Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government how the development of a talent attraction and migration service will impact on the delivery of its Covid recovery strategy. (S6O-01678)

It is a pleasure to speak as the convener of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee in this debate on such an important topic, and I commend the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for bringing the debate to the chamber.

Health inequalities have featured in all of our work, but I will talk about one inquiry in particular. First, however, it is important to stress that, sadly, health inequalities existed before the pandemic and have been made much worse as a result of it. As we go through recovery, that issue has been concerning to the committee. Recently, in this chamber, we debated the cost of living crisis, which has also exacerbated health inequalities. Therefore, today’s debate is timely, and I look forward to hearing about other parliamentary committees’ scrutiny of this major issue and to potential collaborative committee work in the future.

In April this year, we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on our inquiry into excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic. We wanted to look at the extent to which excess deaths were caused by Covid-19 as opposed to other issues, such as the indirect health impacts of the pandemic. It was a difficult inquiry because, when looking at the statistics, we were acutely aware that they represented the end of the lives of real people. I send my condolences to everyone who has suffered such a loss.

We heard of the pressures that the national health service faces, some of the health impacts that are being experienced by individuals and the level of demand that services face. Given the complexity of the inquiry, we found that it was too early to tell the exact impact that the pandemic has had on excess deaths. However, we heard some stark evidence of how the pandemic hit those from deprived areas harder and that that could have had an impact on excess deaths.

We were shocked to hear that the levels of excess deaths in the most deprived areas were twice as great as those in the least deprived areas and that people who live in deprived areas are more likely to get cancer, to be diagnosed later and to die because of it, which is simply unacceptable in this day and age. In making our recommendations, we highlighted that as a priority issue that must be addressed as part of Scotland’s recovery. We asked the Government to set out its response to the recommendations made by the primary care health inequalities short-life working group, which had looked into how primary care and communities could be strengthened and supported to mitigate health inequalities more effectively.

The group made five foundational recommendations, which are worth highlighting today. First, the Government should strengthen national leadership on health inequalities. Secondly, it should implement a national programme of multidisciplinary postgraduate training fellowships in health inequalities. Thirdly, it should create an inclusion-enhanced service that invests in the management of patients who experience multiple and intersecting socioeconomic inequalities. Fourthly, it should develop a strategy to invest in wellbeing communities through local, place-based action to reduce inequalities. Fifthly, it should commission an investigation into how barriers to healthcare can, inadvertently, contribute to excess deaths and premature disability that are related to socioeconomic inequalities.

The Government agreed that health inequalities is a priority issue that must be addressed as part of Scotland’s recovery and said that it had established a new development group to focus on driving forward responses to those recommendations. It will be interesting to monitor that work, and we intend to follow up the work on excess deaths when we look at the recovery of cancer services in the new year.

I will turn briefly to our work on the on-going vaccination programme. The committee has continued to monitor the vaccination programme, including the booster vaccination. We have looked at the reasons behind below-average take-up in some demographics, particularly among minority ethnic communities and in communities that experience higher levels of deprivation. We considered equity of access to vaccination programmes, as well as access to trusted and reliable public health information on Covid and vaccinations.

Presiding Officer, I have run out of time, so I will finish there.

Thank you. That concludes this agenda item and our time with the minister. I thank the minister and his officials for their attendance. The committee’s next meeting will be on 15 December, when we will take evidence on Covid-19 surveillance.

In the new year, the committee will be doing an inquiry into long Covid specifically, because the issue has been raised during this inquiry. Inclusion Scotland highlighted that long Covid is not necessarily considered a disability. I appreciate and understand that a lot of people with long Covid are self-diagnosed, and that there is a lot of work still to be done and a lot that is unknown. It is not one of the conditions that is listed in the Equality Act 2010. Does the Scottish Government have a view on whether long Covid should be recognised as a disability?

That is helpful.

Yesterday, I saw for the first time the wellbeing economy monitor, which I thought was fantastic. The monitor brings together a range of indicators as a baseline for assessing progress towards a wellbeing economy. One of the many indicators considers the participation rates of young people between the ages of 16 and 19 in education, training and employment. Is the Scottish Government using those indicators to inform its approach to addressing economic inactivity, including sickness and early retirement?

Thank you, minister. I will begin by asking the first question.

You will be aware that the committee has been looking at economic inactivity specifically in relation to long-term illness and early retirement. One of the issues that has come up is the number of people who are off work with long Covid, which the minister touched on briefly. Does the Scottish Government agree with the suggestion from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that many working people may be off on sick leave with long Covid, rather than being economically inactive?

We are running short of time, but on the same subject, the national strategy for economic transformation included a commitment to launch the centre for workplace transformation, which would give employees guidance on flexible working. Can the minister or Lewis Hedge give us an update on that?

That would be great, because the committee has a keen interest in hybrid and flexible working.

Good morning, and welcome to the COVID-19 Recovery Committee’s 27th meeting in 2022. This morning, we will conclude our evidence taking for our inquiry into the pandemic’s impact on the Scottish labour market.

I welcome from the Scottish Government Richard Lochhead, the Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work; Lewis Hedge, deputy director, fair work and labour market strategy; and Dr Alastair Cook, principal medical officer, mental health division. Before we ask questions, would the minister like to make brief opening remarks?

I will move on to Jim Fairlie, but first I have a quick question regarding the local employability partnerships that have been rolled out in the past 12 months. Is there funding from the Scottish Government to all 32 local authorities, which they can allocate to a team?