Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. I will pick up on something that Elinor Jayne mentioned about the work that her organisation is doing on specific demographics—for example, LGBTQ+ people—having specific needs when it comes to treatment. I am interested in the fact that a lot of people find it very difficult even to get themselves through the door for treatment—you mentioned some of the barriers for that community. Is there on-going work and thinking about other cultural demographics? For example, people from ethnic minority groups might find the same issue with not having treatment services specifically dedicated to them. Has that come up?

Thank you. It is always helpful when people give examples of good practice that we can look into further.

We move to questions from Evelyn Tweed about funding.

Thank you. I want to thank the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session for the work that it did on the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill. It was a significant moment for the Parliament when the bill was passed.

I see that no one else wants to contribute and that the cabinet secretary does not want to comment further. Are members content for me to ask a single question on the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes consideration of the instruments. I thank the cabinet secretary and his officials for attending.

Okay. I take it that that is a point of information, on which you would like to hear from the Government, rather than a comment on the uplift.

I remind the committee that, during the formal debate, members should not put questions to the cabinet secretary and officials may not speak. I invite the cabinet secretary to move motions S6M-03315 and S6M-03316 and to speak to the motions, if he wants to do so.

Motions moved,

That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Forensic Medical Services (Modification of Functions of Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Supplementary Provision) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.

That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Forensic Medical Services (Self-Referral Evidence Retention Period) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Humza Yousaf]

I invite members to contribute to the debate.

Our second agenda item is an evidence session on tackling alcohol harms in Scotland. We have four witnesses, who all join us remotely. I welcome to the committee: Alison Douglas, chief executive, Alcohol Focus Scotland; Professor Niamh Fitzgerald, from the institute for social marketing and health, University of Stirling; Lucie Giles, public health intelligence principal, Public Health Scotland; and Elinor Jayne, director, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems. I thank you all for your time this morning.

There are figures out there that, at first, make it look as though consumption of alcohol has gone down during the pandemic, but that is not the whole picture. Starting with Alison Douglas, I will go round all the witnesses to get your views on what the consumption of alcohol and alcohol harms during the past two years really look like.

Alison Douglas cannot hear me, so I will bring in Niamh Fitzgerald.

Our second agenda item is an evidence session on social care. I welcome our panellists for the next couple of hours, who are joining us online. We have Fiona Collie, who is the policy and public affairs manager for Carers Scotland; Annie Gunner Logan, who is the chief executive of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland; Dr Donald Macaskill, who is the chief executive of Scottish Care; and Judith Proctor, who is the chief officer of the Edinburgh integration joint board and chair of Health and Social Care Scotland’s chief officer group. I thank you all for giving us your time.

We decided to have this session as a result of the recent Audit Scotland report on social care, which will be the backdrop to our discussion. Many of the issues that are brought up in the report are familiar to us all. I want to ask about the fragility of the workforce. To me, one of the most striking things in the report is the statistic that nearly a quarter of people who start a job in social care leave that job within the first three months. I found that to be a staggering statistic. What is behind it? It surely cannot purely be about pay and the fact that people go somewhere else for pay reasons. I would like to get your thoughts on some of the workforce statistics in the report and your views on what is happening in that regard.

I will go first to Fiona Collie.

I thank you all for those opening comments, which provide a really good starting point on issues that my colleagues might want to dig into in more depth. I asked all the witnesses to respond to my opening question. My colleagues will probably pose their questions to specific individuals but, if anyone who is not directly asked a question has something to add, please put an R in the chat box.

On the theme of the social care workforce, I hand over to Sandesh Gulhane.