The Scottish Government, Young Scot and SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) worked in partnership to deliver a 16-month Youth Commission on Mental Health Services. This involved discussions, encouraged debate and gathered evidence towards developing recommendations and actions to improve the experiences of young people when accessing mental services in Scotland. The Youth Commission is made up of young people aged 15 to 25, from different backgrounds and with a variety of experiences from across Scotland.

Over the course of the 16 months, we have developed a set of solutions and recommendations, with and by young people, for the Scottish Government, other service providers and multiple sectors to consider.

These recommendations focus on how child and adolescent mental health services can be developed and improved for young people in Scotland both now and in the future, as well as ensuring young people receive the best care possible around their mental health and wellbeing. By using Young Scot’s innovative co-design approach, we were supported to develop informed insights, ideas, recommendations and solutions for policy and practice in relation to child and adolescent mental health services. Being able to lead throughout this process has meant that young people were at the heart of influencing the development and improvement of mental health services in Scotland.

At the beginning of the Commission there was a real need for more work to be done surrounding children and young people’s mental health. Since then, there has been a clear focus on the topic of mental health and involving children and young people in the changes being implemented. It has been amazing to see how the landscape has begun to improve already, and we hope that it continues to do so. It has been a great learning experience and has shown us that if young people put their minds to it, we can make a real change.

The Youth Commission and the recommendations we are putting forward are part of this fundamental shift in the mental health landscape, ensuring children and young people are involved innovative change in Scotland’s mental health.

You can view a preview or download a PDF version of the full report below.