The SNP must use summer recess to reflect on in-school mental health support - Alex Cole-Hamilton

I know, however, that not every family is so lucky and that for many parents the coming months will be filled with apprehension and dread.

Ever since I was first elected seven years ago, families have routinely been in touch with my office to raise concerns about support for their children with unmet mental health needs. Most of these conversations have been the same – that their child has an undiagnosed or unaddressed mental health issue, has been on a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting list for years and that appropriate support in schools is not there.

Over those seven years, I have continually called on the Scottish Government to make this issue a national priority but the SNP has been woefully inadequate at delivering much-needed support for young people across the country.

The First Minister’s NHS Recovery Plan committed to “clearing waiting lists in both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies by March 2023”, but Public Health Scotland statistics published recently show that was missed by a huge margin. In fact, figures acquired by my party in November 2022 showed children waiting up to three years to start treatment.

Mental health services were swamped before the pandemic. On top of that have been added the long shadow of lockdown and the SNP’s reckless decision to cut £50m from the mental health budget over winter. No wonder mental health waiting time targets have never been met since they were introduced in December 2014.

Polls suggest that pupils’ enthusiasm for attending school is at a shocking low, while they also feel more pressured than ever by schoolwork and exams. This stress is on top of the ongoing long shadow of COVID-19 lockdowns, that has undoubtedly contributed to in-class behavioural issues and learning challenges.

The government is sending pupils into schools, to take exams which could affect their prospects for life, in a condition which risks setting them up to fail.

So what should be done? While it is no substitute for comprehensive mental health services within the NHS, I firmly believe that an investment in mental health services in schools is long overdue. Ensuring that every school has a trained counsellor in place would allow issues to be picked up on far earlier and help to ensure that every pupil struggling with their mental health is swiftly directed to the right services should they need it. Alongside that we to need end the underfunding of mental health and put more professionals at more locations capable of delivering therapies to those who need them.

Families are crying out for help and need urgent action from the First Minister to bring Scotland’s child and adolescent mental health crisis to an end. He must use this recess time to reflect on his government’s poor record and come to the Scottish Parliament chamber in September with a plan to finally deliver for our children.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and MSP for Edinburgh Western