Mental health and wellbeing strategy - delivery plan and workforce action plan: progress update and next steps

Summary of Key Achievements

This report marks an important milestone for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, giving an opportunity to illustrate some of the progress that has been made to date, and the collective efforts which have supported meaningful change to people’s lives.

A Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Leadership Board, co-chaired by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport and the COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson has been established. The Board brings together key stakeholders across the public and voluntary sector, together with lived experience. It oversees and supports the delivery of the Strategy’s ten priorities, and the actions within the Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.

Progress reports on the Strategy are presented to the Leadership Board at each of its meetings. These give a snapshot of progress against actions outlined in the plans, highlighting delivery successes, together with any actions which may be at risk. The reports to the Leadership Board on progress can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Progress has been made against many actions, some of which are highlighted below. However, measuring the impact of specific actions on the mental health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland is challenging, particularly in the short term and we are working with Public Health Scotland to support better understanding of the cumulative impact of the Strategy and its actions. A full Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is under consideration, and will be introduced in due course to support this.

Meanwhile, the examples below highlight some of the tangible changes that have resulted from the actions in the current versions of the Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan since publication.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy - Delivery Plan

• In late 2023, See Me held three workshops with a range of stakeholders to refine their thinking on delivery of the commitments set out in this delivery plan. The stakeholders had experience of mental health stigma, whether personally or through work to address it. Discussions focussed on key areas identified in the Scottish Mental Illness Stigma Survey (SMISS), with participants asked to put forward suggested recommendations to be taken forward. Following an extensive review, a series of suggested actions were finalised for the delivery collective to consider when established. Since then, in 2024-25, See Me has delivered anti-stigma activities in several key settings including education, mental health services and workplaces. In education, they trained 295 people to deliver See Me See Change - a whole school approach on mental health services. They have collaborated with NHS Scotland and researchers at Abertay University to explore the impact of stigma by association in the mental health nursing profession and influenced the National Mental Health Nursing Review. On workplaces, they have engaged with over 2,200 employers, providing information, advice, and support to create mental health inclusive working environments free from stigma and discrimination. Through their Time to Talk Day in 2025, See Me increased their representation of people with lived experience on their media coverage by 93%. The campaign also saw a 44% increase in website visits and an 11% rise in downloads, indicating a strong public engagement. Planning continues on the best approach to establishing a national anti-stigma collective with the first meeting taking place in the Autumn. (Priority 1, Strategic Action 1.1)
• Extra Time, a programme which follows on from The Changing Room programme, provides additional support for men to understand and look after their mental health and resilience. Between November 2023 and March 2025, Scottish Government have funded groups at five clubs across Scotland: Rangers FC, Hibernian FC, Heart of Midlothian FC, Aberdeen FC and Dundee FC. Around 50% of participants are from lower socio-economic backgrounds and up to 60% are from the age groups most at risk of suicide (35-54 years old). The programme covers three key areas: life satisfaction, mental health and wellbeing, and social connectivity. The work of the programme has seen improvements for participants including improved relationships with loved ones, improved mental and physical health, and reduced social isolation and loneliness. (Priority 1, Strategic Action 1.1)
• Funding has been provided to a range of children and young people’s organisations which has enabled developments and updates in online mental health and wellbeing self-help and support content. This has included the updating and maintenance of Parent Club and Young Scot’s Aye Feel online hub. The Aye Feel online hub was accessed by around 53,000 people in 2024/25. Additionally, the dedicated Aye Feel social media content was seen to reach over 6,000 young people. (Priority 2, Strategic Action 2.1)
• The Roadmap for Creating Trauma-Informed and Responsive Change resource was published in November 2023. An online webinar (with over 560 attendees) took place in January 2025 focused on the resource, sharing practical learning from the Scottish context around how a range of services and organisations are using the Roadmap to support them in their work. (Priority 2, Strategic Action 2.4)
• A rebranded National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP) website was launched in November 2023 to help raise awareness and increase the accessibility of the freely available trauma-training resources and supporting guidance for implementation. (Priority 2, Strategic Action 2.4)
• Two NTTP learning reports were published in September 2024, demonstrating real progress in delivering trauma-informed workforces and services and the long-term commitment that is required to achieve this across all systems and services:
  • The NTTP Workforce Survey 2024 was completed by 5,075 respondents from all 32 local authority areas; from the public, private and, third sectors. It highlights that around 70% of those who had completed NTTP training said that they were extremely or very confident in understanding both the concept and impact of psychological trauma, compared to around 37% of those who had not undertaken the training.
