In the third of our series examining the policy promises being made by Scotland’s main political parties in the run up to this week’s Holyrood elections, we focus on mental health.

All but one of the main parties include a focus on mental health in their manifestos.

Reform UK commits to investing in the NHS and prevention to improve health in general, but makes no policy commitments in their manifesto specific to mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Several – the Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour and the SNP – commit to working towards achieving ‘parity’ between mental and physical health services.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats say they will guarantee year-on-year real-terms increases to the mental health budget to deliver their mental health plan.

Scottish Labour too says it will increase funding for mental health services, seeking to match the proportion spent elsewhere in the UK, and will create a ‘mental health emergency service’. Labour wants to see community mental health professionals in GP surgeries and will expand the use of digital therapies as part of improving self-referral pathways.

The Scottish Greens also promise year-on-year real-term increases in spending on mental health and funding of specialist practitioners in GP practices. They want integration joint boards to get additional funding for community mental health provision.

This year’s prize for the most effective engagement with political parties – as measured by direct promises in the manifestos – goes to Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH).

The Scottish Conservatives, SNP, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens all commit to rolling out a network of walk-in mental health support hubs, each citing SAMH’s Nook network. The Scottish Greens also use the example of Thrive in Edinburgh.

The SNP says it will spend up to £10 million over the next three years to deliver five new hubs.

The parties focus on the different wellbeing needs of particular groups of people.

The Scottish Conservatives will establish a dedicated mental health hub for veterans.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats, as well as rolling out mental health first aid in every workplace, say they will transform perinatal mental health support for those who are pregnant, new mothers and those who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth and their families.

The Scottish Greens will improve access to specialist mental healthcare to address health inequalities experienced by the LGBT+ community.

The SNP says that it will improve mental health support tailored to disabled people as part of its Disability Equality Plan.

Mental health emergencies

Scottish Labour will create a new ‘emergency mental health response service’ staffed by specially trained paramedics, nurses and mental health professionals so, they say, ‘people in mental health crisis get specialist NHS care, not merely a police response’.

The Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Greens also commit to models where mental health professionals rather than police officers are the first responders to people in crisis. The Conservatives say this would be part of a wider ‘Right Care, Right Person’ model. The Greens say a trauma-informed approach will see funded community crisis services step in.

The SNP says it will roll out 24/7 ‘Mental Health Triage Cars’ across Scotland and expand the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub to offer psychological therapies.

Children and young people

The SNP and Scottish Greens will invest in ensuring every child has access to school counselling.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats will ensure teachers are trained in trauma-informed practice and suicide prevention, and all have mental health first aider skills.

The SNP says that for every child who receives a diagnosis of a chronic or life-threatening condition, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) ‘support will be offered to help them to process and manage their life-changing condition’.

Scottish Labour will provide better support for children and young people on CAMHS waiting lists, with a dedicated Community Link Worker service in all CAMHS teams, ‘to create wraparound support from the point of referral so kids don’t have to wait for the help they need’.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats also commit to creating dedicated mental health beds for children and young people ‘north of Dundee, addressing the scandal of long journeys for treatment and people being separated from their support networks’.

The Liberal Democrats, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Greens all address the current crisis in services for people seeking diagnosis and support for neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and autism.

The Liberal Democrats say they will abolish ‘rejected referrals’ by integrating CAMHS into ‘a new wider system of multi-disciplinary support, with safety nets and ladders so that families are never sent back to the start of the process of seeking help’.

The Scottish Greens will integrate youth work with local and national mental health support and referral systems.

Meanwhile, both Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats will introduce a national neurodevelopmental pathway so that neurodivergent people of all ages can get the right support sooner, rather than being referred onto waiting lists for mental health services.

 

Read about some of the manifestos published by Scottish organisations ahead of the Scottish election: Dementia care in Scotland failing families; BMA: 2026 can be “watershed moment” for NHS; Parties must explain how they’ll save the NHS; Call for care home nurses to be given pay parity; More younger Scots dying from stroke; Call to address climate impact of medicines

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