Creating Hope Together – Year 2 Delivery plan (2024-26)

Creating Hope Together - Delivery Plan April 2024 - March 2026

Introduction

Suicide Prevention Scotland is the delivery collective responsible for implementation of Creating Hope Together – Scotland’s suicide prevention strategy and action plan. The strategy’s vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. To achieve this, all sectors must come together in partnership, and we must support our communities, so they become safe, compassionate, inclusive, and free of stigma. Our aim is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life, or are affected by suicide, to get the help they need and feel a sense of hope.

The work to achieve this vision is led by a National Delivery Lead (NDL) supported by Strategic Outcome Leads (SOLs) who form the leadership team and a range of delivery partners (see Appendix A for details). The leadership team make decisions about effective deployment of the existing staffing and financial resources to ensure the delivery plan is delivered and short-term outcomes achieved.

The delivery plan for April 2024 – March 2026, sets out the actions for delivery over the remainder of the current Creating Hope Together action plan. It details key milestones over 2024/2025 and identifies some of the partner organisations who will support implementation. This plan will be reviewed in Spring 2025 and milestones for 2025/2026 will be established and published.

We have made considerable progress in 2023/2024 – the first financial year of delivering the action plan – which lays strong foundations for the programme of activity set out in this delivery plan. Key achievements have been:

• Establishing Suicide Prevention Scotland’s leadership team and the wider delivery collective to realise our ambition to create a community of organisations across Scotland
• Establishing strong relationships with local suicide prevention leads and providing the opportunities and resources to support them in their role
• Taking forward work to address inequalities in suicide prevention and building connections with organisations who work with people impacted by discrimination, stigma, inequality and wider social determinants of suicide who can support this
• Connecting with a wide range of third sector organisations delivering suicide prevention actions and providing opportunities for networking, sharing learning, and supporting implementation of the action plan
• Building connections with National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) members and national organisations to create links to sectors and groups where there is a higher risk of suicide
• Refreshing our Lived and Living Experience Panel and Youth Advisory Group, and establishing a Lived and Living Experience Steering Group
• Building on the outcomes framework to develop monitoring and evaluation processes which will help to demonstrate the impact of the work
• Delivering on the broad range of work within the Creating Hope Together Action Plan

The Suicide Prevention Scotland Annual Report 2023/2024 provides full details of the progress in delivering the actions from the Creating Hope Together Year One Delivery Plan. The following delivery plan summarises the actions delivered over the last year and describes the actions which will be progressed over the next two years to help achieve the short and long term outcomes.

Outcomes

Outcome 1:

The environment we live in promotes conditions which protect against suicide risk – this includes our psychological, social, cultural, economic and physical environment.

Outcome 2:

Our communities have a clear understanding of suicide, risk factors and its prevention – so that people and organisations are more able to respond in helpful and informed ways when they, or others, need support.

Outcome 3:

Everyone affected by suicide is able to access high quality, compassionate, appropriate and timely support- which promotes wellbeing and recovery. This applied to all children, young people and adults who experience suicidal thoughts and behaviour, anyone who cares for them, and anyone affected by suicide in other ways.

Outcome 4:

Out approach to suicide prevention is well planned and delivered through close collaboration between national, local and sectoral partners. Out work is designed with lived experience insight, practice, data, research and intelligence. We improve our approach through regular monitoring, evaluation and review.

Progress on delivering the year one delivery plan (2023-2024) was reviewed through the monthly SOL meetings with advice sought from the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) (membership detailed in Appendix B) to support delivery and address any barriers to progress; this approach will continue as we deliver work over the coming two years. NSPAG will continue to offer advice and guidance to COSLA and the Scottish Government on progress on the strategy and on any changes needed to direction/ priorities.

We continue to have an outcome focussed approach to our work, recognising the importance of measuring the impact the work is having, and not just the delivery of the actions. The Outcomes Framework which accompanied the strategy and action plan has provided a theory of change which helps to demonstrate the contribution the actions make to achieving the outcomes. As we progress over the next two years, we will fully embed Outnav, an online tool which will be used to capture the evidence to help demonstrate the contribution the activity is making to the outcomes; we will also enable robust monitoring and evaluation of the work across outcome pathways. This information is critical to understanding if our work is having the intended effects in shifting the 4 key outcomes in our strategy and achieving our vision. Further information on this as it relates to the delivery of Creating Hope Together will continue to be shared with delivery partners and wider stakeholders. The evidence collected through Outnav will also help shape the next and future annual reports.

As we enter year two, we will continue to deliver work which aligns to the guiding principles. Over 2023/2024, Suicide Prevention Scotland created opportunities for partners across public, private, third and business sectors to come together to network and share learning. As we progress work into years two and three, we will continue to enhance the suicide prevention network through hosting further events and opportunities for engagement. We will focus our efforts where there is a higher risk of suicide, expanding our reach and impact particularly with organisations working with people who are impacted by discrimination, stigma, inequality, and wider social determinants of suicide.

Guiding Principles

1. We will consider inequalities and diversity – to ensure we meet the suicide prevention needs of the whole population whilst taking into account key risk factors, such as poverty, and social isolation. We will ensure our work is relevant for urban, rural, remote and island communities.

2. We will co-develop our work alongside people with lived, and living, experience (ensuring that experience reflects the diversity of our communities and suicidal experiences). We will also ensure safeguarding measures are in place across our work.

