Independent Review into the Delivery of Forensic Mental Health Services: progress update report 2024

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In March 2019, the Minister for Mental Health, Clare Haughey, commissioned an Independent Review into the delivery of Forensic Mental Health Services, chaired by Derek Barron, Director of Care at Erskine (the “Barron Review”). The final report, published in February 2021, made 67 recommendations under 6 separate themes to improve the quality and delivery of Forensic Mental Health Services.

The Scottish Government welcomed this report and published their response in October 2021. The response outlined the Scottish Government’s view on each of the recommendations and what the next steps would be.

This report aims to provide an update on the progress of the recommendations and should be read in conjunction with the final report of the Barron Review and the Scottish Government Response.

1.2 Recent Publications

Several new publications within the Scottish Government are fundamental to delivering the Barron recommendations. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, published in June 2023, lays out the Scottish Government and COSLA’s long-term vision and approach to improving the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in Scotland. One of the strategy's key priorities is improving support for those in the forensic mental health system.

The associated Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Delivery Plan 2023-2025 and Mental Health and Wellbeing: Workforce Action Plan 2023-2025 were published, jointly with COSLA, on 7 November 2023 and includes an action to progress issues identified by the Barron Review, such as continuing to bring together stakeholders to agree on a clear plan for addressing the strategic planning and governance of forensic mental health services. The Workforce Action Plan builds on our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care, published in March 2022, which sets out our vision for the health and social care workforce.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review (Scott Review) final report was published in September 2022. It made over 200 recommendations for changes to laws and how they worked in practice. In June 2023, the Scottish Government published our response to the Scott Review and committed to establishing the Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme. The programme will look at how we can update and modernise our mental health and capacity legislation to better reflect international human rights standards.

The initial delivery plan under the Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme was published in June 2024. This is an important first step in describing the work that is underway or will be immediately progressed as we start to establish the programme. It describes our approach to this work and sets out a range of actions that are either underway or planned up to April 2025. The Scottish Government is aware of the Barron Review and Scott Review recommendations that have potential crossovers and is working to explore these.