Chamber and committees

Good morning, minister. One of the criticisms of the public consultation on the NCS was that there needs to be more public engagement and more involvement from clients and other people who access care and support. We have touched on the matter a lot already this morning, but what is your response to that, and what work is being done to ensure that more people are involved during the consultation and implementation processes?

Another issue that was raised by respondents to the consultation was that the paper focused on organisational restructuring and did not focus as much on the transformative cultural change that is needed, which would prioritise person-centred services. What is your response, and how will you ensure that structural change is matched by the cultural change that is needed?

As we have heard, the First Minister will be aware of the loud protest outside the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow yesterday. Not only do such protests intimidate many of the people who use those services, but clinicians have contacted me to say that the protest forced the clinic to close particular rooms on one side of the building, due to the amplification system that the protesters were using. As part of the summit that the First Minister has just committed to, will she ensure that clinical and trade union representatives are present, as well as patients’ representatives, to ensure that clinicians are not subject to harassment when they are simply doing their jobs?

I apologise to members for the fact that I will be absent from the chamber during closing speeches. I am stepping in to give this speech on behalf of another member who is unwell, and I have another engagement during the closing speeches. I will return as quickly as possible, and I thank the Presiding Officer for her tolerance.

The process of passing two pieces of emergency legislation at the height of the first phase of the pandemic, and before remote participation arrangements had been made, was a difficult one for the Parliament, but it was one that I believe showed us in our best light: responding to a crisis—in general, collegiately and with common purpose.

However, the coronavirus acts that were passed did not get everything right. One of the key questions that we are presented with today is whether we want to leave ourselves in the position of needing to go through that process again. Do we want to delay potentially life-saving and self-evidently obvious actions even for a matter of days, if we are again hit by a pandemic that is unlike anything that has been experienced in living memory? Alternatively, should we consolidate what we have learned from our experience of Covid so that the necessary powers are available, in the event that they are needed?

I welcome the Deputy First Minister’s commitment to introduce a gateway section, which is something that the Greens were keen to see to address perfectly valid concerns about the primacy of Parliament over Government. In the previous session, the Greens amended the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill, with amendments that were designed to provide appropriate limits and safeguards on the Henry VIII powers that were being afforded to the Government through that process. I am glad to see similar restraint being shown now, without it unduly interfering with the Government’s ability to fulfil its obligations to the public during a future health crisis.

Beyond the powers that are specific to the circumstances of a public health emergency, we can all recognise that some of the changes that were introduced in the two coronavirus acts simply made sense and should probably have been the case all along.

The most obvious example of that is that processes that previously had to be completed in person and by using hard-copy papers can now be done digitally. If we are committed to delivery of efficient, effective and easily accessed public services, a return to the pre-pandemic situation in that respect would clearly be a retrograde step. Those provisions will be of particular benefit to people in more rural communities, for whom the reality of travelling to a council office to register a relative’s death is quite different to that of urban residents.

It is important to highlight that that is not an either/or situation. The Association of Registrars of Scotland was right to point out that, for some people, the opportunity to complete such a process in person is important, whether for personal reasons, because of lack of digital access or some other circumstance. It is not permission for councils to move some services entirely online.

During the two emergency bill processes, Green MSPs put considerable effort into provisions on housing—specifically, protection of tenants, including those in purpose-built student accommodation. Since then, we have joined the Government on the basis of an agreement that includes our proposal for a new deal for tenants, which is now being taken forward by Patrick Harvie in his role as the minister who has responsibility for tenants’ rights.

We felt that it was far too easy before the pandemic for landlords to evict tenants; it is still too easy now. The protections that were brought in in 2020 made a real difference to many people who were at risk of losing their homes. There is no good reason for going back to where we were before—a system in which all the cards were stacked in favour of landlords.

A number of other progressive provisions that were first introduced in the context of the emergency are now, appropriately, being extended. Those include the bankruptcy protections that were—if I remember correctly—first pushed for by Jackie Baillie.

The duty on providers of purpose-built student accommodation to take account of the chief medical officer’s advice should avoid any repeat of the scenes that we saw at the Murano Street student village in Glasgow, and elsewhere, in autumn 2020. There are other provisions that I am glad to see being included, but do not have time to cover now.

The bill takes a pragmatic approach to maintaining the improvements that were brought about as a result of our response to the pandemic. It gives the Government the powers that it would need in the event of another such crisis, and the amendments that have been confirmed today will strike the appropriate balance between parliamentary oversight and Executive action. For those reasons, the Greens will support the bill.

I, too, thank Jackie Baillie for securing this important debate.

It has become almost clichéd to acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on our public services and the country more widely, but nowhere are the impacts of Covid-19 more evident than in the toll that it has taken on our health and care system over the past few years. When the pandemic was at its most precarious and most of us were asked to stay at home to protect ourselves, our loved ones and the NHS, and no vaccines or recognised therapeutics had yet been developed, our nurses and healthcare workers were on the front line, risking their health and wellbeing to ensure that the many thousands of those who were hospitalised with Covid and, indeed, with other illnesses, were treated in the most challenging of circumstances.

