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This annual report from Suicide Prevention Scotland, covers progress on the second year of delivery of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Strategy, Creating Hope Together.

Introduction

After a period of wide engagement and consultation across all sectors and with members of the public, Creating Hope Together (CHT), Scotland’s Suicide Prevention 10 year Strategy and the first 3 year action plan were published in September 2022. Creating Hope Together sets out a vision to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. To achieve this, all sectors must come together in partnership, and we must support our communities, so they become safe, compassionate, inclusive, and free of stigma. Our aim is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life, or are affected by suicide, to get the help they need and feel a sense of hope.

The strategy also sets out seven guiding principles which are embedded in all the actions and form our ways of working. These are:

1. We will consider inequalities and diversity – to ensure we meet the suicide prevention needs of the whole population whilst taking into account key risk factors, such as poverty, and social isolation. We will ensure our work is relevant for urban, rural, remote and island communities.
2. We will co-develop our work alongside people with lived, and living, experience (ensuring that experience reflects the diversity of our communities and suicidal experiences). We will also ensure safeguarding measures are in place across our work.
3. We will ensure the principles of Time, Space, Compassion are central to our work to support people’s wellbeing and recovery. This includes people at risk of suicide, their families/carers and the wider community, respectful of their human rights.
4. We will ensure the voices of children and young people are central to work to address their needs, and co-develop solutions with them.
5. We will provide opportunities for people across different sectors at local and national levels to come together, learn and connect – inspiring them to play their part in preventing suicide.
6. We will take every opportunity to reduce the stigma of suicide through our work.
7. We will ensure our work is evidence informed, and continue to build the evidence base through evaluation, data and research. We will also use quality improvement approaches, creativity and innovation to drive change – this includes using digital solutions.

The annual report published in August 2024 provided detail of progress over the first year of implementation of the action plan. At the time it was published, Suicide Prevention Scotland, our delivery collective, were working to establish our monitoring and evaluation systems. This work has continued over the second year of implementation, and we now have theory of change pathways in place for all actions contained within the action plan.

The four long-term outcomes set out in the strategy are:

Outcome 1 – The environment we live in promotes conditions which protect against suicide risk – this includes our psychological, social, cultural, economic and physical environment

Outcome 2 – Our communities have a clear understanding of suicide, risk factors and its prevention – so that people and organisations are more able to respond in helpful and informed ways when they, or others, need support

Outcome 3 – Everyone affected by suicide is able to access high quality, compassionate, appropriate and timely support – which promotes wellbeing and recovery. This applies to all children, young people and adults who experience suicidal thoughts and behaviour, anyone who cares for them, and anyone affected by suicide in other ways

Outcome 4 – Our approach to suicide prevention is well planned and delivered, through close collaboration between national, local and sectoral partners. Our work is designed with lived experience insight, practice, data, research and intelligence. We improve our approach through regular monitoring, evaluation and review.

The theory of change pathways help to demonstrate the contribution the actions are making towards these long-term outcomes.

This second annual report has been produced for the Scottish Government by Suicide Prevention Scotland supported by Matter of Focus using the outcomes-based software tool OutNav. The report provides an update on progress on delivering the action plan over 2024/ 2025 and on achieving the outcomes. This includes the development of Suicide Prevention Scotland and our approach to delivery to ensure the guiding principles are embedded in our work.

The appendices set out a red, amber, green (RAG) status and summary of progress across each outcome with a description of progress against the milestones set out in the 2024/2026 delivery plan.

This has been the first year we have reported in this way. While we have come a long way in progressing this work, we know it is not perfect. In any work which takes an outcome focused approach, there is a need to review and refine work to demonstrate impact across outcomes over time. This work is no different, and we will continue to improve and refine our reporting using this methodology to ensure we are demonstrating the impact of the work while we continue to deliver the actions.

We know that across Scotland there are many people involved in delivering activity to support people at risk of or affected by suicide. Suicide Prevention Scotland is beginning to realise our ambition to create a community of people working across the country to prevent suicide. The report and its appendices include reflections from people involved in delivery of work at both national and local levels, people with lived and living experience and other stakeholders which help to demonstrate what is working well and where improvements can be made.

Included in the appendices is a summary of feedback from local Suicide Prevention Leads who are based across every local authority area, this summary only captures a fraction of the work in local areas which is often supported by multi-agency steering groups.

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