Chamber and committees

I have heard a young person who is in receipt of a high-level child disability payment question their own eligibility because of the narrative that is out there. That young person will not be an isolated case, and there is a broader conversation to be had about the toxic narrative.

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support small-scale food producers in rural communities, in light of its commitments under the national good food nation plan. (S6O-04902)

The cabinet secretary will know that two fantastic local producers in my constituency, at Mossgiel farm and Corrie Mains farm, have lost their school contracts with East Ayrshire Council. Those businesses have long supported sustainable food, local jobs and the good food nation vision, and have helped East Ayrshire to achieve gold status under the Soil Association’s good food for life scheme. The decision is a real setback, and it raises serious questions about the procurement rules that councils must follow. Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is time to review the frameworks to ensure that they do not end up working against the very goals that we are trying to achieve collectively?

Do you think that that framework would be of benefit to community planning partnerships? If, in the wider local community planning partnership in each local authority area, the partners that are striving for the same aims applied the PBMA approach to all decision making that affected things that the partnership was working on, could that be helpful? I include mental health, drugs and alcohol, health visiting and so on—everything that it is involved in population health.

That is very helpful. Thank you.

I am finding the conversation fascinating. Paul Sweeney’s questions sparked off a thought in my head. Previously, I was community wellbeing spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. When we looked at how to end homelessness, we decided to approach it through rapid rehousing transition plans, which are similar to the things that Paul Sweeney was just speaking about.

I was going to ask about how we ensure that the strategy applies to all the levels where decisions need to be made, but you answered that when Paul Sweeney asked about who was responsible for that. My argument to health and social care partnerships was that they would need to release some of their funding, which, traditionally, did not include housing. My argument was that the strategy reads across everything.

How do we actually make sure that that happens? If every department is doing its own programme budgeting and trying to figure out the marginal analysis of that, how are those who are debating acute and preventative spend making sure that the read-across is there? I know that that is a big question, but I think that it is important.

I used to be a member of a community planning partnership and was involved with all the issues that we are discussing today. I am acutely aware of all the politics and the issues at play.

The committee has done a survey of integration authorities. In the integration authority that I was involved with when I was a councillor, things worked pretty well, and everybody was signed up to the same big aims, which meant that the decisions that were being taken aligned across the areas. However, we are now hearing from health and social care partnerships, including the one in Renfrewshire, that the current financial climate means that it is increasingly difficult to apply the principles in the Scottish Government’s guidance when they allocate resources. I can see that in the health and social care partnership in my area, as it is taking tough decisions that really do not reflect its overall aims. Do you recognise that? Would a PBMA approach make the process easier with regard to disinvestment, as it would use input from all the stakeholders to inform how that marginal analysis is done?

Given the lack of headroom at the moment, because of the firefighting nature of the decisions that are being taken and some of the barriers that have already been spoken about in terms of understanding the data gaps that we have and the lack of the deep analysis that we need to undertake in that regard, how are decisions about resourcing being made right now across the country? What decision-making process are health boards using to allocate resources at the moment if they are not employing that approach? That might be a difficult question to answer.

Will the cabinet secretary advise what further help can be provided to local authorities to maximise the use of actual housing for temporary accommodation versus the use of totally unacceptable, below-tolerable-standard hotels? I saw that first hand when the North Ayrshire Council homelessness team disinvested from such accommodation. It made a monumental difference to the people being supported by providing a safer and more secure stopover while they waited for a permanent tenancy. Our work reduced overall costs to the council and improved the lives of those involved. Given the pressures on supply, doing such work is even more challenging now, but it is fundamental for people’s dignity, along with deploying the really important prevention measures.

I agree that a rail link between Glasgow city centre and the airport would be fantastic, but does Sandesh Gulhane realise that, due to the limitations of the track coming out of Glasgow, that could impact services to Ayrshire? I am sure that he would not want those services to be impacted. Will he ask for investment in the track itself?