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No decision has been made on those things—they are on the table as part of the co-design process. I repeat what I said earlier to Mr Mason: we also have to take cognisance of where there is already good service delivery. Why would we make a change for change’s sake if there is already good service delivery?

We will keep an eye on this as we move forward, but I cannot reiterate enough that the statutory responsibility still rests with local government and that no decision has been taken by the Parliament to make any changes to that position. As the bill progresses, local government will remain statutorily responsible. I hope that, for reasons of good governance and stewardship and to ensure that people get things right for their citizens, local authorities will continue to recognise their statutory duty and to do their best in relation to service delivery for their constituents.

You are right to point out that this is not a new approach. We have used it previously and with some success for Social Security Scotland.

We have launched the co-design panels, and we are looking for partners to promote the sign-up of front-line staff to the lived experienced experts panel. To support that, the NCS programme will shortly advertise introductory seminars, which people will be able to sign up to online. There will also be co-designed training, which will be associated with a number of specific themes that we will send you more detail on.

With regard to timelines, we will write to you, convener. However, work will be on-going. We have got to get this right, and we have to continue to consult and co-design.

As for balancing the views of competing interests, we managed to do that fairly well with Social Security Scotland. Some of the folk whom we involved in co-designing that organisation are at the forefront of helping us with the national care co-design. I will put all that in more detail in writing to the committee. I have pages of notes before me, convener, but I am quite sure that you do not want to sit and listen to me for another hour.

My response is that, as I have said today, we will continue to update forecasts, business cases and everything else as we move forward. I reiterate the point that I have made again and again today: the financial memorandum covers what is in the bill. CIPFA, COSLA, SOLACE and others want answers to things that are not contained within the bill; they will get those answers, but they will have them after the co-design and when the business cases have been built up. I think that there is a big difference between what they want the financial memorandum to address and what is actually in the bill. As I have said, the financial memorandum covers what is in the bill.

Sometimes it is very difficult to build that evidence base. I gave the example about stepped-up and stepped-down care, but can I—or, indeed, those folk in Aberdeen—tell you in the here and now how many folk have been prevented from going into hospital? That is a very difficult thing to do. It is not so easy to work out what that stepping up has or has not done.

However, we know that the approach has been helpful for people. We can make the broad assumption—and it would not be far off the mark—that it has probably saved a lot of people from going in through the hospital front door. It is also one of the reasons for the lower number of delayed discharges in Aberdeen compared with many of our other cities. As I have said, these things are sometimes very difficult to measure, particularly in the short term, but the broad assumption that the approach has been helpful in keeping folk out of acute services would not be off the mark.

I am not afraid of pinching, stealing or plagiarising, Ms Callaghan. We will have a look at the dashboard that education is using and consider whether it would be useful to us as we move forward.

Gosh—I think that I have that number somewhere, but I am not sure that I can find it. [Interruption.] Oh! Ms Bell has the information—she is much more on the ball than I am.

The independent review of adult social care estimated that approximately 36,000 people who would benefit from access to social care support do not have access to it at the moment.

We have committed to enhancement by £800 million, but we have had no indication from the UK Treasury of what money we are likely to get as a result of the rise in national insurance. Ms Webber might be able to help the Scottish Government in that regard. If she has a word in Rishi Sunak’s shell-like so that we finally get some numbers out of him and find out how Scotland will benefit, I might be in a better position to answer her question. However, we have committed to the £800 million.

It is challenging—there is absolutely no doubt about that. A lot is going on in the social care sector. I am very lucky with the team that I have, which Gillian Barclay is part of and which is headed up by Donna Bell, and what they are doing at present. As I do, they recognise that we cannot wait for the national care service to make some of the change that is required. That means that we are having to do a lot of work—much of it at pace—to try to ensure that we are doing our level best for people in the here and now as well as formulating what change is required for the future.

For example, Gillian Barclay is looking on a daily basis at the pressures on social care right across the country; she is involved in the social care gold group, which meets fortnightly, and in my discussions with the cabinet secretary about health and social care partnerships, national health service boards and local authorities so that we improve the current situation.

The committee will be well aware of the pressures out there at the moment. We are not trying to hide from the fact that those pressures are out there and what the cabinet secretary and I and the team are doing is trying to ensure that the best practice that is going on out there is exported across the country. We are giving help and advice where we can to health and social care partnerships, NHS boards and local authorities in order to meet the challenge that is most definitely there.

I have said previously to the committee that we are at a precarious time in the pandemic. Lots of folk think that the pandemic period is over, but there are still huge pressures on the workforce. There are still folks off with Covid—the number is lessening, thank goodness, but other pressures are on the go at the moment. We are doing our best to be helpful in alleviating some of those pressures so that we can get back to some kind of normality.

A huge amount is going on and, as I say, I am very lucky to have the team that I have in Government. They are very active and we will continue to work at pace, not only on the formulation of the national care service but on reinvigoration as we recover from the pandemic.

Yes, I do. Thank you, convener.

As you will be aware, Audit Scotland recognised that our commitment to a national care service indicates our recognition of the significant challenge within social care in Scotland. Indeed, the findings of the Audit Scotland report were largely in line with the independent review of adult social care that was led by Derek Feeley, which is precisely why we are acting now to further increase investment in social care and deliver a national care service by the end of this session of Parliament.

I am clear, though, that we should not wait to establish the national care service to take action where it is needed. Therefore, the Scottish Government will increase public investment in social care by 25 per cent over this session of Parliament so that, by the end of the session, we will have budgeted over £800 million more than current spending for increased annual support for social care.

In the latest programme for government, we restated our commitment to transformative social care reform, including the development of options for the removal of non-residential charging for adult social care. In addition, I have committed to invest £50 million over the life of this parliamentary session to support the regulation and development of the social services workforce through the Scottish Social Services Council. For unpaid carers, the Scottish Government announced an additional £4 million to help organisations working with unpaid carers to put expanded services in place.

Other more immediate action that I am happy to take questions on includes support for the workforce to address recruitment and retention issues, and work that is under way to develop the healthcare framework for adults living in care homes in Scotland.

For the interim steps, as well as the establishment of the national care service, we are committed to listening to the voices of lived experience. Conversations with those with lived experience are already informing our review of self-directed support. Keeping those with lived experience at the heart of our decision making will help us to shape a system that improves future services and makes things better for everyone.