SEVENTEEN organisations in Scotland have united in a demand for better funding of mental health services.

Ahead of publishing its draft budget next week, the Scottish government is facing calls from Scotland’s Mental Health Partnership (SMHP) for mental health and wellbeing to be at its heart.

SMHP — comprising 17 organisations including Bipolar Scotland, the Royal College of GPs, Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH), and the British Psychological Society — have called on the SNP-Green Scottish government to deliver on its pledges to boost spending in that realm by 25 per cent and increase it to 10 per cent of the frontline NHS budget by the end of the parliament.

But campaigners are concerned that those pledges may go unmet after it emerged that spending was running £180 million a year short of reaching those targets.

The finance secretary Shona Robison recently confirmed that funding had actually fallen by £30m this year.

SMHP chairman Lee Knifton said: “The Scottish government must act to meet its own stated commitment by agreeing a budget increase.

“We are therefore calling on ministers to increase spending on mental health to 10 per cent of the total NHS spend during the current budget process.

“We also call on ministers to restore the £30m cut from this year’s budget immediately.”

Mental wellbeing minister Maree Todd said: “Between the Scottish government and NHS boards, we expect spending on mental health to be comfortably more than £1.3 billion in 2023/24.

“The revised direct mental health programme budget for 2023-24 is still more than double the 2020-21 budget.

“Most of the spending on local mental health services is delivered through NHS board budgets — and this is not directly affected by the budget reprioritisation.”