National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG): third annual report

Conclusion

• The Scottish Government Programme for Government 2021-22 has committed to doubling suicide prevention funding to £2.8m per annum by the end of the current Parliamentary term. We welcome this undertaking and will offer advice to support strategic financial planning.

• We also welcome the work that is already underway by COSLA and the Scottish Government to develop a new long-term suicide prevention strategy for publication next September, as we recommended in our COVID-19 Statement. We look forward to engaging with this development process and in due course to supporting delivery of the strategy itself.

• We are grateful individually and collectively for the opportunity to continue to support delivery of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan Every Life Matters in this extended year.

• We greatly admire and are inspired every day by the generosity of our Lived Experience Panel members, and by the hard work of our delivery leads, academic advisors, local suicide prevention leads, many volunteers across the country and all who share our passion for preventing suicide and the terrible impact it has on those who are left behind.

• As members of Scotland's National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, we believe that no suicide should be considered inevitable and that we all have our own roles to play in preventing suicide. Together with you, we will continue to play our role in saving lives, because every life really does matter.