3. We will ensure the principles of Time, Space, Compassion are central to our work to support people’s wellbeing and recovery. This includes people at risk of suicide, their families/carers and the wider community, respectful of their human rights.

4. We will ensure the voices of children and young people are central to work to address their needs and co-develop solutions with them.

5. We will provide opportunities for people across different sectors at local and national levels to come together, learn and connect – inspiring them to play their part in preventing suicide.

6. We will take every opportunity to reduce the stigma of suicide through our work.

7. We will ensure our work is evidence informed, and continue to build the evidence base through evaluation, data and research. We will also use quality improvement approaches, creativity and innovation to drive change – this includes using digital solutions.

Engagement with the Academic Advisory Group (AAG), Lived and Living Experience Panel (LLEP), Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and Practice Experts has shaped this 2024-26 delivery plan. All the work which flows from it will be developed and informed through the same process. As we expand our work on addressing the inequalities which contribute to suicide risk, we will deliver our commitment set out in the Building Connections report to ensure that the communities who are impacted by discrimination, stigma, inequality and wider social determinants of suicide, are central to co-designing engagement which will then shape the development and implementation of our work.

We will also ensure our work maintains a focus on the four priority areas set out in the Creating Hope Together Strategy - taking action which will deliver positive impact on these broad areas of work and is intended to achieve positive change against the strategy’s 4 outcomes. This will include:

1. Build a whole of Government and whole society approach to address the social determinants which have the greatest link to suicide risk

• We will continue to drive forward work on the whole of Government and society policy package — so that a wide range of Government policies and their delivery on the ground are working to prevent suicide. Utilising the learning from year one, we will make the strongest connections possible with policies which address stigma, discrimination and the wider social determinants of suicide.
• We will continue our approach to addressing access to means of suicide, focussing on improving safety at key locations of concern for suicide and utilising the learning from the Delphi study.
• We will work with national and local media sectors to raise awareness of responsible media reporting (including social media).

2. Strengthen Scotland’s awareness and responsiveness to suicide and people who are suicidal

• We will continue to raise awareness, and improve learning about suicide, help seeking and help giving and target our work, so we build this understanding in communities and sectors that support people at a higher risk of suicide and in ways that address stigma and discrimination.
• We will develop an online portal which will host information and advice on suicide and its prevention, to help people who may be suicidal, anyone impacted by suicide and practitioners working to prevent suicide.
• We will expand United to Prevent Suicide (UtPS) through engaging with the social movement, the LLEP and the YAG to develop an approach which engages new audiences and ensures we reach groups most likely to be affected by suicide. We will continue to be creative, using different mediums, such as sport and social media, to tackle stigma, discrimination and create ways for people to talk safely about suicide.

3. Promote and provide effective, timely, compassionate support that promotes wellbeing and recovery

• We will build on the Time Space Compassion (TSC) approach, with a focus in Primary Care, Unscheduled Care, and community settings. This will ensure the risk of suicide is considered and that people in those settings are able to offer compassionate, culturally sensitive support when someone is suicidal.
• We will continue to build understanding of the benefit of peer support in suicide prevention and assist in the development of new peer support groups across Scotland.
• We will use our learning of what works to support suicide risk and behaviour amongst children and young people to develop work in key settings such as education, youth work and care settings.
• We will facilitate a process of continuous improvement in the quality of clinical care through supporting statutory mental health services to implement the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH).

4. Embed a co-ordinated, collaborative and integrated approach

• We will continue to enhance our understanding of existing data sources and how these can be utilised to support development of effective interventions to support people who are suicidal. This will include roll-out of suicide reviews, enhancement of ScotSID and working with partners in key settings to address any gaps in data and intelligence.
• We will work with partners in high-risk settings for suicide, to build effective and compassionate suicide prevention action plans.

We will continue to build relationships with policy leads across Scottish Government and COSLA to ensure we build the conditions required to support delivery of the whole of Government actions identified in the action plan and support the development of new actions. We know that work cannot just happen at a national level and that work across our communities is essential to achieving the strategy’s vision. Through our test of change approach in communities, we will enhance our relationships with Community Planning Partnerships who have a key role in supporting and delivering local suicide prevention activity - with local leadership provided by Chief Officers in their role as leads for Public Protection.

A significant amount of suicide prevention work is delivered through local steering groups. Each Local Authority area has a designated lead for suicide prevention – these leads are supported to develop local action plans through their local partnerships and with the assistance of Implementation Leads based in Public Health Scotland (PHS). Building on previous years, the last year has seen an improved approach to work and communication between national and local levels. This has enhanced the opportunities for local suicide prevention leads to influence and be partners in delivery of national action, including work on peer support, locations of concern, bereavement support and Time, Space, Compassion. Over the coming years we will continue to build on this, working closely together to build connections across areas, share good practice, build capacity and ensure learning from local work is shared at a national level.

The tables below set out actions over the coming year(s). Actions are set out under the most relevant outcome; however, this is mainly for ease of presentation - the majority of actions have relevance across outcomes. Outnav will help to set this out more clearly over future years.

A budget of £2.6 million to support delivery of this plan has been confirmed for 2024/25. The indicative budget for each action is set out in the tables from page 4 below. In addition to these figures, the following commitments have also been agreed by the Suicide Prevention Scotland Leadership group and approved by Scottish Government to support and enable delivery of Creating Hope Together.