 Ieithaf ymlaen iawn i'r eich bwrdd, oedd oedd yn credu cymrif â'r fonaeth a'r bwrdd ymlaen i'r byw sydd iawn i'r ddweud? Felly, mae mor ffio i'r blaenau M1183 i gael Jenoe Gazieau ond mae'r dweud inni o ddweud. Mae hyn yn ddweud wedi gondol wedi bod yn enw ei ysgolwch i gael rhai â'u ddechrau, rwy'n iddyn nhw. Rwy'n ddweud angen i'r ddweud, rwy'n meddwl i'r ddweud I am delighted to be speaking today in my first members' debate on mental health education in schools, an issue that I care passionately about. Exactly a week after I was elected, I was contacted by my constituent, Rachel, who is currently in S5 at Glenothys High School. She wanted to know why teaching about mental health was not a compulsory part of the curriculum. She wanted to know why LGBTQ issues were not discussed openly in personal and social education lessons. She quoted GERFET, the Scottish Government policy, which aims to support the wellbeing of our children and young people by offering the right help at the right time to the right people. If the Government is to close the attainment gap and drive aspiration and ambition in the next generation, then I believe, like Rachel, that it is imperative that schools get to grips with mental health education. We were all at school once, so we all think that we know about education. However, whether you sat O grades or standard grades, national 5s or 6th-year studies, a commonality remains. To succeed academically, you need to be supported. However, when 74 per cent of young people do not know what mental health services are available in their area, it is clear that teachers, pupils and schools need support and direction from the Government in delivering that aspiration. I have noticed in recent weeks that the Government conflate the terminology of attainment and achievement. You may have noticed that those are different words. Attainment is a narrow measure of academic success. Achievement, however, is a far broader concept. It can be about your contribution to the whole school, about playing for your school football team, about applying yourself in class to the best of your abilities. That is not something that you can necessarily measure with a test. I would argue that, without our schools building in opportunities for our young people to achieve, we will never fully be able to close the attainment gap. Schools, after all, should not be an exams factory. To that end, I was delighted by the cabinet secretary's announcement last week that mandatory unit assessments for national 5 and higher will now be removed. Our schools have a key role to play in preparing our young people for life, in skilling them with resilience, with confidence and with the attributes that they will need to cope in an ever-changing economy. Those are the fundamental principles of curriculum for excellence. But what is the picture for our young people in Scottish schools today? For girls, it is mixed. A recent EIS report entitled Getting It Right for Girls made for some pretty shocking reading. Casual misogyny was found to be commonplace, terms like man-up or using girly in a derogatory fashion, for example. This type of behaviour impacts upon girls' mental health directly, because it makes them feel unequal. Last month, the Chartered Management Institute report showed that the gender pay gap in Scotland was the worst in the UK, 29.2 per cent, and the difference in earnings of £11,000 between men and women. As Rachael said, mental health education is of vital importance to pupils from the LGBT community. Indeed, a report by the Time for Education campaign found that 90 per cent of LGBT pupils surveyed experienced homophobia, biphobia and transphobia while at school. 72 per cent of those reported that the same bullying was not challenged by teachers, and only 4 per cent felt that the Scottish Government was doing enough to tackle it. It is clear that our schools need to do more to ensure that LGBT bullying is tackled head-on. Indeed, the associated link between that behaviour and poor mental health is evident. 42 per cent of respondents who had been bullied because of their LGBT label had attempted suicide once or more than once. Furthermore, a Stonewall Scotland report from 2014 highlighted that LGBT people were almost more than four times more likely than the general population to access mental health services. If pupils across Scotland are not taught about mental health, whether that be anxiety, depression, bereavement or low confidence, how can we say that they have been succeeded rather in preparing the next generation for the challenges that the world has yet to throw in their way? I do not have time just now, thank you. As the Samaritans have highlighted, young people in Scotland have some of the highest rates of health and social inequality in Europe and North America. CPAC Scotland has no evidence that children in low income households are nearly three times as likely to suffer from mental health problems than their more affluent peers. There is clearly a link between poverty and poor mental health. We know that poverty presents in schools. Last year, an EIS survey recorded an increase in the number of pupils coming to school without any food, not even a play piece. Presiding Officer, this Government is seeking to close the attainment gap, which exists between Scotland's poorest and wealthiest children. There must be a