  • A follow-up Evaluation of the NTTP Local Authority Delivery Trials, noted that the NTTP has contributed to increased trauma-related knowledge and skills among staff, and a more trauma-aware and trauma-informed workforce overall. Programme activity was also seen to have increased awareness and led to more conversations about the impact of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout, bringing a helpful focus on staff wellbeing. (Priority 2, Strategic Action 2.4)
• In partnership with Public Health Scotland and See Me, Scottish Government issupporting employers to create mentally healthy workplaces through our Supporting a Mentally Healthy Workplace digital platform - visited over 1,900 times since November 2023 - and the national learning network for employers, which 800 individuals have engaged with. Our quarterly network events have an average attendance of 150 people and a May 2025 survey found that the network has improved members’ understanding of mental health and supported the development of effective wellbeing policies. (Priority 2, Strategic Action 2.5)
• Community Mental Health and Wellbeing supports and services provided by local authorities were accessed by almost 83,000 children, young people and their family members between July 2023 and March 2024. This has been backed by £15 million per annum from the Scottish Government over the life of the plan, and this funding has been baselined from 2025-26 to provide more continuity for services. The supporting Framework was also updated to take account of learning to date and the changing context. (Priority 3, Strategic Action 3.1/3.2)
• Between November 2023 and March 2024, 1430 awards were made through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults to grassroot projects providing early intervention and prevention support in local communities, this includes 554 projects with a focus on those facing socio-economic disadvantage, 537 projects focussing on people with a long-term health condition or disability and 316 projects with a focus on minority ethnic families. The Fund is making a direct contribution to our drive to tackle child poverty, with national guidance placing a clear focus on the six priority family groups identified in Best Start Bright Futures. For this reason, it has been included in the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding Pilot, with funding committed for a further two years until March 2027. (Priority 3, Strategic Action 3.2)
• Public Health Scotland (PHS) has developed an interactive dashboard to present the Mental Health Quality Indicators (MHQI). This dashboard will continue to be developed into a “one-stop shop” for data on mental health services in Scotland. Publishing more detailed statistics in a similar form to the NHS England dashboard was one of the recommendations of the Public Audit Committee’s report on adult mental health. As well as providing an interactive platform for the MHQI data it also provides the first subnational breakdowns of indicators. (Priority 3, Strategic Action 3.3)
• Significant progress has been made in delivering our three year suicide prevention action plan, Creating Hope Together: 2022-2025, including: launching Suicide Prevention Scotland’s powerful new campaign ‘what if a conversation about suicide could save a life’ and creating a new website providing information and support to anyone with thoughts of suicide (or for people supporting someone who may be suicidal). Testing of effective approaches of supporting people in communities at higher risk of suicide is ongoing, with efforts including a programme of Community Led Action Research. Time Space Compassion (TSC) remains central to all work in this area, with the release of a second volume of TSC practice stories and a new set of podcasts. All of this learning is shared through our Suicide Prevention Implementation Leads in Public Health Scotland and local suicide prevention leads network. This year, the commitment to double the suicide prevention budget, to £2.8 million, in the current parliamentary term has been met. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.1)
• As part of our joint commitment to develop and enhance person-centred support for people affected by self-harm, Scottish Government has funded Penumbra’s Self-Harm Network Scotland to provide free support to anyone over 12 in Scotland. Since November 2023, just under 520 people have been referred for peer practitioner support. The service also provides free training which has been attended by over 3,000 people since November 2023. A new training for trainers programme has been developed to increase capacity for training delivery locally, and in turn increase awareness raising. As well as this training offer, Self-Harm Network Scotland has been running sessions for Loved Ones. Since Nov 2023, 127 people have attended these sessions. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.2)
• Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) is now live in every Health and Social Care Partnership area across Scotland, providing timely support to those in distress and easing pressures on frontline services. Some 84,000 people have now been referred to our world-leading DBI programme. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.3)
• Scottish Government has further developed our multi agency response to unplanned and urgent health care, including implementing a reference guide to enable Police Scotland and Scottish Ambulance Service to access advice from a mental health clinician on the best outcomes for the individual. This has resulted in a reduction in police attendance at hospital Emergency Departments for mental health concerns, for example, NHS Lanarkshire has seen an 82% reduction since the introduction. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.5)
• Since November 2023, the Mental Health Hub has responded to over 180,000 calls, ensuring that anyone in mental health crisis or distress can quickly and easily connect with professionals who are experts in that field. Support for the Mental Health Hub has continued, with additional investment increasing year on year, bringing total Scottish Government funding to over £9 million in 2024–25. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.5)
