Community mental health and wellbeing supports and services: framework

Objective

Every child and young person in Scotland will be able to access local community services which support and improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Every child and young person and their families or carers will get the help they need, when they need it, from people with the right knowledge, skills and experience to support them. This will be available in the form of easily accessible support close to their home, education, employment or community.

Aims

This framework aims to:

• Set out a clear broad approach for the support that children and young people should be able to access for their mental health and emotional wellbeing within their community.
• Assist local children's services and community planning partnerships with the commissioning and establishment of new local community mental health and wellbeing supports or services or the development of existing supports and services, in line with this framework.
• Facilitate the enhancement or creation of services that can deliver support which is additional and innovative wherever these are best placed.

How community mental health and wellbeing supports and services are constructed will vary according to local structures and the needs identified by children, young people and their families in each local area. The political agreement regarding delivery is based on a set of principles, attached as annex.

The kind of support described and addressed in this framework is additional to what can be provided through universal services, but involves prompt and early support to respond to concerns, a continuum of additional support within the community, and strong and direct links with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to ensure a whole system approach. Accordingly, the management of risk and change must be managed across the whole system and across all services.