Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have a quick supplementary that relates to your answer to Alasdair Allan about health issues.

Lots of women and children have fled from Ukraine, but now we are seeing older people, people with disabilities and people with health conditions beginning to leave, because they have no home to stay in. I flag up the fact that people may arrive with quite a range of health conditions—their need could be as basic as needing free medicines. I hope that the Scottish Government is considering the range of support that people will need for their health and for post-traumatic stress, and not just in the future—it could be that people need that support from day 1, as soon as they arrive.

You have given us some points to go on. Thank you.

I want to follow on from the first two sets of questions from Jenni Minto and Maurice Golden. On the one hand, it is clear that there is quite a lot of support for the principle of social prescribing, with very good experience on the ground showing that that works. On the other hand, as Maurice Golden has mentioned, there is a lack of multiyear funding, which means that organisations cannot develop the connections with the health sector to enable people to be recommended. Equally, the organisations cannot plan ahead and guarantee that there will be fair work. At previous meetings, we have heard evidence that Covid has knocked the creative sector for six because it has become a hand-to-mouth existence for freelancers and people have had to move out of the sector.

What do you recommend as a way to kick-start that, given that we do not have the networks and the funding? Is it to get money and a commitment to multiyear funding in place? What do you advise us to ask the Scottish Government to do now to start to get the mechanisms in place?

Yes, it does answer the question and the point that you made about business support for the creative sector in particular, given the circumstances, is something that comes across quite loudly. In response to Jenni Minto and Maurice Golden, you referred to the disconnect between the ambitions and the reality. That is definitely something that is worth us reflecting on.

It has been good to hear about where we could get different funding streams from. One of the things that you mentioned in your earlier evidence is the principle of local infrastructure projects. Could you say a bit more about the concept of the per cent for art scheme and local investment, and could you say how you would make sure that that reaches local communities so that they influence what money is spent on, rather than that being, as you described it, something in the middle of a roundabout?

That is very useful—thank you.

Yes, and that means that Governments have to think and plan ahead and be much more strategic. As you have observed, it is year 6 from leaving and we are not at that point yet. Professor Menon, it was interesting to get your take on what different future Governments might do on alignment—about whether they might choose to align on most issues and then potentially innovate in areas where they are prepared to put in subsidy and Government investment. You gave the example of solar panels to Maurice Golden and, presumably, Governments could invest in other renewables, but they have to be strategic and think long ahead and put chunks of central Government money in to kick it off.

That is a useful insight. Maybe there could be something like a kick-start fund to get things going. We could then think about the three-year funding that you talked about to enable longer-term investment and ensure that care and safeguarding issues are picked up so that we are not making people with mental health issues more vulnerable.

Diana, do you have any insight into how we could make this happen and kick off that approach?

In a way, we probably need both, because prevention is as critical as supporting people once they have had a crisis or incident.

I draw colleagues’ attention to a good report that was published this week that highlights the work of the Whale Arts project. It is about mapping cultural dispersal by the Edinburgh festivals. A point was made earlier about spreading investment so that it is not just in Edinburgh and Glasgow but, even within Edinburgh and Glasgow, the social barriers to accessing culture are huge.

We very much need to pick up the evidence that we have just heard, convener.

I thank the witnesses for the fantastic submissions that they have sent us in advance, which are very much in tune with what we have been discussing.

On the one hand, we have the evidence from Creative Scotland that says that key parts of the cultural sector risk collapse after Covid. There has been a decade of cuts to local authorities, which has impacted on community culture massively, because it is not core funding.

On the other hand, we have the evidence that you are giving us about the preventative impact of spending on culture. Jenni Minto talked about this week’s CPG meeting on culture in the business sector, and we have had the culture in communities evidence. That all aligns with your evidence today, and it tells us that it makes economic, financial and human sense to invest in social prescribing.

How do we do this? We are a committee that gives recommendations to the Government, but it feels as though social prescribing should be part of a fast-track Covid recovery. Young people with mental health issues cannot get that support, yet it could potentially get them back on track so that they do not have to miss years of progress in their lives.

We have the budget, so what are the triggers to lift the issue up? We all agree that preventative spending makes sense but, as Robbie McGhee has just observed, some of the research has been out there for more than a decade and Campbell Christie made his recommendations a decade ago. What is the trigger that would help us to come out of Covid and on to the right track? What would you recommend?