Seòmar agus comataidhean

No, thank you. Do you know why I will not take an intervention? When you went into coalition with the Tories in the [Inaudible.]—

First, I pay tribute to our outstanding health and social care workers across Scotland. The past few years have put an immense strain on our healthcare system and its workers. Despite those stresses, and in the face of unprecedented and unimaginable challenges, those who work in the sector have continued to provide exceptional service.

As we look ahead, no one in the chamber is under any illusions about the challenges and the difficulties that this winter will bring. We all know that extremely tough times lie ahead. This winter, it will take the combined efforts of national and local government, working alongside all our healthcare partners, to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

Make no mistake, however: while Labour members stand here and criticise, healthcare staff and services are under strain not just in Scotland, despite what they would like us to believe. In every part of the United Kingdom, the NHS faces significant pressures. To my mind, the similarities end there. Why? What separates us from other parts of the UK?

We have a Scottish Government that cares, that has a strong and steady leadership and that has plans. We have a health secretary who recognises the challenges that lie ahead and is totally committed to improving performance and delivering positive change. Contrast that with our English counterparts, and I know who I would trust to safeguard the health and wellbeing of my family, friends and loved ones.

Labour has highlighted its concerns about our A and E departments. What we will not hear from it is the knowledge that our accident and emergency departments are performing better than those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, the staffing levels of the NHS have grown for 10 consecutive years. Although the staffing and funding are already at historically high levels, the Scottish Government will continue to look to maximise and enhance wherever possible as we approach the winter period.

It is recognised by the Government that the current level of performance is not acceptable. No one here will deny that. That is why, earlier this month, the health secretary outlined in his winter resilience overview several actions for the coming winter months, backed by more than £600 million of funding. By April this year, more than 1,000 additional healthcare support staff and almost 200 registered nurses had been recruited to help to address our services’ challenges.

In the past year, staffing levels have increased by more than 2,800 permanent full-time-equivalent roles. The Scottish Government is investing in further recruitment and taking action through the £50 million urgent and unscheduled care collaborative.

I have listened with interest and some disbelief as my Labour colleagues have spoken of thousands of beds being blocked due to delayed discharge. I get the sense that, in their desire to criticise and condemn the Scottish Government, they lack some self-awareness. There can be no doubt that Brexit and the introduction of new United Kingdom immigration procedures have had a profoundly damaging effect on social care. However, the Labour Party continues to eagerly embrace the Tories’ extreme Brexit and all of its overwhelmingly negative impacts.

EU workers have made a hugely positive contribution in the care sector for many years, and they represent a vital component of our country’s social care workforce. However, Brexit and the Tory party’s yearning to take back control of the UK have created a shortfall in care services, which, in turn, has had severe knock-on effects on emergency and urgent care. The whole system becomes blocked when there are not enough care workers to provide support services for people who are leaving hospital. That leads to gridlock and backlogs through the entire system. If people cannot leave hospital due to a lack of social care, patients are stuck in A and E while they wait for hospital beds. People who have needed an ambulance have been left waiting because the ambulances have been waiting for transfers of patients.

Only this week, we all heard Keir Starmer’s determined and short-sighted answer when he was asked about rejoining the EU: “It’s a straight no”. That shows that Labour and the Tories are increasingly two sides of the same coin. Both are completely unwilling to stand up and do what is best for the people of Scotland.

Just imagine what our NHS could do with the £770 million a year that is spent on mitigating Tory policies.

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to grow and encourage primary Gaelic-medium education. (S6O-01442)

Gaelic is thriving not just in Scotland but across the world. There has been a 72 per cent increase in interest in Scottish Gaelic-related content over the past few years, and more than a million people have taken a Gaelic course in the language learning app Duolingo. How important is it that action is taken to ensure a sustainable future for the language that is such an important part of our heritage and our cultural identity?

Individuals who are unable to heat their homes and unable to have food at regular times will be susceptible to greater illness, which will place greater strain on health and social care services over winter. What additional impact will the increase in the cost of living have on demand for NHS and social care services over winter?

I thank my colleague Elena Whitham for securing this important debate.

