Chamber and committees

I recognise Mr Sweeney’s long-standing interest in this policy area. We have maintained a record level of investment in alcohol and drugs partnerships in this budget, of £115 million, and I expect that to support the policy provisions that we have set out, in both alcohol services and drugs services.

Mr Sweeney will be aware that we are currently reviewing our national mission on tackling drug-related deaths and our alcohol policy, and that we expect to publish that review in very short order. We will use that as an additional policy lever to ensure that we are targeting our available resources to continue to drive down on drug and alcohol-related deaths.

Mr Sweeney is correct that the prevalence of cocaine within drug-related harm is increasing. Its proliferation is causing us considerable concern, as we are seeing additional harms caused as a result.

The service model for the Thistle appears to be going well—the service is well used and lives are undoubtedly being saved. A number of medical emergencies have been responded to at the Thistle, which demonstrates, at an early stage, that it appears to be working as intended.

Mr Sweeney’s ask that the Thistle adjusts its service model would require conversations between ourselves, including Maree Todd as the lead minister, and the local health and social care partnership as to whether it wants to move to such a model.

There have been other discussions and other asks from Mr Sweeney and others around inhalation services. All those areas remain under consideration, but the current service model applies at present. Nevertheless, as Mr Sweeney said, we need to be agile in response to emerging threats. We know where those threats—for example, synthetic opioids and nitazenes—-are coming from, and we understand the impact that they have. We will do what we can to ensure that our services adapt to meet those challenges.

There is increased baselining; that is to provide not only additional transparency, which has been asked for by the committee and by organisations such as Audit Scotland, but greater certainty for our boards on their funding provision. In my response to the committee, I set out some of those areas of increased baselining, but if more information on that is required, I am happy to provide it in writing.

I do not have an update at this stage. There is increased funding in the budget—of £36 million, I believe—to ensure that all boards remain within a very narrow gap of NRAC and to ensure that the funding fairness that comes through the NRAC formula can be maintained. That also ensures that we are accounting for rurality and other demographic issues in terms of service delivery, and it provides the fairest possible route to achieve that.

I do not know whether we have any further update on the NRAC review that Ms Bennett might be able to help me with.

The board is under significant scrutiny because of the measures that have been taken by the Government in establishing a statutory public inquiry, which is independent of Government and judge led. The families, to whom my deepest sympathies go out today, are seeking the truth and are seeking answers, and that is why we are going to get access to the truth. It is important that the public inquiry is able to do its job independently, without interference from Government.

I have visited some of our colleges that provide health and care training. They provide an incredible service, and an enthusiastic young workforce is coming through that is made up of people—and I do not seek to patronise them—whose application is truly inspiring.

We have provided increased funding of £70 million for colleges in this budget. That is a significant additional resource that is going to colleges because we recognise the fundamental role that they play in our economy, in the education system, and in ensuring that we have the workforce to meet the needs of our public services—for example, in health and care—and of the people of Scotland.

There are a number of elements there. First, there is £6.5 million in the budget to support hospices to match agenda for change pay rates, so I think that Mr Sweeney will be satisfied in that space.

With regard to social care, I have answered in detail the points that were raised by Ms Mackay and Ms Mochan about the choices that we have made around the statutory obligation on employers to meet legal pay requirements.

We have taken steps to increase social care investment, which is at more than £2.3 billion now. That includes, over this winter, support for boards and partnerships, in some cases, to purchase social care beds. That is not only a better option for patients, but a more cost-effective option for the system than having people stay in the acute sector.

We are doing what we can, within the resources that we have available to us. We are working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and with our health and social care partners; we meet almost weekly in order to understand the pressures in the system and provide the best possible support. We are also doing something that is, I believe, not matched in all other parts of the UK: we are funding social care pay to at least the level of the real living wage. Over recent years, more than £1 billion has been invested in social care pay.

I recognise the challenges that exist, and I recognise the pressures within social care that Mr Sweeney and other members have set out. However, we have prioritised that where we can within the budget envelope that we have.

Yes. As I set out in my budget analysis letter to the committee, I am happy to provide a commitment—I think that Fiona Bennett has already given such a commitment in other areas—that we will do what we can to provide transparency as best we can on the data that we have available to us.

I recognise that. Between our direct investments from Government and the decisions that are taken by health boards, we are expecting mental health provision to be more than £1.5 billion this year. However, I recognise the challenge in scrutinising that when different board areas are going to be taking different positions based on their level of need. I understand that the budgets will be challenging to read, but we will do what we can to provide as much data as we can in that space.

Yes—I will bring in Fiona Bennett to provide more detail. Ensuring that we take an evidence-based approach to the decisions that we are making, and looking at that as broadly as possible, is incredibly important. Ms Bennett might be able to provide more detail on the mechanisms that are in play.