Integration Joint Board

Date of Meeting: 2 September 2026

Subject: Suicide Prevention Task Force Annual Brief 2025/26

1. Purpose

1.1

To present the Suicide Prevention Task Force Annual Brief for the period 2025/26 for Members’ information.

2. Recommendations

The Integration Joint Board is invited to note:

2.1

The Suicide Prevention Task Force Annual Brief 2025/26 attached as Appendix 1 to this report.

3. Background

3.1

In Spring 2022, a multi-agency Young People’s Suicide Prevention Task Force was established which was jointly chaired by the Corporate Director for Education, Leisure and Housing, Orkney Islands Council, and the Chief Officer, Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership.

3.2

Following weekly meetings, it was agreed in the Summer of 2022 to expand the meeting to become the Suicide Prevention Task Force with the Task Force widening membership to include key professionals from adult services.

3.3

The Suicide Prevention Task Force has continued to meet regularly since the Summer of 2022, providing a collaborative focus upon reducing the impacts of suicide in our communities through joint working and shared initiatives, brought into focus by the Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

4. Suicide Prevention Action Plan

4.1

The Scottish Government published the Creating Hope Together: Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022 to 2032, in September 2022.

4.2

The Suicide Prevention Task Force developed a local Action Plan to progress the four outcomes from the national Strategy. This Action Plan was presented to the Integration Joint Board in April 2025.

4.3

A Plan Summary, attached as Appendix 1 to this report, has been developed which details the actions, the responsible officer and a target end date.

4.4

At 31 March 2026 there were two completed actions, three actions on track, two actions which are indicating a slight delay or minor challenge and one action which indicates a significant challenge or delay.

4.5

Monitoring of the Action Plan is undertaken regularly by the Suicide Prevention Task Force and an annual report will be presented to the Chief Officer Group and the Joint Clinical and Care Governance Committee.

5. Contribution to quality

Please indicate which of the Orkney Community Plan 2025 to 2030 values are supported in this report adding Yes or No to the relevant area(s):

Value	Description	Supported
Resilience	To support and promote our strong communities.	Yes.
Enterprise	To tackle crosscutting issues such as digital connectivity, transport, housing and fuel poverty.	Yes.
Equality	To encourage services to provide equal opportunities for everyone.	Yes.
Fairness	To make sure socio-economic and social factors are balanced.	Yes.
Innovation	To overcome issues more effectively through partnership working.	Yes.
Leadership	To involve partners such as community councils, community groups, voluntary groups and individuals in the process.	Yes.
Sustainability	To make sure economic and environmental factors are balanced.	No.

6. Resource and financial implications

6.1

There are no resource or financial implications directly arising as a result of this report. Where actions may require resourcing, both in terms of time and funding, this will be met from existing budgets across all Partners where required.

7. Risk, equality and climate change implications

7.1

While there are no risk implications directly arising as a result of this report, the Action Plan aims to promote support for local people who are in distress.

7.2

There are no climate change implications directly arising as a result of this report.

8. Direction required

Please indicate if this report requires a direction to be passed to:

Organisation	Direction required
NHS Orkney.	No.
Orkney Islands Council.	No.

9. Escalation required

Please indicate if this report requires escalated to:

Organisation	Escalation required
NHS Orkney.	No.
Orkney Islands Council.	No.

10. Authors and contact information

10.1

Stephen Brown (Chief Officer), Integration Joint Board. Email: stephen.brown3@nhs.scot, telephone: 01856873535 extension 2601.

10.2

Callan Hunter-Curtis (Public Protection Lead Officer), Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership. Email: callan.curtis@orkney.gov.uk, telephone: 01856873535 extension 2604.

11. Supporting documents

11.1

Appendix 1: Suicide Prevention Task Force Annual Brief 2025/26.

IMAGE: The OHAC logo identifies the Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership.