recognition, therefore, from the Government that children growing up in poverty face greater challenges in attaining academically. Conversely, schools need to focus their efforts around social and emotional support. The type of support that will build resilience and confidence, thereby enabling pupils to succeed academically, but also to go on and lead fulfilling lives, is the type of support that will further seek to challenge discrimination and intolerance. In its submission to the Government on the mental health strategy consultation, Sam H noted that the 30 per cent increase in the CAMHS workforce between 2009 and 2016 was notwithstanding. It also noted the increase in the waiting list for assessment and the numbers of young people being admitted for CAMHS treatment. Sam H further points to the fact that not all health boards are meeting the access to treatment target. I am sure that the minister will agree with me that waiting for mental health support such as CAMHS is not acceptable for young people, however, it can be devastating. Sam H is calling on the Government to include the assessment of mental health education in the school's inspection regime, and I am absolutely supportive of them in that aspiration. This time last year, I was a teacher. Every morning, I stood in front of my registration class for 15 minutes. That involves saying the school prayer, taking the register and reading the daily bulletin. It also involved listening to my pupils. For that reason, I have always found registration to be a fundamental part of the school day. Although it is now time for the Government to reflect critically on how mental health education is delivered, there is also a role for individual schools and particularly secondary schools to reflect upon how they timetable that first point of contact on the school day between pupils and teaching staff. I know that some local authorities have removed registration altogether, but from sexism to homophobia and from any type of bullying to bereavement, registration in the school day is a crucial time in which pupils often come to teachers with their fears. I know from experience. Health and wellbeing is a core curriculum area under curriculum for excellence. There is a whole page of curriculum content devoted to mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing. It is clear, however, that the Government needs to provide greater clarity to schools in developing a preventative approach to issues around mental health and to supporting resilience in the next generation. I understand that the Government is currently reviewing its mental health strategy, and I am grateful that the minister will be providing a response today. However, the strategy must contain a reference to the delivery of mental health education in our schools if it is to be truly effective. Young people need to know what good mental health means. They need to be taught about the importance of sport, for example, in developing positive mental health. They need to develop an understanding of how positive relationships with others can decrease depression and anxiety, for example. They need to be taught resilience within the safe space of the classroom, as Rachael explained to me in May of this year. I hope that the Government will listen. I thank Jenny Gilruth for marking this as members' business and for giving us the opportunity to talk about mental health education in the chamber today. It is an area of health policy that has often been overlooked in the past, and I feel that now it is receiving the kind of attention that it deserves. I commend her for her persistence in pursuing the matter. Although there is a high degree of political consensus around mental health, we cannot let consensus breed complacency. Around a quarter of Scots suffer or have suffered from a mental health problem. That remains a staggering statistic. Given the stigma that still surrounds this issue, that figure may be higher still. I would like to concentrate my brief remarks on the Scottish Youth Parliament's report on mental health, which notes that the figure of one in four Scots is mirrored with young people who have suffered or suffer from a mental health problem. It is astonishing that half of all diagnosable mental health problems start before the age of 14 and three quarters by the age of 21. I had the pleasure, along with my colleague Miles Briggs, of meeting a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament last week. I was incredibly impressed with her passion to see change in the way we think and talk about mental health and the way we act upon it. Her message was loud and clear. It is the topic that is being raised in youth parliaments across the UK, and in their phraseology is truly an epidemic amongst our young people. As Jenny Gilruth notes in her motion, it is extremely worrying that 70 per cent of young people are unaware of what mental health services are available in their community. That is not just down to a lack of information, but, as the Scottish Youth Parliament's report notes, it is down to the subject of mental health just not being discussed enough in the classroom. That report says that discussing mental health is way down the list of priorities and that it is felt to be more important for you to get qualifications than to be healthy and happy at school. With that in mind, it is no wonder that only a tenth of young