Covid in Scotland: Summer schemes to boost young people's mental health
- Published
Summer schemes aimed at helping the mental health of young people most affected by the Covid pandemic are to receive £20m of government funding.
Councils across Scotland will be given £15m to provide "opportunities to socialise, play and reconnect".
A further £5m has been allocated to charities working with children and young people.
The projects will be targeted specifically at people aged up to 25 from low-income households.
The national sports agency, sportscotland, will receive £1.4m, while charities and partners taking part will include Mental Health Foundation (£300,000) and Play Scotland £384,000).
The Scottish government said the projects would be focused on young people who otherwise may not be able to afford summer activities.
'Primary concern'
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said young people in Scotland had made it clear mental health was their "primary concern" as a result of lockdown restrictions.
In England, the government's Covid recovery package for young people has partly been focused on "catch-up" funding for schools.
Most of the £1.4bn package announced by Boris Johnson will be for tutoring to make up for lost learning.
The government said young people had made clear how important it was that they reconnect with their friends
Shirley-Anne Somerville said Scotland's children and young people "have experienced significant disruption to all aspects of their lives as a result of Covid-19".
She said this included their wellbeing, education and social connections.
"They have told us that they need a range of activity to help them reconnect with their peers and friends. We have listened and taken action," the education secretary added.
Local authorities across Scotland have been asked to provide opportunities for children and young people to:
Reconnect with friends, peers, the wider community and the outdoors
Play, be active and enjoy themselves
The most council funding will go to Glasgow City (£2.249m), while Fife will receive £1.16m and North Lanarkshire £1.104m.
Aberdeen City Council said its £418,000 funding would cover free-to-access projects "from sports to science, arts and crafts to interaction with the city's wildlife and green spaces".
'Limited support'
North Lanarkshire Council said a specific focus of its funding would be in relation to children entitled to free school meals.
Councillor Stephen McCabe, of the local authority body Cosla, said national activities would be "guided by what children and young people say will make a difference".
He added: "Over the past year, children and young people have shown such resilience as the pandemic has limited many of the activities and support usually open to them.
"We are pleased that this additional funding will allow local authorities to build on their own regular summer programmes."
