Mental Health Scrutiny and Assurance Collaborative

Introduction

Following the publication of the Mental Health Scrutiny and Assurance Review in April 2024, the Scottish Government committed to work closely with key stakeholders, including scrutiny bodies, to develop a framework for mental health scrutiny and assurance.

Following discussion with scrutiny bodies, the Scottish Government Mental Health Directorate proposed that a crossbody^[1] ‘Collaborative’ best describes how mental health scrutiny bodies engage on a regular basis to share findings. This concerns each bodies’ respective activities and would support cross system knowledge of findings. This in turn supports the identification of emerging themes and aims to support the bodies’ planning and prioritisation processes, identify best practice, consideration of collective intelligence and provide a mechanism for strengthening the identification of risk collectively.

This work draws on the recommendations from the above review, as well as from the Scottish Mental Health Law Review (published in September 2022) and the Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation (published in September 2023). These reviews recommended improvement to scrutiny and assurance of mental health services, and outlined how bodies should work more collaboratively to achieve this. Findings from these wider reviews can be found in Appendix A.

Broadly speaking, these reviews recommended developing an overarching framework that ensures a more cohesive and coordinated approach to external assurance, which optimises efficiency and minimises duplication of work. It was suggested this could involve a formalised network of bodies involved in the regular scrutiny and assurance of mental health services.

It is intended that the Mental Health Scrutiny and Assurance Collaborative will strengthen voluntary sharing of intelligence, help inform the activity and areas of focus of collaborative partners and the Scottish Government and collectively support the delivery of the aims of Ministers. This will also help support collective arrangements to assess and drive progress in the quality and safety of mental health services, while respecting the individual legislative frameworks and accountabilities through which each body operates. The aim is to promote improved outcomes for people, with the intention of reducing inequalities in experience of and access to services.

This paper sets out the aims and benefits of such a Mental Health Scrutiny and Assurance Collaborative (the Collaborative), the initial scope of the Collaborative, Collaborative participants, reporting arrangements and the lead agency. It aims to build upon existing collaboration amongst agencies, and to complement the work of the national Sharing Health and Care Intelligence Network.