people feel that they would be comfortable talking to a teacher about their mental health. In my view, we need to act now so that young people feel confident and able to discuss mental health openly without fear of ridicule or accrimination. I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government will be publishing its strategy for mental health later this year, which will hopefully provide a blueprint for addressing the mental health needs of Scots of all ages, but particularly young people. We cannot just let that gather dust. Well-intention sentiments must be matched with action. Our party appointed to a pledge for an additional £300 million to be invested in improving mental health treatment over the course of this Parliament, and we would like to see some of that go towards mental health education. Deputy Presiding Officer, it is clear from the Scottish Youth Parliament's report and others that we need to work harder to deliver better mental health support in education, but also to ensure that all young people in particular are aware of where to find such support. The emphasis on early intervention in the Scottish Government's consultation paper is welcome, but as the Scottish Youth Parliament has noted, more needs to be done in schools to ensure that mental health becomes an open topic rather than a closed book. Thank you very much. I call Graeme Dey to be followed by Monica Lennon. Presiding Officer, let me begin by congratulating my colleague Jenny Goldruth for securing an opportunity to discuss this important issue. I apologise to you and the chamber for having to leave before the debate is concluded. The Scottish Government put a marker down in this area when it launched the Scottish Attainment Challenge in February 2015, in reference to delivery, not just in relation to literacy and numeracy, but health and wellbeing too, thereby joining the dots between the two. As Barnardo stated in his briefing for the debate, good mental health is integral to children and young people's ability to achieve and reach their full potential in education. We know that there can be a number of contributing factors to poor mental health among young people. I want to touch on a couple of those. First, bullying and mindful of the push to tackle LGBT bullying, which Jenny Goldruth highlighted. Of course, we would all be supportive of that, but it is important that we do not focus on that particular type of bullying to the detriment of others. Bullying is bullying, whether it concerns someone's sexuality, ethnicity or appearance. It is unacceptable on so many levels, not the least of which is the mental harm and the legacy into adulthood that I can leave. The second one that I must admit that I had not recognised until reading Marie Curie's briefing for the debate is the impact of bereavement. Any adult who has suffered the loss of a parent knows the impact, immediate and lingering, that can have. Imagine what it must be like for a youngster who does not have the emotional maturity that comes with adulthood and life experience. We are told that 2,500 parents die leaving 4,100 bereaved children behind each year in Scotland. Research suggests that there are more than 5,000 kids in our country who are significantly affected by bereavement and that 90 per cent of those at Paulmount Young Offenders institution have suffered significant bereavement in the past. Those are thought-provoking statistics that absolutely endorse the plans on the part of the Scottish Government to appoint a new national coordinator for childhood bereavement. How do we set about better supporting young people in this area? There is quite clearly a need for early identification of issues and for the creation of an environment within educational settings that increases knowledge and understanding and mental health, gives youngster's ready access to information and support that they might require in this area and the confidence to take advantage of that. We need to be able to head off a majority of issues long before CAMHS referrals become necessary. In developing such an approach, we must also, more than anything, listen to the views of young people themselves in order to understand what they feel they need and the form messaging might best take. Jenny Gilruth's motion notes the report by the Scottish Youth Parliament on this matter. I want to reference a comment from the report covering the lived experience of a youngster who, feeling isolated and alone, sought to self-diagnose online. The internet is a very scary place. It over exaggerates and the scaremongering is extreme. I was feeling sad at the start of the year. I googled how I was feeling. By the end, I was convinced that I had paranoid schizophrenia. It was terrifying. That comment really hammers home the need to ensure that troubled young people can easily access the right information and support. It was reported recently that more than 900 children in Scotland contacted Childline last year about suicide. That stat tells us that we are currently coming up short in the area of children's mental health. Let me finish on a positive note by highlighting a small example of good practice being implemented in my constituency, indeed at the primary school that my children attended. Deaf children often suffer from lowest self-esteem and mental health issues as a result of feeling isolated, particularly if