Agenda item

This report presents the draft new Suicide & Self-Harm Prevention Strategy for Kent & Medway (2026-2030).

Discussion:

The Strategic Head of Service Public Health introduced the report on behalf of the strategic cross county Suicide Prevent Group, which meets every three weeks and work in collaboration on the production of the strategy and delivery of the actions. This was a single strategy for children and adults which had specific individual strands for each cohort. The core elements of the strategy were a strong focus on training as well as campaigns such as ‘release the pressure’. The strategy also detailed the link between poverty, self-harm and suicide and also focused on access to support and bereavement services.

The Committee was shown a video on ‘the Kent and Medway Baton of Hope’ which was part pf the 2025 nationwide Baton of Hope Tour, the world’s biggest suicide prevention campaign.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·        The Baton of Hope campaign – the campaign was commended for being inspirational and Medway for being part of such a campaign raising awareness on an important topic that affected many lives.

·        Use of language - comment was made that the use of terminology such as ‘committing suicide’ needed to be addressed as the word ‘committing’ alluded to ‘breaking the law’. It was however important that people continued to feel confident and have space to hold open and frank conversations about self-harm and suicide.

·        Support for male victims of domestic abuse – in response to a question regarding what support there was for male victims of domestic abuse, the officer undertook to provide a detailed briefing note.

·        The role of charities and the community – it was commented that many charities and organisations also did a lot of work to raise awareness and should be commended for all their hard work. In addition to the work being undertaken by organisations and services, it was acknowledged that we all had a duty of care as individuals to others in society to raise awareness and engage in conversations regarding self-harm and suicide to dismantle the taboo around this topic.

·        Single strategy – it was asked how confident the teams were in the decision to have a single strategy for children and adults and the officer said that this was the first time the two had been merged and self-harm included in the strategy. It was however pointed out that although the strategy was overarching, the action plans underpinning the strategy were different for children and adults.

·        Railway suicide - in response to comments regarding how suicide involving the railway was often covered in the press, with concern as to how access areas were highlighted, the officer acknowledged that more work needed to be undertaken to address this. It was further asked how effective the partnership was with Network Rail and the officer said that rail operators were extremely supportive and reactive to incidents. There was significant work being undertaken behind the scenes on preventative work by rail operators who also provided high standards of training and resource for their staff.

·        Suicide rates – it was commented that the suicide rate for Medway was higher than Kent and that it was concerning that this was not a Medway specific strategy. The officer said that since publication of the strategy, the current data (from the 2025 publication by the Office of National Statistics) showed that there had been a decline in suicides within Medway from 12, to 10.3 per 100,000 of the population of Medway. Whilst there were challenges working cross county, this was a strategy that benefitted from a strong partnership approach and the network meetings were well attended by partners. Additionally, whilst Medway and Kent worked together strategically, the actions included separate local actions when appropriate.

·        Targeting particular communities – it was commented that some communities did not speak about self-harm and suicide and that some faith groups did not always recognise mental health issues, which was a factor in suicides.  Additionally, some faith groups were reluctant to reach out for help, and it would therefore be beneficial to target awareness and the training offer to those groups. The officer said that Ward Councillors had contact with hard to reach groups and would be instrumental in getting the message across. All Councillors were encouraged to raise awareness in the community and to contact officers with any ideas and suggestions to connecting with hard to reach groups.

Decision:

a)     The Committee noted the report and recommended the Strategy, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report, to the Cabinet for approval.

b)     Officers were requested to provide a briefing note on domestic violence support for men in Medway.