THIS Thursday Derek Mackay will set out the Scottish Government’s spending plans for the next financial year. It is crucial that the Budget statement is a Budget for Mental Health.

Along with the Scottish Association for Mental Health, the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition has called on the Government to invest heavily in mental health services for children and young people and to promise an additional £100 million a year for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), almost tripling the current budget. This would bring Scotland into line in terms of what is being invested in such services south of the Border.

The call comes on the back of new figures indicating that a mere 0.48 per cent of NHS Scotland’s budget is spent on CAMHS, amounting to just over £54m. In addition, only 6.34 per cent of the overall mental health budget is spent on these services.

These figures are despite the fact that around three children in every classroom have a diagnosable mental health problem and half of mental health problems are established by the age of 14. Faced with such increased demand, mental health services are cracking at the seams.

We applaud what the Scottish Government has done to move mental health up the agenda, but if it truly wants to achieve its vision of ensuring that people can get the right help at the right time and expect recovery, there must be the necessary resourcing to deliver adequate services.

If we are to make Scotland the best country in the world for children and young people to grow up in, when Mr Mackay delivers his Budget it is vital that he makes this a Budget for Mental Health.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition: Tom McGhee, managing director, Spark of Genius; Duncan Dunlop, chief executive, Who Cares? Scotland; Stuart Jacob, director, Falkland House School; Niall Kelly, managing director, Young Foundation

IN the distant past you went to a bus station to catch a bus, a train station to catch a train and an airport to catch a plane. Then 9/11 shattered our concept of relative safety.

In the immediate aftermath, a two-hour pre-flight arrival at the airport became the norm as the authorities struggled to upgrade security procedures at airports. Sixteen years on and it is time to have a calm and collected look at the situation.

In 2016 a total of 21.7 million people arrived or departed from the two main Scottish airports. While there might have been some net immigration, roughly 11 million people departed from the two airports.

Since 9/11, security procedures have been improved and it now takes 10 to 15 minutes to clear security and go to the departure gate. In 2017, a one-hour arrival before flight time would be adequate.

A recent passage through Edinburgh Airport shows that the authorities have not been blind to the marketing opportunities. Through security and you enter the world of up-market discount selling.

The Scottish Government and the Airport Authority have created a large tax-free zone on luxury goods.

The space and the employees should be better used to fulfill the function of an airport, which is to get passengers onto and off aeroplanes.

In 2016 at Scottish airports 11 million hours of people’s time was wasted. Many of these were business people, and this wasted time contributes to the low productivity in the Scottish economy.

These are luxury stores that can pay the rent and make a handsome profit from selling duty-free goods. As a taxpayer, you are avoiding tax on the items you buy. Somebody has to pay the bills and that somebody is you. Your taxes will go up to balance the government books, you are paying the rent for these stores and you are the source of their profits.

It is time for the Scottish Government to hold the airport authorities to account.

When you drop someone off at either airport you are now a hostage subject to payment of a fee before you can be released. This is the worst sort of intrusion into the free movement of people going about their lawful business.

It is time to re-examine the need for two-hour check-in and the payment barriers to exit an airport. In 2017, neither are necessary.

John Black
Helensburgh