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Name Suicide Prevention Leadership Group
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Provider Children in Scotland and University of Stirling
Young people from across Scotland have been recruited by charity Children in Scotland and the University of Stirling to advise Scotland's National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, feeding into policy around suicide prevention and support.
The group was established by the Scottish government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to bring together people with lived experience of suicide, academics, the third sector and statutory partners to support the delivery of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan.
The group was recruited to offer a youth perspective on the strategy's implementation and is formed by young people aged 16 to 25 with lived experience of suicidality, bereavement by suicide or mental health challenges.
Children in Scotland led on the panel's recruitment, using a process focused on targeting organisations working with young people with lived experiences. Chris Ross, policy, projects and participation manager at Children in Scotland, says: “Having the opportunity to talk to people who are already working with young people and show them this is going to be a safe, supportive environment, is really important.”
Around 12 young people were involved in the 2022/23 group, who fed into the Scottish government's approach to implementing its suicide prevention strategy. The group met monthly, with some meetings held online and some held in-person, with a focus on creating a safe space for the young people involved.
One member of the panel says that they valued “meeting people in person, having a chance for more connection, exploring more ways of taking our work forward, and being able to use more creative and inclusive ways of working together”.
Ross adds that creating a safe space during meetings was a priority for the project. “We took a really concerted effort to get to know each other at the start of the sessions over the first few months. There was a clear, laid out approach to ensure people felt safe to share how they access support in their lives.”
The group developed a co-produced charter to lay out how to create a safe environment for all involved.
One young person from the group describes the meetings as a “peer-supported safe space”.
Ross adds: “That's rewarding to see – that environment where people are looking out for each other, but also giving everyone the opportunity to share.”
Every young person involved in the project had a supporting adult to offer help and reassurance throughout the project. This could be a family member, or someone from a local community or third sector organisation, or from a mental health service already supporting the young person.
“I made contact with these supporting adults to give updates about upcoming meetings and flag up any welfare or safeguarding concerns, so the supporting adult can check in with their young person,” Ross says.
The panel fed into the group's work both directly and indirectly, Ross says. On some occasions, staff members would relay the young people's areas of interest to services and stakeholders involved in the delivery of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan and take the responses back to the advisory panel.
“Sometimes we will devise an activity or session around the topic that the young people want to speak to, and then we feed that back to those involved in delivery,” Ross adds.
Some services have also come along to speak with the young people, giving them the opportunity to engage with stakeholders and providers directly.
“We could see that there is a commitment to meaningfully engage with lived experience, rather than being tokenistic,” Ross adds.
One advisory group member says they felt “valued” for their contributions, and “empowered” by their role in the project.
