Social Care Services
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that those who require social care services receive appropriate assistance. (S4T-00629)
Funding for social care is provided to local authorities through the local government block grant. It is for local authorities to manage their budgets to ensure that people receive the social care that they are assessed as requiring. The Care Inspectorate inspects social care services to ensure that the services that are provided are of a high quality, and it works with providers to drive improvements in quality across the sector.
The minister will be aware of the report in The Herald that said that 20,000 people are not receiving any service at all, despite needing it, and that many others cannot afford to pay for those services and depend on families to fill the gap because care charges have increased so much. He will also be aware that Highland Council is looking to take £4.5 million out of its reserves to pay for adult care. Is it now time to consider fully funding the council tax freeze?
Rhoda Grant refers to an article in The Herald that highlights the fact that the number of individuals receiving social care is lower than the number that would have been expected according to the predictions in the report to which the article refers. We will give consideration to that report. However, over the period of time in question, expenditure on social care services in Scotland has been increasing. Around 2007, the budget for social care provision was just over £2 billion and it is now in the region of £2.8 billion, so there has been a continued increase in expenditure on social care provision overall.
Care charges, to which Rhoda Grant refers, are a matter for individual local authorities, which have the discretion to decide which areas they want to charge for with the exception of free personal care for the elderly, which is funded directly by the Scottish Government. It is for each local authority to consider such issues and come to a decision.
Rhoda Grant also raised the issue that was raised by NHS Highland with Highland Council with regard to resource transfer for the provision of care that NHS Highland is having to pay for. Even the article in The Herald says—I paraphrase—that that money is meant to be for a rainy day, and today it is pouring so it should be used. It is important to recognise that, through the greater integration of services, we can align our health and social care services much more effectively to deliver the social and health care that is necessary.
Rhoda Grant will be aware that, in each year in which the Scottish Government has introduced the council tax freeze, it has provided funding for that to local government.
The reason why it is pouring is that we are shifting the balance of care from acute services into the community, and the cost of that is falling on local authorities, which are having their budgets squeezed. The minster will be aware of Unison’s report from a couple of weeks ago, “Scotland—It’s time to care”, which shows that the squeeze seems to be falling on the workers who are providing the care. They are low paid, overworked or working zero-hours contracts with insufficient time to care. Will he review home care to make sure that it is properly resourced and that the people who are delivering it are being paid a living wage? Will he legislate to ensure that all those who are paid by the public sector, either directly or through contracts, are paid the living wage?
Rhoda Grant makes a number of different points, which I will try to address. She referred to the £4.5 million that NHS Highland is looking for from the council. That is part of its integration approach to how it manages its resources to meet local need appropriately.
Rhoda Grant will recall that, at the last election, she stood on a manifesto commitment to continue the council tax freeze. I do not know whether the Labour Party has changed its position and is now in favour of increasing council tax. It is worth reflecting on the fact that, under the Labour-Lib Dem Government, the council tax went up by some 60 per cent. During the present economic difficulties, one thing that people in Scotland can be certain of under this Government is the freezing of the council tax, which we have done to give them additional capacity in their household budgets.
Rhoda Grant also referred to workforce issues in the social care setting. We face a range of challenges in the social care setting that we must address to meet the workforce demands that exist in the different professional groupings. The Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council have been doing work in that area to look at what can be done to ensure that members of the workforce have the necessary skills and that the right type of investment is being provided to support the workforce.
A key part of that is ensuring that people are adequately financially rewarded for their work. That is why, as a Government, we have led the way in taking forward the living wage in the public agencies that we have control over. We have encouraged our partners in local government to do the same with their workforce, and we encourage organisations in the independent and third sectors that deliver social care to consider paying their workforce the living wage. It is important that we all work together to achieve that. Some of the work that our agencies have done to support the social care workforce has been targeted at pushing up standards in that setting.
A couple of members have questions on this subject. If they keep them brief, we will get the next question dealt with, too.
The minister will be aware of my concern about the provision of care at home. I am particularly concerned about the recruitment of home carers, which is a serious problem in Aberdeen, in my region, where home care providers compete with the oil industry for staff.
Without proper care at home and the right number of carers, I fear for the success of the integration of health and social care, the legislation on which had the intention of providing person-centred care. Can the minister give me any comfort for the way ahead in tackling that difficult problem?
We recognise that services face challenges in recruiting appropriate staff to the social care workforce. I know from my discussions with the chair and the chief executive of NHS Grampian that challenges in recruiting staff are faced across a number of professional settings in the Aberdeen area as a result of competition with the oil industry. Through the Care Inspectorate and the SSSC, we are undertaking work to look at what we can do to support the social care workforce much more effectively and make it as attractive as possible for individuals to move into.
I recognise, as does the Government, that the rate of pay that is involved in some of this work is an important part of the issue. That is where the living wage has an important part to play. We encourage organisations in the sector to look at how they can utilise the living wage not just to incentivise people to enter the social care workforce but to retain and support current members of that workforce.
The minister will be aware that, this week, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee is scrutinising regulations to ensure that carers and young carers who can now receive support in their own right from councils will not be charged or means tested. I very much welcome those regulations, but will the cabinet secretary update Parliament on how the timetable on the next steps towards carers receiving support in their own right is progressing?
If the member does not mind, it will be the minister, not the cabinet secretary, who responds to his question.
The member is right that, through the Social Care (Self-directed Support) Act 2013, which comes into force in April, we have laid down regulations that prevent local authorities from charging carers for services that are provided directly to them to support them in their caring role. That will ensure that, across the country, a consistency of approach is taken to carers and that is properly recognised in the support that is provided by local authorities.