they are the only child in the school who is deaf. Calogy primary in Cirmusti has a hearing support base for deaf pupils from across Angus. In that setting, I guess, isolation is less of an issue. Nevertheless, the base offers a communal area where deaf pupils can meet each other in the morning and discuss their day with the teacher of the deaf before beginning class, an opportunity to damagingly deny them in mainstream settings. That and the wider work done by the hearing support base is designed to develop confidence, positive self-esteem and ensure inclusion, thereby helping to address the mental health and well-being of the deaf pupils. That might sound like a relatively simple idea, which is targeted only by a relatively small number of young people, but successfully tackling mental health issues among youngsters will involve small-scale and large-scale measures. If we are to achieve that, we must ensure that no group is excluded. I am grateful to Jenny Gilruth for bringing this important motion to the chamber. As Scottish Labour's inequality spokeswoman, I welcome the opportunity to debate the contribution that mental health education can make to closing the attainment gap. Jenny Gilruth rightly refers in her motion to the worrying statistics collated by the Scottish Youth Parliament and others have mentioned today, which showed that almost three quarters of young people who have experienced a mental health problem did not know what support was available in their local area. We had to commend the Scottish Youth Parliament for its comprehensive research by enabling us to hear the voices of almost 1,500 young people from across Scotland. What was also concerning is that more than half of those young people in the survey said that they would not feel comfortable speaking to a teacher about their mental health, and that indicates that there needs to be a cultural shift to deal with what the Scottish Youth Parliament is calling our generation's epidemic. I am not sure if Donald Cameron was meaning Terry Smith, but I also had the pleasure of meeting Terry, recently the chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, and she taught me through the vital work that they were carrying out to uncover the truth about young people and mental health. I was also really moved by her own personal story about her own mental health recovery, and I feel that, by Terry speaking so openly, that will certainly encourage others to do the same. What is clear from speaking to Terry and other young people is that they feel that they are being failed by the system, the system that should be in place to support them, and it is putting young people at a disadvantage in the classroom. Jenny Gilruth spoke about Mid Scotland in 5. In Central Scotland, the region that I serve, there are dozens and dozens of young people unable to access the mental health services that they need. We have spoken about the CAMHS target, and I note that the minister is in the chamber today, and I look forward to getting an update on the efforts that are being made to address the waiting times, because it is simply unacceptable that thousands of young people are being left languishing on waiting lists for more than four and a half months, which amounts to more than an entire school term. Jenny Gilruth also highlighted the link between poverty and poor mental health. Last week at First Minister's question time, I raised this also with Nicola Sturgeon. The Scottish Health Survey shows that there is a real postcode lottery, and there is a link between deprivation and mental health that is just not improving. The Government has recognised that there is much more work to be done, and I hope that we see in the new mental health strategy some commitment to taking forward evidence-based targeted programmes to approve this dismal situation, this stubborn link between deprivation and mental health. We know that the treatment of young people with mental health is just as important as problems with physical health. We know that there needs to be a step change in the way that schools approach attainment to ensure that good mental health is embedded in the curriculum. The Scottish Youth Parliament is in a strong position to make recommendations. It is suggesting that Education Scotland should develop a mental health standard for schools to bring mental health into sharp focus in classrooms. Graham Day mentioned Barnardo Scotland. It has come up with some really good ideas in the response to the Government's consultation, and I hope that it will be taken on board. It is telling us that it feels that there is an over-emphasis on the medical model approach, and there should be more emphasis on the social model. The time for me project in Northern Ireland represents some really good practice, and I hope that the minister can take that on board when she is looking at the consultation responses. Wraparound support programmes provide opportunities to promote positive mental and emotional health through discussion around relationships, working with others, sex, drugs, smoking, alcohol and other health-related issues. For pupils who are having difficulties or distress, schools also have the capacity to offer support through mentoring or school-based counselling. That is a model that we can all learn from, and I urge the Scottish Government to look at the work by Barnardo Scotland in Northern