Orkney Suicide Prevention Plan 2025-26

Annual Brief of Activity

2025/26

Appendix 1

IMAGE: The cover presents an aerial view of an Orkney causeway crossing clear blue and turquoise water, with the titles “The Orkney Partnership”, “Working together for a better Orkney”, “Orkney Suicide Prevention Plan 2025-26” and “Annual Brief of Activity”. It is marked “Appendix 1” and “2025/26”.

Suicide Prevention Task Force

Annual Brief 2025/26

Introduction and Welcome

Welcome to the first update of Orkney’s Suicide Prevention Plan (Annual Brief of Activity).

This report is the first of its kind and will be provided on an annual basis to provide an overview and update to the work of the Suicide Prevention Task Force in Orkney. For this first report we take a look back at the progress made over 2025 to 2026.

Our first comments are my thanks to our partners who have worked tirelessly to progress this important agenda in Orkney. The efforts of all involved have been cruicial to the success of the projects undertaken and will continue to play an important role into 2026 and beyond.

The challenges of addressing Suicide Prevention in Scotland is well recognised and displayed in Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-2032 – Creating Hope Together.

The national Plan has provided us with the framework to promote and overcome challenges and I am proud to be able to provide you with an update on our successes as well as outline the challenges we aim to address over coming years.

Our vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Orkney, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. To achieve this, all sectors must come together, working as part of, and with, 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 when they need it and feel a sense of hope . We aim also to ensure that families affected by suicide are fully supported.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report and I look forward to telling you how we progress over 2026.

Sincerely,

Stephen Brown,

IJB Chief Officer and Chair of the Orkney Suicide Prevention Task Force

IMAGE: The page includes a portrait of Stephen Brown, IJB Chief Officer and Chair of the Orkney Suicide Prevention Task Force, alongside partner logos for OHAC, Orkney Islands Council, NHS Orkney, Public Health Scotland, Police Scotland, VAO, the Orkney Partnership and Creating Hope Together.

Suicide Prevention Task Force

Annual Brief 2025/26

Overview

As mentioned the Scotland’s Suicide Prevetion Plan 2022-2032 - Creating Hope Together provided a robust guide for our our apporach to suicide prevention in Orkney, an approach which was aligned and supported by a correlation to national developments.

Within the Creating Hope Together Plan, Scottish Government outline 4 Outcomes:

Outcome	Description
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.

IMAGE: A four-row colour-coded table presents the four Creating Hope Together outcomes: Outcome 1 in yellow, Outcome 2 in green, Outcome 3 in blue and Outcome 4 in purple.

These outcomes focused the way in which we structured our action plan, ensuring we engaged with those who have lived experience to determine our priorities for the year ahead.

Our key local actions were aligned with the outcomes of Scotland’s wider Suicide Prevention Strategy with each action colour co-ordinated and numbered, prioritising clarity and ensuring linkage. The colours above are used on the next page to highlight where outcomes and actions meet.

Suicide Prevention Task Force

Annual Brief 2025/26

The Action Plan

The Action Plan is recorded as below with an end of year position and BRAG status provided. BRAG status is Blue, Red, Amber and Green, the meaning of which is outlined below:

Blue means the action is complete.
Red indicates a significant challenge or delay.
Amber indicates a slight delay or minor challenge.
Green means everything is on track.

IMAGE: A four-colour BRAG key explains that blue means the action is complete, red indicates a significant challenge or delay, amber indicates a slight delay or minor challenge, and green means everything is on track.