It is not surprising that the clear focus of this year’s challenge poverty week is the current cost of living crisis and the threat that it poses to people on low incomes. The campaign shines a light on the support that exists for solving poverty, through policies that ensure that no one in Scotland has to live in the grip of poverty.

Poverty is widely considered to be not having enough money to meet basic needs, including food, clothing and shelter, with a household being considered to be in poverty if its income is less than 60 per cent of the average income for that household type. However, it is about more than not having enough money; it is about a lack of choices and a lack of options. It is about the uncertainty, the insecurity, the exclusion from society and living one day at a time. It is about being so completely consumed by hardship that it affects every single decision that a person makes. It is about the lack of resilience and fearing for the future.

In modern-day Scotland, no one should have to experience poverty, but the stark reality is that it impacts the daily lives of more than 1 million people in Scotland and one in five people across the United Kingdom, with many families being only one wage, one disaster or one missed bill away from crisis. We all know that there is no one cause and no one solution—the results are different in every case. That is why this week of awareness and the opportunity that it presents to champion the work that is being undertaken by organisations and communities across Scotland to alleviate hardship continue to be so important.

In addition to the many national groups, local organisations and volunteers do amazing work to mitigate the worst effects of hardship. We are fortunate to have a Government that cares about community and families and is committed to tackling the root causes of poverty and child poverty. With a particular focus on three main drivers of poverty reduction—work and earnings, social security and household costs—Scotland has seen record investment of almost £8.5 billion committed to support low-income households between 2018 and 2022, with almost £3.3 billion benefiting children.

Measures such as the introduction of the Scottish child payment, an increase in the number of real living wage-accredited employers, more funded hours for early learning and childcare, the delivery of 35,000 affordable homes and the expansion of universal free school meals have all helped to support families both immediately and in the long term. In total, the Scottish Government’s package of five family benefits for low-income families will be worth more than £10,000 by the time the family’s first child turns six, and worth £9,700 for second and subsequent children. That compares with less than £1,800 for an eligible family’s first child in England and less than £1,300 for second and subsequent children.

In its 2022 UK report, it was recognised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that the benefits system in Scotland is increasingly different from that in the rest of the UK, with mitigation of some of the most poverty-increasing UK Government welfare reforms of the past decade. The two child limit on income-related benefits, the benefit cap and the five-week wait for the first universal credit payment are just some of the elements that have caused untold damage to families. Figures show that, if the UK Government was to reverse its reforms, that would put an estimated £780 million in the pockets of Scottish households in 2023-24 and help to lift 70,000 people, including 30,000 children, out of poverty.

Those figures are astounding but, for me, it is real-life experience that makes the reality hit home. Before I conclude, I will highlight a conversation with a constituent that took place last month. An elderly woman visited my constituency office to discuss her anxiety about the current cost of living crisis. While we were discussing the impossible task of balancing her pension against exorbitant energy prices and rocketing food costs, she told me that when she is at home, she would normally have the television on in the background for most of the day as she lives alone and it is company for her. However, now, she looks ahead and plans which programmes she really wants to watch, and she will only turn on the television then, for fear of being unable to afford her electricity bill. That elderly woman is sitting at home every day with no heating, no light and no company. How many more of our older people are sitting in a cold and dark home, feeling lonely as they desperately try to avoid being dragged into poverty, all because of the actions and policies of a callous and uncaring UK Government?

That is not acceptable. We all have a duty to work together to ensure that no one is left behind, but that is not happening. The UK Government must act now to address the crisis that is crippling the entire country before even more people find themselves in financial distress.

Kinghorn surgery in my constituency has now been without a full-time GP for several months. What assistance can the Scottish Government give to resolve that issue and provide reassurance for my constituents?

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to primary care services as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. (S6O-01317)

It has been great to see Fife embracing Scottish Government initiatives such as developing the young workforce, which is the national strategy for strengthening links between business and education. Does the minister agree that the link between schools and employers to engage, inform and inspire our young people is proving to be instrumental in helping to support our young people to prepare for the world of work in our developing local economies?