Ireland as a new mental health strategy is being taken forward. I would also like to congratulate Jenny Gilruth on securing today's debate, and I am pleased to take part. I think that it is also important to recognise the classroom experience that she has brought on this issue to the chamber. I hope that those ideas are taken forward by the minister. I think that all of us will agree that mental health education is extremely important, and we must work to deliver a better strategy in the future that meets the needs of our young people. Early access to information and support can be crucial in preventing mental health difficulties among our young children and adolescents, developing into more acute mental health conditions as they progress. The mental health awareness and information has a vital part to play in making further progress to eliminate the stigma around mental health problems. Half of those with lifetime mental health problems first experience symptoms at the age of 14. Jenny Gilruth's motion references the Scottish youth Parliament's recently published report on mental health and mental health information, our generation's epidemic. As Donald Cameron has already mentioned, we both met with the youth Parliament last week to discuss the report, which has been a valuable and welcome contribution to the debate. As the motion suggests, it is concerning that the vast majority of young people who took part in the Scottish youth Parliament's research did not know what mental health information, support and services were available in their local areas. One of the key recommendations of the report was that schools, colleges and universities should all provide high-quality information about mental health. We believe that it is essential that that information is made available and that access is also user-friendly, where possible pupils and students should be involved in the process so that they can have their input in real terms to the type of information that they would like to receive and its design. Young people should be aware of what support is available for them in their local areas and that mental health and physical health are also looked at together. For a generation that is used to getting most of their information from the internet, it is also appropriate that young people are directed to safe online resources such as young minds and eye minds. Eye minds are working with young people aged 13 to 21 to create and share a wide range of online resources in a partnership between Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS SNUCC and the Mental Welfare Foundation. Social media also has a vital role to play in that, and companies such as Facebook and Twitter should also help to play their role in providing that information. I hope that that gives opportunities for existing geographical, age-specific advertising that those companies offer, and that they could be encouraged to provide that for free as part of their social responsibility agenda. I have written to both Facebook and Twitter to raise that idea, and I am happy to share that with members across the chamber once I receive a response. We also believe that age-appropriate information on local mental health support and services should be provided in GP surgeries, hospitals and other NHS settings. Informal peer-to-peer support at youth groups, clubs and voluntary organisations that work with young people is also vitally important. The last mental health strategy committed to increasing local knowledge of social prescribing opportunities, low-intensity treatments such as self-help and peer support, but Sam H has also pointed out that the process in meeting that commitment has actually been very slow. Such good work is being done in the voluntary sector to offer mental health education and support to our young people already, and I wish to commend Place2B, which is working with primary schools in some of Edinburgh's most disadvantaged communities to offer therapeutic and emotional support to pupils and their families. Today's debate is timely, and I hope that it will help inform ministers as they prepare the new mental health strategy and encourage them to ensure that mental health education is an integral part of that strategy when it is brought forward. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I join with others in congratulating Jenny Gilruth, not just on securing the debate, but in setting the scene very well indeed? I also thank the Scottish Youth Parliament for its work in this area. I think that, speak your mind, it is a thorough report. It articulates very well the nature of the problems faced and what gives rise to them. As important, it goes on to set out a number of recommendations in relation to information support and services, all of which are very practical and deliverable. I pay particular tribute to Orkney's two MSYPs, Jack Nugwoy and Thorfin Moffat, for their actions in promoting the report locally in Orkney, but I also think that it effectively articulates the specific islands dimension to that, whether in terms of the availability of services, the risk of isolation or whatever. I think that young people living in an island setting face specific challenges that perhaps others do not have to face. Before addressing the specifics of the report and today's motion, I want to make a couple of general observations in relation to