Report on the inquiry into the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland published
On Friday 13 May , the Health , Social Care and Sport Committee published its report on the inquiry into the health and wellbeing of children and young people .
The committee agreed to undertake an inquiry in October 2021 , and the following month issued a call for views based on four key questions . It also used the Your Priorities engagement platform to receive ideas from young people about the key issues facing them in relation to health and wellbeing , before holding a series of informal and formal evidence sessions at the beginning of this year .
RCOT submitted a response to the committee ’ s call for evidence and Suzanne Shields , Occupational Therapist and Care Group Lead for Occupational Therapy – Children and Young People NHS Lanarkshire , represented RCOT at the committee ’ s evidence session .
The report is split into six sections , these include : physical and mental health ; the impact of poverty and inequality on health and wellbeing ; care experienced children and young people ; Whole Family Wellbeing Fund ; the role of schools and youth services in supporting health and wellbeing ; and the long-term strategy and universality .
Several of the committee ’ s recommendations are relevant to occupational therapy , including calls to :
• Increase funding for sport and physical activity , accompanied by an overarching national strategy and a multi-year funding programme .
• Ensure that the long-term impact of the pandemic remains a key consideration in the future design and development of mental health services and support for children and young people .
• Prioritise investment to further increase the capacity of CAMHS and reduce waiting times .
• Prioritise training of the mental health workforce in line with the NHS Education for Scotland ( NES ) knowledge and skills framework and consider strategies for actively encouraging greater diversity in recruitment of mental health professionals .
• Embed mental health education into the curriculum to reduce mental health stigma .
• Prioritise spending to mitigate the adverse impact of poverty on the health and wellbeing of children and young people .
© Ridofranz via Getty Images
In the report , RCOT was referenced in relation to poverty and access to green spaces , while Suzanne was quoted as arguing for children and families to be given free access to physical and leisure activities , and also when discussing the need for Scotland to move from a crisis response model of support to providing additional early intervention support .
When giving evidence , Suzanne referenced the Ready to Act transformational plan brought out by the Scottish Government in 2016 .
‘ That is partly about ensuring that children and young people access services at the right time and in the right place ,’ she said , ‘ as well as what the right opportunities for them might be .
‘ It also sets out a much more tiered approach , with universal , targeted and specialist services . That is where we can look at having early intervention and prevention before families , children and young people reach crisis point .’
Read the full report at https :// bit . ly / 3wUXssG . Read RCOT ’ s full response at https :// bit . ly / 3MM5nzd .
Addition of pre-registration doctoral level route into occupational therapy in the UK
After carefully considering the different views and findings from our community discussion events , RCOT has decided to support the addition of a pre-registration doctoral level entry route into the occupational therapy profession in the UK .
This will be an additional route , it will be one of many options for entering the profession .
In January 2022 , RCOT held a series of community discussion events to collect your views and listened to those you shared online too . Your views were wide and varied and from these , eight themes have emerged : value ; visibility ; viability ; expectations ; perceptions ; equity and diversity ; accessibility ; and clarity of vision .
These themes will give RCOT focus as it works with education providers , employers and workforce leads , people accessing occupational therapy services and people with diversity of lived experiences to establish this additional route .
RCOT is committed to making sure this route is accessible and meets the needs of the profession and people accessing services . To support this , it has hosted a series of events for ongoing community dialogue , where people were able to explore these themes and help identify the immediate and ongoing actions that are needed .
You can find out more about each theme in our project summary https :// bit . ly / 3NUULhq .
12 OTnews June 2022