Seòmar agus comataidhean

In its guidance, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities cautions that eliminating charges will “restrict” the quality of support that is provided to the general population who rely on such services. Simply put, Labour’s plan risks taking money away from the front line.

The reality is that many of us will have care needs at some point in our lifetimes. At other points, we might need to deliver care to a loved one. However, it is clear that the status quo in social care cannot continue. We have seen several initiatives from this SNP Government to address the worsening situation, but social care has suffered from a gap between what was promised and what has been delivered.

Just this week, a GP from Laurencekirk healthcare centre in my region reported that social care shortages mean that

“things are becoming potentially unsafe.”

A general manager from NHS Grampian added:

“the biggest challenge we have is access to care packages ... That gap of unavailability of care packages for these patients slows down the whole of the system.”

Figures show that in Aberdeen city, 38 per cent of care services are reporting vacancies. In Aberdeenshire, the figure is 34 per cent; in Dundee, it is 37 per cent; and in Angus, it is 21 per cent. The main reason why services find it hard to fill vacancies is that there are too few applicants with experience.

The social care system is under immense strain from a pandemic, but, as the Feeley review emphasised,

“the vast majority of the challenges we are addressing ... pre-dated Covid-19 and will outlive the pandemic”.

That has happened not just under the SNP’s stewardship; but under Scottish Labour’s.

Scottish Labour’s proposals and the SNP-Green Government’s National Care Service (Scotland) Bill failed to measure up to the significant social care challenges that face us, from an ageing population that is putting more pressure on supply to poor workforce planning. The income from non-residential social care charges is invested in high-quality social care services.

Meanwhile, the SNP-Green Government’s National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will pave the way for a centralising, bloated bureaucracy that will be established by the end of the current session of Parliament, years from now. At an estimated cost of £1.3 billion, the creation of such a bureaucracy will divert precious resources away from the front line. Hundreds of back-office staff will be employed to oversee a top-down system that scraps local accountability. [Interruption.] The minister might not be interested in what I have got to say, but it is respectful to at least listen to contributions.

Why should care in Aberdeenshire, Angus, Aberdeen and Dundee be dictated from St Andrew’s house in Edinburgh?

Earlier this year, Audit Scotland stated firmly and unequivocally that

“A clear plan is needed now to address the significant challenges facing social care in Scotland based on what can be taken forward without legislation”.

The Scottish Conservatives have published commonsense policy recommendations for how care can be improved now, without top-down reform, which include a local care guarantee to make sure that no individual has to access care miles away from their community. It is important that individuals have access to care that is not miles away from their community, family and support networks. At the very least, I hope that there is consensus on that point in the chamber this afternoon.

I will proceed.

Official figures that were published last Tuesday reveal that more than a quarter of children and young people are still not being seen within the target of 18 weeks for referral to child and adolescent mental health services. In fact, the Scottish Government has never—I repeat, never—met its target in that regard. Yet the SNP-Green Government has found the time to commission and publish a paper—the first of many, apparently—on building a new, independent Scotland. That is another distraction from the SNP’s woeful record on the delivery of public services.

As if that were not enough, Audit Scotland, which scrutinises how the public purse is spent, faces having its “wings clipped” for shining a light on Government failings that long predate the pandemic. In particular, the spending watchdog has repeatedly raised a red flag on CAMHS. It has said:

“Serious concerns have existed for years about access to children and young people’s mental health services.”

The committee rightly looked at CAMHS during its inquiry and suggested a number of recommendations to address lengthy waiting lists and workforce capacity.

The report commends the work that NHS Grampian, in my region, has undertaken to improve waiting times for CAMHS, but I emphasise that that turnaround took roughly 10 years. That is time that the system simply does not have. As the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland has made clear, at one stage last year, more than 1 in every 100 young people was being referred to CAMHS. We cannot leave Scotland’s children and young people in limbo any longer.

The committee highlighted the role of schools in supporting health and wellbeing. I am pleased that schools have started to embed counselling services, but I am aware that there is a shortage of qualified and accredited counsellors in parts of the north-east, which means that some services might not be fully up and running for some time. We constantly come up against poor workforce planning by the SNP Government, and our public services are poorer for it.

The committee called on the Scottish Government to set out how it intends to increase rates of physical activity among children and young people—especially girls and young women. In her evidence, the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport said, in relation to low participation levels in women’s sport:

“you cannot be what you cannot see”.—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 1 February 2022, c 35.]

In my region, there are some exceptional women who are leading the way in that area. They include Montrose Football Club Women, who recently won the Scottish Women’s Football Championship; Aberdeen-based cricket team Northern Lights, who won their debut match in the Women’s Premier League; and Hollie Davidson, who was the first female to referee a men’s six nations side in a test match. Those are the successes that we must celebrate and share to improve participation in women’s sport and achieve parity of recognition with men’s sport.

It is abundantly clear that the SNP-Green Government has the levers it needs to improve our public services, from health to education. This is not a question of powers but of good governance. The SNP needs to get its own house in order, yet it is already thinking about building a new one. Let us rebuild Scotland, not divide it.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I cannot hear Mr O’ Kane because there is a conversation going on.

I am delighted to speak in this afternoon’s debate. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee carried out its inquiry into the health and wellbeing of children and young people before I became a member. I pay tribute to the convener, clerks, members, witnesses and stakeholders for such a substantial piece of work on a vital topic.

The committee’s inquiry was wide ranging, which is a reminder that so much has a bearing on the health and wellbeing of our young people—even before the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is taken into consideration. I am especially pleased to see recommendations from the committee that relate to the mental and physical health of young women and girls. I sincerely hope that we will see action in those areas. What happens during the formative years can hugely affect later life, so we need to get our approach and interventions right.

The starting point of the committee’s inquiry was this question: is Scotland the best place for a child to grow up in? Given that the committee made 99 recommendations, there is still a long way to go, but that needs to becomes the reality.

In the past few weeks, the education secretary and the First Minister have been at odds over the timeline for closing the educational attainment gap. On the keystone policy commitment of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP Government, the situation has got worse on the Government’s watch. There was a real-terms cut of almost £15 million from the children and families budget in the most recent spending review, but—predictably—the SNP still managed to find £20 million to fund preparations for another independence referendum.

Will I get the time back, Presiding Officer?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would have voted yes.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would have voted yes.

We all agree, I think, that the additions to the inquiry’s scope that were announced today are welcome.

The Law Society of Scotland suggested that consideration should also be given to Covid-19 in prisons and legal custody, in order to learn lessons for the future. Will the Deputy First Minister indicate whether that, along with the early release of prisoners as a result of the pandemic, will fall within the remit of the inquiry?