mental health. I still feel that it has not been taken seriously enough, and that does shame us all. It affects around one in three people in this country during the course of their life, and we are still not open or honest enough about it. The impacts can be shattering on individuals, on family and friends and on wider communities. Ultimately, there is no good health without good mental health. That is why I believe that mental health needs to have parity in law with the treatment of physical health. If nothing else, that helps to drive budgetary decisions. The on-going lack of a mental health strategy is more than regrettable. I realise that it is in the offing, but I do not have time to address it in your wind-up. It is simply not acceptable that it has been allowed to lapse. I very much welcome Maureen Watt's appointment to the specific role, but I do feel that that needs to lead to the Government upping its game. As I outlined earlier, the damaging impact of poor mental health is widespread and well recognised, but particularly so for young people, not least in terms of shaping their life chances. That is illustrated perfectly well in the findings of this report. It can affect attainment, as Jenny Gilruth's motion rightly points out. Damaging relationships and attachment, undermining self-confidence and self-esteem and can exacerbate inequalities of health. It is important to remember that that affects those from all backgrounds in all parts of the country and is utterly indiscriminate in that respect. The Speak Your Mind report also paints an unsettling picture of patchy availability and awareness of services. I would put on record my gratitude to all those providing vital services in this area nationally, as well as locally in my Orkney constituency, the local mental health team, third sector organisations such as Samaritans, the Blyde Trust and counselling services. I declare an interest as a patron of OACAS. I look forward to taking part in a panel discussion at the Orkney youth cafe next month with a number of them, but I think that all of them would contend that they are under enormous strains, that gaps exist, delays are happening and young people are suffering as a consequence. I thought that that was a point that was made very, very powerfully by Jenny Gilruth in her opening speech. SYP's recommendations, as I say, are practical and might be chart a way of delivering improvements, whether in terms of a mental health standard for schools, availability of good information for children and young people in our schools and an action plan to promote good mental health. I think that that needs to form part of a wider effort, of course, but it absolutely needs to be picked up in the Government's overall strategy when it is finally produced. I thank Jenny Gilruth again for making this debate possible. I thank the Scottish Youth Parliament for its invaluable contribution on shining a light on an issue that still too often remains shrouded in stigma, ignorance and complacency. It is long past time that, as a country, we speak our mind and speak our mind clearly when it comes to the critical importance of good mental health. I thank Jenny Gilruth very much for bringing forward this motion, and I am very pleased to respond to the debate on behalf of the Scottish Government. I would like, however, to start by saying that Liam McArthur has got it completely wrong. We do and have had a mental health strategy. It is only that we are going to update it and take it forward for the next 10 years that I have been working on since I was appointed to this post. I think that those who work in the field of mental health and all the young people who have contributed through their various organisations realise that the Government, because of my position, is taking the issue very seriously and has been well received through the many organisations that I have met. The importance of mental wellbeing is recognised in raising attainment and closing the gap, and is a focus of many of the authorities and schools involved with the Scottish attainment challenge. Using nurturing and restorative practices approaches helps to create positive environments to encourage marginalised children and young people to learn, thrive and feel engaged. Health and wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in curriculum for excellence. Its substantial importance is reflected in its position at the centre of the curriculum and at the heart of children's learning, as well as the essential focus of the Scottish attainment challenge and the national improvement framework for education. Along with literacy and numeracy, health and wellbeing is one of the three core areas that is the responsibility of all staff in the school. Children and young people should feel happy, safe, respected and included in the learning environment, and all staff should be proactive in promoting positive relationships and behaviour in the classroom, playground and wider learning community. Jenny Goruth specifically mentioned the position of LGBT children, and we are providing as a Government £75,000 to LGBT Youth Scotland to underprin delivery of youth work to young LGBT people, including supporting their positive mental health. The Deputy First Minister recently met LGBT Youth Scotland to discuss what can be done to support those with LGBT issues. