It’s been a difficult summer for many of our VOX Scotland group members and for the mental health sector in general as funding promises have been broken and resources within most Integrated Joint Boards just don’t exist. This means commissioners are facing impossible decisions, but, it is mental health services which once again are the first to be cut. We exist in a landscape of national strategies which are saying all the right things, high quality inpatient services supported by a choice of appropriate community-based services to keep people well and out of hospital, however it’s going to be impossible to deliver these strategies if the community-based services can’t keep the doors open.
In response, in July, VOX Scotland and the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA) wrote to the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and the Cabinet Secretary for Health, supported by over 30 organisations to express our joint concerns around the potential erosion of collective advocacy provision for people with experience of mental illness. What started as a gradual decline across the country is now becoming a catastrophic loss.
At the end of September, Suzanne Swinton and Rhona Willder from SIAA, along with Natalie Stevenson and Heather Knox from VOX Scotland met with the Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing.
We asked the Minister how aware he was of the picture at a local and national level and the apparent dichotomy between national strategy and service provision at a local level and whether that was purely a question of funding or a mismatch of priorities? The Minister advised that he has written to Local Authorities and IJBs reminding them of their statutory obligations and his expectation that they will meet them. He asked us about our perception of the current situation and its root causes, at which point we were able to discuss finances, structural stigma, different interpretations of the legal obligations across the country, a lack of understanding (among IJBs) as to what good advocacy looks like and human rights, and SIAA asked for a review of the commissioning guidance for advocacy services, which the Minister took away as a suggested action.
We also asked the Minister about his commitment and timescales in terms of progressing the implementation of the Mental Health Law Review, which includes recommendations around increasing provision of advocacy services. The Minister advised progress is being made and that an early priority within this is reform within Adults with Incapacity (AWI). VOX challenged this because progress on AWI has been too slow, leaving everyone who contributed to the Mental Health Law Review feeling dejected, and we emphasised the need to push for additional areas of the Review to be implemented, not just AWI.
We had time to reflect on progress within the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the next delivery phase for this work and to comment on the upcoming budget process. We shared the VOX Scotland response submitted to the Health Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny on mental health. The Minister spoke of additionality and the need to look at where spend in one area can impact others as opposed to one budget area taking away from another
So, what is next? We are looking to continue our joint engagement with SIAA and the Minister and are keen to ensure he is really hearing voices from organisations across Scotland. We need to know more about what is happening for groups, where funding is available and where contracts are being lost or are at risk. We will be doing some research so that we can build a campaign that supports local groups and collective advocacy. We must ensure that everyone has access to advocacy and that we level up provision across the country, ensuring access to a choice of services at a local level.
Please keep talking to us and sharing your experiences, please tell us if you know services that have had their funding cut so we can build a national picture. Prevention, early intervention, and community-based care can only work if local services survive and thrive. Once they are gone it will be too late.
Natalie Stevenson, Vox Scotland Manager