Chamber and committees

We carefully considered the risks and benefits associated with the start of the new academic year. Our sectoral guidance for colleges, universities and student accommodation providers is clear that institutions and providers should use risk and equality assessments to ensure that staff and students return to campus safely. The Scottish Government continues to consider a range of evidence on the progress of the pandemic in Scotland to judge whether, when and where any modifications are necessary.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes information on house prices, housing market activity, cost and availability of finance and repossessions.

The most recent Scottish Housing Market Review, published on 30 September 2020, includes information about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the housing market and can be found here https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-housing-market-review-2020/

The Scottish Government has carried out no formal assessment of the potential impact of Covid-19 on the demand for social housing. The Social Housing Resilience Group a broad membership group, including Scottish Government, has been set up to respond to the Covid-19 challenges facing the social housing sector.

Local authorities as the statutory housing authority are responsible for assessing housing need in their area. All local authorities are expected to prepare updated Strategic Housing Investment Plans reflecting the impact that Covid-19 may have had on investment plans locally and to set out what contingency plans that they have put in place in response. Local authorities will also reflect the impact that Covid-19 has on the delivery of housing and housing related services in their annual review of their Local Housing Strategies.

The Scottish Government recognises the additional pressure that the pandemic and restrictions place upon individuals and families and is committed to providing clear, comprehensive and accessible support for mental health.

As part of this commitment we have been working closely with all health boards to maintain the integrity and quality of mental health services across Scotland throughout the pandemic, ensuring that emergency and urgent cases have been prioritised. Services are now working hard to return to previous activity levels and to deal with any backlogs that have developed. We are monitoring this through NHS Boards’ remobilisation plans, and our own transition and recovery plan for mental health can be found at www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-scotlands-transition-recovery/

In April 2020 we launched the Clear Your Head campaign, to help the population look after their own mental health and wellbeing. The campaign highlights the practical things people can do to help them feel better and cope with the restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak, acknowledging these are worrying and uncertain times for many. The website is updated regularly in light of developments associated with the pandemic.

We have provided funding to expand the NHS24 Mental Health Hub so that it is now available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to increase the capacity of the Breathing Space telephone helpline and web support service ; and to increase capacity for Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

We have also expanded the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme into a nationwide response for people in distress. Now, anyone who phones the NHS24 Mental Health Hub in emotional distress from anywhere in Scotland and who does not need emergency clinical intervention and is assessed as appropriate can be referred to the DBI Programme for further support.

Further advice and support for mental health is available through the NHS Inform website .

It is essential that every part of Scotland’s employment, education and skills system supports our economic recovery and Scotland’s colleges have a critical role in this.

Of the £100 million funding announced to support employment and skills development, £10 million will go directly to colleges for shorter, more industry focused opportunities. Proposals to maximise the impact of this investment are being finalised with the Scottish Funding Council and Colleges Scotland.

In addition to this, colleges will support the delivery of the £25m National Transition Training Fund, which will enable people aged 25 and over who have been made redundant or whose jobs are at risk as a result of the pandemic to access retraining to help them re-enter the workforce. Further and higher education led projects will form one strand of the National Transition Training Fund and more information about this will become available soon.

Looking at the full range of college delivery, Ministers have commissioned the Scottish Funding Council to carry out a review of coherent provision and sustainability across Further and Higher Education. The review, expected to publish soon, will cover provision, delivery, outcomes, targets and funding, including support for research activity, across the college and university sector.

In advance of this, the SFC responded to the recommendations of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery (AGER) and the Enterprise & Skills Strategic Board sub-group (ESSB) by issuing new guidance to colleges, identifying around £20m of FE teaching budget in support of economic recovery activity.

Working with businesses to help them adapt to enable them to retain staff is a critical element of our Economic Recovery Implementation Plan. Colleges continue to deliver the Flexible Workforce Development Fund across Scotland, with £13 million of the £20 million already announced for delivery in this academic year. In the coming weeks, we will announce how the remaining £7 million will be allocated to support more employers to sustain and retain staff as we move towards economic recovery.

The Scottish COVID-19 (SCOVID) Mental Health Tracker Study will provide insight into the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on the mental health of the Scottish population. This is a longitudinal study running from May 2020 to May 2021, with 5 waves. A report on the Wave 1 findings will be published this month.

The Mental Health Research Advisory Group was established in April 2020 to follow research developments to understand the medium and long term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health. The group, chaired by Professor Andrew Gumley, Director of the Scottish Mental Health Research Network, includes academics and public health experts from across Scotland. The Group will support the development of our evidence-led mental health policy response to the pandemic. The MHRAG have produced an evidence summary briefings provided with the minutes in April 2020 and June 2020 .

Public Health Scotland do not currently hold waiting times data for mental health services by individual clinical specialty (i.e. psychologist, psychiatrist, mental health professional). Public Health Scotland do hold aggregate information on Waiting Times for both Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Psychological Therapies which is published quarterly. The latest publication of these statistics was on 1 September for quarter ending June 2020.

At quarter end June 2020, there were 9,319 people waiting to start treatment within CAMHS and 24,094 people waiting to start treatment within Psychological Therapies. [Please note that the Psychological Therapies dataset includes CAMHS patients awaiting this treatment so there is an element of double counting (see the individual reports below for more information)].

CAMHS Waiting Times Publication

The latest publication on CAMHS waiting times is available here: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/conditions-and-diseases/mental-health/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/

CAMHS Data Quality Report

The latest CAMHS Data Quality Report is available here: https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/5327/data-quality.pdf

Psychological Therapies Waiting Times Publication

The latest publication on Psychological Therapies waiting times is available here:

https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/conditions-and-diseases/mental-health/psychological-therapies-waiting-times/

Psychological Therapies Data Quality Report

The latest Psychological Therapies Data Quality Report is available here:

https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/5655/data-quality.pdf

The Scottish Government will allocate £30m of our investment in the Young Person’s Guarantee in 2020/21 to local authorities. This will support them to deliver a range of interventions to enhance employability support to young people and to employers. This will include supporting young people to take up opportunities in education, employability, volunteering and training.

The Young Person’s Guarantee will be the over-arching pledge to young people that will seek to add value to existing programmes, building on established activity. Local authorities will play a leading role in developing the right interventions to deliver the Guarantee to meet the needs of local young people and employers and we will continue to work closely with COSLA to develop that role.

Our intention is that this investment builds on, rather than replaces, successful activity happening locally and nationally, such as the Glasgow Guarantee.

The Scottish Government welcomed the report Youth Guarantee - No-one Left Behind written by Sandy Begbie. The report set out a number of recommendations and actions on how an employer-led Young Person’s Guarantee could be taken forward.

Work is ongoing with delivery partners to take forward the recommendations from the report and further details on implementation, including how young people will be able to access the Guarantee, will be set out in the coming weeks.