas were asked to record up to three at-risk groups that were supported by each project

In 2023/24, the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund supported a wide range of projects aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing across different population groups. The most commonly supported groups were:

• People facing socio-economic disadvantage (554 projects)
• Families with a disabled family member (548 projects)
• People with a long-term health condition or disability (537 projects)
• Lone parents (511 projects)

Other commonly supported groups included older people aged 50 and above (427), people experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage (401), families with 3 children (386), people with diagnosed mental illness (363), minority ethnic families (316), mothers aged less than 25 (314), families where the youngest children are under 1 year old (312), and people affected by psychological trauma including adverse childhood experiences (280).

In comparison, the most commonly supported groups in year two (22/23) were people facing socio-economic disadvantage (684 projects), people with a long-term health condition or disability (548 projects), older people (479 projects), people with diagnosed mental illness (406 projects), and people disadvantaged by geographical location (particularly remote and rural areas) (277 projects).

Analysis of project returns shows that 56% of projects in year three (845 projects) supported people from at least one of the six priority at-risk family groups identified in the Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022 to 2026. This compares to 24% of projects in 2022/23. The table below compares the percentage of projects that support people from the six priority at-risk family groups between year two and year three.

Table 20: Percentage of projects who supported people from at least one of the priority at-risk family groups, year two and year three

Source: Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - Monitoring and Reporting Summary

2. Adequate, sustainable funding

The second component of STO4 outlines that a community-driven approach to mental health support is supported with adequate and sustainable funding. There are three metrics used to monitor this component.

Annual funding allocation to the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was established as part of the Scottish Government’s £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund, with the aim of strengthening community-based support through sustained investment in the third sector. Funding is distributed through Scotland’s network of TSIs, with each area allocating funding based on local need and priorities.

As shown in Table 21, core annual funding has remained stable at £15 million from Year 1 (2021/22) to Year 3 (2023/24). In its first year, an additional in-year uplift of £6 million was allocated in response to high demand, bringing the total for 2021/22 to £21 million.

Funding to support TSIs with administration and capacity building has also been provided each year, although this declined from £1.14 million in Year 1 to £0.73 million in Year 3.

Table 21: Annual Funding Allocations and Support for the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults (2021/22–2023/24)

Source: Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - Monitoring and Reporting Summary

Percentage of community mental health and wellbeing funded projects that were new or existing

The Year 3 (2023/24) Monitoring and Reporting Summary of the Scottish Government’s Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund provides insight into the balance between sustaining existing projects and supporting new ones.

In 2023/24, a total of 1,430 projects received funding, compared to 1,458 in 2022/23.

Of the 2023/24 projects for which data was returned, 35.9% were new projects, 45.4% were existing projects that had previously received funding through the Fund, 12.1% were existing projects that had not previously been supported, and 6.6% of projects did not provide data on whether projects were new or existing.

Percentage of community mental health and wellbeing funded organisations by size profile

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is intended to strengthen grassroots and community-based mental health support, particularly through investment in small and medium-sized third sector organisations. The size profile of funded organisations therefore provides an indication of whether the Fund is reaching the intended scale of delivery.

The Year 3 (2023/24) Monitoring and Reporting Summary of the Scottish Government’s Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund provides insight into the size profile of funded organisations.

In 2023/24:

• 29.4% of awards (421 projects) were made to small organisations (annual turnover under £25,000), compared to 29% in 2022/23.
• 50.69% of awards (725 projects) went to medium-sized organisations (annual turnover between £25,000 and £1 million), compared to 62% in 2022/23.
• 7.1% of awards (102 projects) were allocated to large organisations (annual turnover above £1 million), compared to 9% in 2022/23.

In addition, 4% of projects (68) did not record organisation size and 8% of projects (115) were marked as Not Applicable.

Reflections on Short-Term Outcome 4

Short-Term Outcome 4 focuses on strengthening community-driven approaches to mental health and wellbeing, supported by commissioning and funding. Data available from the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund plays a central role in monitoring this outcome.

TSI areas report operating Local Partnership Groups with a diverse range of members involved in decision-making and fund allocation. A large proportion of funded projects targeted priority groups at higher risk of poor mental health. This indicates that commissioning is shaped by a broad range of perspectives and directed toward those most in need of support.

Funding for the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund has remained steady at £15 million per year since 2021, with an additional uplift in the first year to meet demand. The mix of continued support for existing projects and funding for new ones reflects a consistent approach to sustaining existing projects, while expanding reach. The majority of funded organisations are small or medium sized, in line with the Fund’s aim to support grassroots, community-led delivery.