Mental health funding announcement for children and young people welcomed by Committee Chairs

COSLA have announced yesterday (2 November) that funding of £15 million is being made available to local authorities to respond to children and young people’s mental health issues, with a focus on those brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

Of this total, £11.25 million will be for services in response to the pandemic, such as support for children who are struggling emotionally due to returning to school under new restrictions. The remaining £3.75 million will be the first instalment of an annual £15 million fund to provide new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services. These new services will have a focus on prevention, early intervention and the treatment of distress.

Chair of Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee, Councillor Linda Munro, said: “I am delighted to hear the announcement of this package of funding which will further enhance mental health services for our young people in the Highlands.

The emotional weight of this pandemic, along with the significant disruption to school and learning which it triggered earlier this year, will undoubtedly have had a mental health impact on the young people in the area.  Now more so than ever, it is crucial that we continue to invest in the mental health services available to our young people, so this announcement is very much welcomed by the Highlands.

This funding will go towards further improvement of our existing mental health services and expanding the reach and capacity of these services.

Chair of Education Committee, Councillor John Finlayson, said: “Positive mental health remains a focus in all of our schools across Highland, including prior to the coronavirus pandemic. However, there are clearly even more challenges at this time and we need to make sure we continue to make mental health support and resources accessible to all our young people both when they are in school settings and also online through our Highland School’s Digital Hub.

This is a challenging time for our pupils and I am very proud at how well all of our children and young people have met this challenge and adapted to their new school environment. However, where a pupil begins to feel like they are struggling, we want to ensure we are able to support them as much as possible in any of our 203 schools and this funding will go a long way to help us achieve this goal."