We still need to do much more to help to support carers in Scotland. I want further improvements to be made in a range of policy areas. For example, we are already out for consultation on a carers bill to improve access to a carer’s assessment and address the major issue for many carers of getting access to information about what services are available in their local area, and to put those on a statutory footing much more effectively so that we can provide more support to carers for the invaluable role that they play in our society.
Mackerel Quota (Negotiations)
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent breakdown of mackerel quota talks, what steps it is taking to support fishermen. (S4T-00631)
It is very disappointing that the four-party coastal states agreement on mackerel could not be reached when Edinburgh hosted the talks last week. Science is telling us that the stock is in good condition at the moment, and this seemed like the best chance for several years to secure a deal and resolve international disputes. However, although the failure of the talks is regrettable, we do not anticipate any immediate impact on the Scottish mackerel fleet. The European Union has set a provisional quota that has allowed the fleet to continue fishing while the talks continue. The first seasonal component of the Scottish mackerel fishing season has now finished.
Our priority now is to continue pushing hard in co-operation with our industry for a sustainable international mackerel agreement with Norway and possibly also with the Faroese when talks resume in London tomorrow. If signed, any such agreement would set the final quota for this year and would contain provisions to give our fleet access to Norwegian waters, if necessary, when the next mackerel fishery opens in September.
With Iceland now out of the picture, given that it has set its own unilateral quota, does the cabinet secretary believe that the EU should now focus its efforts on coming to a tripartite agreement between the EU, Norway and the Faroe Islands and not simply rush into a bilateral agreement with Norway?
Yes, I agree with Jamie McGrigor. I think that that is the most sensible way forward. Clearly, our preference is to have a four-party coastal states agreement, with Iceland on board. That would be in the interest of the sustainable management of a major fish stock. In the meantime, as I indicated in my initial answer, we hope that the Faroe Islands will be part of the talks that are restarting in London this week and that we can at least explore the idea of a three-party agreement in the short term.
Has the cabinet secretary raised with Commissioner Damanaki the rather alarming concerns that Iceland is seeking to catch even more mackerel on top of its unilateral quota by using a loophole allowing its vessels to use Greenland’s quota for mackerel? In terms of the impact that the dispute is now having on the demersal white-fish sector, does the cabinet secretary share the concern of fishermen that when half of the North Sea—the Norwegian sector—is already closed to EU fishermen due to the on-going dispute, Marine Scotland has just introduced seven real-time closures in the North Sea? Why was the impact of obviously disproportionate, cumulative displacement not factored in before the batches of RTCs were announced?
There were a number of questions in Jamie McGrigor’s supplementary. First, I am concerned by the fact that Greenland might now be part of the problem for a resolution of the mackerel dispute. The Scottish Government has been in contact with the European Commission today to express our concerns over the developments at last week’s negotiations involving Greenland. I will use the first opportunity that I have to raise the issue personally with Commissioner Damanaki.
Clearly, this week’s negotiations over mackerel will have a bearing on the timing for making last week’s agreement in principle over white-fish stocks come into force. I hope that all parties will sign that once the mackerel issue is taken forward this week. The white-fish stocks and the mackerel stocks are interrelated issues in international negotiations.
Clearly, one of the reasons why our stocks are improving in Scottish waters and have been for some time now is the massive sacrifice by our fleet in terms of pushing conservation measures. Real-time closures are part of a toolbox of conservation measures. We require them to ensure that stocks that we do not want to catch are avoided, especially juvenile stocks, as well as to continue our good efforts towards the overall sustainability of fish stocks in Scottish waters.
I share members’ disappointment at the lack of progress in the mackerel negotiations. I wish the cabinet secretary well in the negotiations that start tomorrow. Has he had any discussions with the Marine Conservation Society, which currently classes British, European and Norwegian mackerel yellow while Icelandic and Faroese mackerel is listed as red, over whether the lack of a resolution to the situation poses any threats to the current certification of Scottish mackerel?
I assure Claire Baker that, in the past, I have been in touch several times with the Marine Conservation Society over the classification of the mackerel stock that is caught by Scottish vessels. I do not think that we should be tarred with the same brush as other fisheries, given that our fishermen are helping the stock to recover and are fishing within agreed management regimes.
If there has been any change to the Marine Conservation Society’s classification in the past few days, I will be happy to learn about that and intervene again, but I will certainly keep a close eye on its classification of the Scottish mackerel stock.
Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is vital that the total allowable catch for mackerel is agreed as soon as possible so that the bilateral arrangement between the European Union and Norway, which has already been agreed in principle, can be signed? We will then, at last, be able to return to negotiating an EU and Faroe bilateral, the lack of which has denied our white-fish fleet access to Faroese waters for nearly four years.
Angus MacDonald refers to the complex picture in which several sets of international negotiations are linked to each other. First, we have the international mackerel dispute, which was the subject of the first few days of the talks that we hosted in Edinburgh last week, and secondly we have the EU and Norway talks over the other stocks such as haddock and cod, which were the subject of the negotiations in the final few days of last week.
We have a draft agreement for the EU and Norway talks, which are essential to the cod quotas, the haddock quotas and the shared stocks between the EU and Norway. We need all countries to put their signatures to that. We have it agreed in principle, but Angus MacDonald referred to the fact that some countries want to await the outcome of the mackerel talks in London before they add their signature to the agreement that is on the table for the white-fish stocks and the EU and Norway stocks.
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