• Delivery of the award winning Enhanced Mental Health Pathway for those in distress not only improved mental health support for individuals but saved 17,413 officer hours by Police Scotland over a ten-month period and 99% of their staff confirmed they felt confident making referrals. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.5)
• We have worked at pace to develop and publish the Framework for Collaboration and Collaborative Commitments Plan. These will support partnership working between services to ensure that those in need are able to access the right service at the right time. A national review of Psychiatric Emergency Plans was also completed in December 2024. A new national template and guidance is now being developed with the aim of removing barriers to multi-agency working when responding to a psychiatric emergency. (Priority 4, Strategic Action 4.5)
• We continue to develop a national veterans mental health and wellbeing pathway. The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Pathway Advisory Group has agreed a model of delivery for the pathway. Work will continue throughout 2025 on the development of a national framework for the pathway; local implementation plans; and a digital hub. (Priority 5, Strategic Action 5.1)
• For the first time ever, national performance against the 18-week CAMHS standard has been met, with 90.6% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral during the quarter ending December 2024. (Priority 6, Strategic Action 6.1)
• The National Specification for the Care and Treatment of Eating Disorders in Scotland was published on 20 November 2024 and aims to ensure that everyone has access to a high-quality standard of service regardless of what stage they are in their recovery and is for care across all stages of treatment. (Priority 6, Strategic Action 6.2)
• The Scottish Government have adopted a phased approach to implementation of the mental health core standards to reduce pressures on services and staff. This has included a pilot conducted in early 2024. Health Improvement Scotland has undertaken a local assessment with all board areas to demonstrate and improve implementation of the standards and will use this analysis to develop local improvement plans and provide quality improvement support. In 2024-2025, NHS Benchmarking delivered data aligned with the standards, enabling board areas to drive improvement at a local level. (Priority 6, Strategic Action 6.2)
• Work has continued to improve the use of data. Work of the Scottish Mental Health Benchmarking and Quality Improvement Network has continued enabling the collection and reporting of data on treatment and care for mental health systems. In 2024-2025 this included bespoke projects collecting data on Mental Health Workforce, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services and Adult Mental Health Services. This work on data collection has helped to progress improvement work and policy development. (Priority 6, Strategic Action 6.4)
• The Scottish Government has published the first ever statistical report on mental health primary care patient experience. This provides valuable insights into the experience of people with mental health conditions and who contact primary care about mental health problems, as well as improving the data on equalities characteristics as well. (Priority 6, Strategic Action 6.5)
• The Target Operating Model (TOM) for prison healthcare has been developed by National Prison Care Network (NPrCN) in collaboration with key partners. This is now being implemented in all prisons and will provide a framework for a nationally consistent healthcare delivery. From April to November 2024, 66% of all service elements identified in the TOM were considered by NHS Boards/HSPCs to be fully implemented. (Priority 7, Strategic Action 7.1)
• Working with NHS Scotland Assure, a toolkit has been developed to systematically assess factors that affect the quality and safety of NHS adult in-patient mental health wards. This is recorded through an innovative app. Testing of the app and associated guidance has been completed. A phased roll out across Scotland has begun in 2025 and the app has been implemented fully in four NHS boards. (Priority 7, Strategic Action 7.2)
• Working with the State Hospital Board for Scotland and other stakeholders, a service for women who need high secure care and treatment will open at Carstairs in July 2025. This will deliver improved access for women to forensic mental health services and provide specialist care closer to home for women who need it. (Priority 8, Strategic Action 8.1)
• Working with a range of stakeholders including those representing the lived experience of children and families, Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly reviewed the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Service Specification, identifying positive next steps. It is anticipated that the associated report will be published in June and will inform next steps. (Priority 9, Strategic Action 9.1)
• A Perinatal Mental Health Service Specification is being developed by the Scottish Government and the Joint Strategic Board for Child and Family Mental Health, with input from those with clinical and lived experience. This will support clinicians and managers working in NHS inpatient and community perinatal mental health services of the principles of good practice in relation to the delivery of services. (Priority 10, Strategic Action 10.2)
• The Scottish Government have invested £1.5 million through the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund from October 2024. This Fund aims to sustain and improve third sector, non-clinical support for babies, parents and carers affected, or at risk of, perinatal and infant mental health issues in Scotland. Through this Fund, 16 third sector organisations are able to provide crucial support services for parents, carers, infants and families who are experiencing mental health difficulties during the perinatal period. (Priority 10, Strategic Action 10.2)