No.	Action Descriptor	Responsible	By When	End Year Position	BRAG Status
1.1	Launch and promote and Orkney Suicide Prevention App	Public Protection Lead Officer / Inspector Police Scotland Kirkwall	June 2025	SOS Orkney was launched in March 2025, ahead of schedule. The app has been growing over time with 124 active users at present. Of those 124 we estimate that 12 people are using the app regularly. The reach of the app has been vast with inclusion of the app and developments in an American University study. This has been supported by our colleagues who have promoted the app with clients and service users. Although complete, next steps include development over 2026 to bring the app onto existing App Stores and move away from the progressive web app design.	Blue
1.2	Increase the uptake of Motivation, Action, Prompts (MAP) Health Behaviour Change Training to relevant health and social care staff	Advance Health Improvement Practitioner	April 2025 – March 2026	Training continues to be offered regularly. Over 2025/26 4 sessions have been offered. The most common participants were Healthcare staff with small numbers form Social Care and Third Sector colleagues. Notably, the uptake is high although there were several late cancellations/non-attendance. This will be explored further over 2026/27 with further progress expected.	Green
2.1	Organise a Suicide Prevention Conference	Suicide Prevention Task Force	September 2025	On the 25th of September Orkney held the First Suicide Prevention Conference at the Pickyquoy Centre. The event was well attended by 101 people, with a split of roughly 20% members of the public and 80% staff from our partner organisations. Attendance from public groups in Orkney was seen, such as LGBTQ+ Orkney, the Youth Café, some from our farming and fishing communities and many others. We had a variety of speakers for Suicide Prevention Scotland, RSABI, 3-Dads Walking, Soma’s Light and the SOS Orkney App development team. The conference was seen as a success with attendees rating it a 4.42 out of 5. The speakers were well received, and responses indicated a good balance and approach for the first event. Learning was sought from attendees which has been considered and will be worked into plans for a second event in 2026.	Blue
2.2	Attend existing community groups to talk about Suicide Prevention	Suicide Prevention Task Force		Talks continue with groups across Orkney, including Young Farmers, attendance at the Come Ashore Cup and with our teachers across our secondary, primary and nursery schools in Orkney. More conversations are planned, and we are always delighted to have more discussions with anyone who may be interested in learning more.	Green
3.1	Establish access to suicide bereavement support in Orkney	Suicide Prevention Task Force	March 2026	Although exploration of this work has successfully completed with a clear understanding held of training available to staff which the Task Force can support further work is required to get this action back on track. Over 2026 this will be a priority for the Task Force where consultation and engagement with our local agencies with ensure progression and success.	Amber
3.2	Establish 3 Mental Health Practitioner roles to ensure that GPs can access appropriate support for patients at an early stage	Head Of Primary Care Services	December 2025	With a challenging and changing fiscal environment in Scotland money that had been ear-marked by Scottish Government for investment in Primary Care Mental Health resource has been paused. Further work is underway to explore the Primary Care Improvement Fund, but the outcome of these discussions is, as yet, uncertain. We expect clarity on the deliverability of this action prior to the end of this financial year.	Red
4.1	Establish a minimum data set to help inform the Suicide Prevention agenda	Public Protection Lead Officer	September 2025	Input was provided from Public Health Scotland to support the taskforce to understand areas of best practice in collecting data supportive of the Suicide Prevention agenda. Work is underway considering options of what can be provided. Initial testing has required further review of the available data which has caused slight delay. As with other measures it is expected that data challenges will be overcome in 2026 with initial estimations between March to June. This will be supported by the implementation of MORSE, a software which will be used by NHS professionals. MORSE has greater data analytical capabilities which will support embedding of key data streams and improve our understanding of the current challenges in Orkney as they present.	Amber
4.2	Work with pre-existing groups supporting those touched by suicide, and other interested individuals, to hear the voice of the lived experience	Suicide Prevention Task Force	April 2025 – March 2026	The Taskforce has prioritised learning from lived experience. This has ensured the voices of those with lived experience help us improve and are at the heart of everything we do. Proactive work has been completed with support groups such as Suicide Prevention Scotland, RSABI, 3-Dad’s Walking, Soma’s Light and Public Health Scotland to ensure our developments are aligned to the needs of our community. John Gibson, CEO of the Canmore trust also supported our efforts with a visit to Orkney during screenings of the “Low Road” at the Pickyquoy Centre. Our partners play a proactive role in this, working with those who have lived experience of suicide. To support with the Suicide Prevention Conference our partners supported Panel Discussions, Networking and Facilitated Tabletop Discussions to support conversations and raise awareness. These conversations will continue, being an integral part of everything we do.	Green