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of nurturing approaches in addressing and overcoming the barriers that some children experience in school. That addresses many of the concerns around equity outlined in the Scottish attainment challenge. Education Scotland has developed a national resource to support the development and practice of nurturing approaches for secondary schools. That will provide equal opportunities for all children and young people to learn and develop. Monica Lennon and Miles Briggs made good points when they said that people are not aware of what is available. People have heard of CAMHS, but, as many members who contributed mentioned, people might not necessarily need to wait for CAMHS. I am dealing with the waiting times, which is a separate issue, but they may require lower-tier intervention. Children's input is vital in that, but there are a lot of third sector organisations involved in that. On that point, does the minister accept that having counsellors based in schools might be part of the solution rather than on people having to wait to go to the CAMHS referral system? Having that support in school might just be a better approach. Absolutely. That is already happening in many schools. For example, we are providing £90,000 for place-to-be charity, providing school-gibbies and mental health services. That involves one-to-one counselling and group therapy, which is delivered. Miles Briggs mentioned it in Edinburgh, in Glasgow, and it is expanding to North Ayrshire. That deals with a wide range of social issues that might affect children's mental health. As well as Education Scotland developing the national resource, it is currently developing a national resource to support the development and practice of nurturing approaches for primary schools. The whole-school nurturing approach can promote school-connectedness, resilience and the development of social and emotional competences, all of which are key aspects of promoting mental wellbeing. If we take Jenny Gilruth's own patch, currently in five, six primary schools and three secondary schools are receiving support through the Scottish attainment challenge schools programme, with over 450,000 allocated to the primary schools in 2016-17. The funding is supporting improvements in health and wellbeing across the schools, with a focus on supporting wellbeing through the recruitment of educational psychologists and family support workers. I would like to highlight one example, saying to Kenneth's primary school in Lochgelly, which is funding a drugs, alcohol and psychotherapy worker to work with children and families to talk through concerns and worries about nurture, counselling and coaching support with the aim of reducing or negating social and emotional barriers to learning. I am very much welcome, as other members have done, the Scottish Youth Parliament's latest research on our generation's epidemic young people's awareness and experience of mental health information, support and services. That research has been undertaken as part of the SYP's Speak Your Mind campaign on mental health. I, too, met with the Scottish Youth Parliament on 21 September and I congratulate them on their fascinating and well-written document. I listened and took note of their recommendations that are specifically for the Scottish Government and will consider them as part of our public engagement on the new mental health strategy. During that public engagement, we have worked closely with the Scottish Youth Parliament to ensure that young people have had their opportunity to contribute their reviews on matters that affect them. I have also met with the Church of Scotland Youth Assembly on Sunday. I have met with Young Scott and the Coalition of Children's Services, all to help me to decide how to take forward the strategy. It is all part of our improvement agenda, which we have driven forward over the past few years through the delivery of our national mental health and suicide prevention strategies. I expect that the new strategy will focus on encouraging development of new models of managing mental health problems and primary care. I anticipate a very strong focus on early intervention and prevention, as Donald Cameron mentioned. It will certainly not be gathering dust under my watch. As soon as it is published, I will be taking it forward and driving it forward as long as I am in this post. There will be a focus on developing and measuring outcomes for mental health work. Part of the significant £150 million additional investment that the Scottish Government recently announced on improving mental health and wellbeing will directly contribute to that aim. The First Minister announced in January that part of that funding—£54.1 million—will go towards directly improving access to mental health services for adults and children. In February, we also announced a mental health primary care fund as part of our £10 million commitment to mental health primary care services and the wider transformation of primary care. Boards are working with partners and they can submit proposals for innovative approaches to mental health support and primary care. That provides a real opportunity to think differently about how services are organised. I look forward to the challenge and I look forward to working with members to deliver our ambition. Thank you. That concludes the debate. I suspend this meeting until 2.30.