Chamber and committees

I am grateful to you for allowing me to come back in, convener.

Minister, last week, we had Mark Hazelwood from the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care, who talked about the fact that not everybody will recover and that one in three hospital beds is used by someone who is in their last year of life. The partnership would like two specific things to be included in the bill. It wants to have something in the bill about people with irreversible health conditions through illness or old age and who are approaching the end of life. Secondly, the partnership wants something about interventions that are about preventing or delaying the development of care needs and reducing care needs and support for those with irreversible health conditions. It feels like end-of-life issues are not included in the bill, even though that is something that we will all face at some point, and the issue is becoming larger proportionately as the demographics change.

Will you consider changes to the principles of the bill to include end-of-life issues?

One of the barriers to that seems to be the idea of incorporating community health primary care services and taking that kind of public health approach. If we are saying that no health staff will be transferred into the national care service, can that really be achieved?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app is not updating. I would have voted yes.

Does the cabinet secretary agree and accept that the Scottish Government can learn from the potentially fraudulent mistakes of the United Kingdom Government by ruling out the use of VIP procurement lanes?

I make the point that asset transfers could help councils to save money on such properties. For example, a council might be paying £15,000 for upkeep of a property. If councils invest time and effort and have a CAT team helping communities to pursue asset transfers in a balanced way, that could be a great way forward.

There is no more powerful illustration of community empowerment than a community coming together to take control of a local asset. I warmly welcome this opportunity to champion community asset transfers, particularly given the positive impact that they are having in communities in my constituency of Uddingston and Bellshill.

Taking control of assets involves local people attaching a part of themselves to their community, thereby driving local ambition and strengthening cohesion. Successfully achieving a CAT is a major undertaking for any community group, but the empowerment that it delivers cannot be overstated, as it ensures delivery of better, more tailored local services and tangibly builds community wealth.

Although the majority of community asset transfers have occurred in rural and island communities, I hope that Mr Sweeney will be pleased to hear that I will be sharing two examples of transfers in my urban constituency. The first is Bothwell Futures, which successfully took over the iconic Bothwell library building this summer, where it is now creating a multifunctional wellbeing hub for the benefit of all local residents.

When Bothwell Futures started, the CAT process was through South Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture. Bothwell Futures was told that the process would take two years, but colleagues will be pleased to hear that with a small, skilled and energetic team, an impressive 20-year strategic plan and, critically, great collaboration from council officials and local councillors, the transfer was completed in eight short months.

Although Bothwell is a vibrant village, it lacks community space to deliver the residents’ exciting vision. Through the community asset transfer, the former library building is set to become the beating heart of Bothwell, breathing new life into the village and ensuring a sustainable future.

Viewpark Gardens Trust, which is also in my urban constituency, is a quite different but equally inspiring example of a community asset transfer. In this case, the trust applied to take over the much-loved Viewpark gardens site, which features in many wedding photos and in the cherished memories of local people. The pandemic lockdown was no match for the trust’s creativity. Despite the huge community support throughout a very successful engagement process, the trust community asset transfer request was denied by North Lanarkshire Council.

Undaunted, the trust submitted an appeal to the Scottish Government, and it made history by winning on appeal the right to take the land into community hands. Once delivered, that community asset transfer will provide a safe, green, inclusive space for groups and individuals, and there are plans for a mix of mental health and wellbeing projects alongside community-led provision for local clubs and charities. I, for one, cannot wait to see the gardens returned to their former glory.

In contrast to Bothwell Futures, the timeline to achieve success has been lengthier for the trust, and I must pay tribute to the community ownership support service. Its advice and expertise was invaluable during the highly technical appeals process.

The commitment that was shown by Viewpark Gardens Trust and Bothwell Futures is inspiring. Although the trust’s successful appeal is testament to the power and strength that underpin the Scottish Government’s legislation, it would be good to hear the minister confirm that the current review will look for ways to make the processes easier.

As we have heard from the minister, positive collaboration among stakeholders is key. An independent evaluation by Glasgow Caledonian University sets out further action to support local authority and community transfer bodies and maximise the potential of community asset transfer requests.

We need to see many more local authorities and public bodies welcoming requests for community asset transfers. We need to see the remaining elements of resistance removed, because the ability of community groups to consult local people, identify the complex challenges that they face and deliver effective support is unparalleled. As we emerge from the pandemic during a cost of living and climate crisis, empowered communities are exactly what Scotland needs.

We know that communities can pull together and work to make their dreams a reality. It is our job to help them.

With every week that passes, we see the impact of the disastrous mini-budget that Truss and her Chancellor of the Exchequer got carried away writing. It continues to affect Scotland’s recovery from the Covid pandemic. Does the Deputy First Minister agree that, given that the key policy levers to address the Tory-inflicted cost of living crisis are held by the United Kingdom Government, it is high time that our Tory colleagues called on the UK Government to get on with the job of supporting Scottish people through tough times rather than expecting the Scottish Government to continually clean up?

Will you give us a couple of examples of the type of detail that you would like to see?

I will wind back a bit. How do we ensure that people who are receiving support are kept central to the evaluations that we are talking about? Would the national performance framework be helpful, and would it be part of that in your view?

My first question is to Henry Simmons and Dr Manji. Are there parts of the bill that you would like to be enacted immediately and are there other provisions about which you think that more time should be taken to co-design them?