I thank nurses at Forth Valley royal hospital for the support that my loved ones received over the pandemic. Without the nurses in the stroke ward, mum would not have been able to have those few phone calls with us, and without the phenomenal district nurses in Grangemouth, grandpa probably would have ended up in hospital far earlier than he did. Nursing staff allowed us to stay with mum for as long as we needed, making sure that we had what we needed. Our story is not unique; people’s experiences of those who went above and beyond—from school nurses to intensive care unit nurses—are repeated across the country.

Although it is only fair to recognise nurses for all the great work that they do, we must also recognise the circumstances in which nurses find themselves now. NHS workforce vacancy statistics that were published in March show the continued trend of rising vacancies, emphasising the need to refocus on retaining and recruiting staff.

NHS Lanarkshire alone is experiencing a high vacancy rate of 10 per cent of available posts. The Royal College of Nursing Scotland has also relayed that, according to its workforce survey, 61 per cent of nursing staff are thinking about leaving their current posts. Those numerical factors alone underline the need for support to ensure that those within the profession are supported to continue in their roles.

The NHS in Scotland continues to be under significant strain as we begin to emerge from the worst of the pandemic, and it is necessary to ensure that existing staff are retained and that recruitment is significantly stepped up to fill vacancies.

Workforce planning remains central to providing long-term, effective healthcare, and the Scottish Government must consider its approach in the light of those recent publications. After all the NHS has done for us over the past two years of the pandemic, it is vital that we build back a system in which nurses feel valued and in which their safety and wellbeing are a priority.

Although I am proud of some of the measures that my party has helped to deliver over the past few years, such as creating a legal duty on the Scottish Government to ensure that there are appropriate NHS staffing levels, I join the RCN’s calls on the Government to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. I hope that the cabinet secretary might be able to lay out a timetable for that.

The Scottish Greens have also helped to ensure that all nurses have the legal right to funded continuous professional development. We still have great strides to make to ensure that nursing is a long-term occupation for those who enter the profession. Those are tangible steps towards progress.

It also merits mention that nursing is not a singular block of professionals—they are people who are split across various and specialised areas. Mental health needs across Scotland and the historical lack of recognition of them have become much more focused in the public eye as a result of the pandemic. Successive lockdowns, although necessary for public health, exacerbated existing mental health conditions, and continuity for those receiving treatment is essential. A recovery response to the growth and acknowledgement of mental health conditions caused by Covid-19 needs to take a holistic approach that addresses the wider social, systemic and structural inequalities of health and wider society, rather than placing the onus entirely on the individual.

In closing, I point out that international nurses day is about celebrating all that nurses do and thanking them for everything that they do. I thank nurses for all that they have done for my family—and, I am sure, for the families of countless others in this chamber—and for going above and beyond to deliver for constituents in my Central Scotland region. I thank them for all the enduring support that they provide.

What will the strategy do to improve data on health inequalities? We have heard in other pieces of work issues around data specifically relating to different minority ethnic groups for example. I am quite keen that we continue to work on that area to ensure that everybody’s healthcare matches the reality of their lives.

Will the forthcoming data strategy directly address the gaps that Audit Scotland identified in primary and community care data, or does the cabinet secretary think that that will be more of an overarching strategy?

I grew up in Grangemouth and I know how important a just transition will be for workers, the planet and the communities that surround the refinery. The community needs the Scottish Government to do everything that it can to deliver a just transition. Does the minister agree that the future of Grangemouth depends on a just transition away from fossil fuels that is led by the local communities and trade unions, which must be involved in future decisions around the plant and should be represented on the Grangemouth future industry board?

A Tory hard Brexit has hit food supplies, Tory social security cuts have hit household budgets and the Tory obsession with fossil fuels means soaring energy bills. People are struggling with a cost of living crisis that is entirely of the UK Government’s making, but we are doing what we can in Scotland to mitigate it.

I am proud that constructive and collaborative work by the Scottish Greens has led to free bus travel for young people, a more than doubling of the Scottish child payment, the biggest investment in energy efficiency in the UK and mitigation of the cruel benefit cap. Does the First Minister agree that constructive politics should be practised at all levels of Government, and that tomorrow voters should think globally and act locally by electing councillors who will work together to deliver more of that progressive agenda?

The benefits that walking and wheeling in the outdoors can have for mental and physical health are widely recognised. That was undoubtedly impressed on all of us during the pandemic, when we were not able to exercise and explore the outdoors as we usually would.

In that regard, it is worth noting that we are very fortunate to have the amount of green space that we have in Scotland and that, because of the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, we have the right of access to most land and inland water. It is vital that those rights are protected and upheld so that everyone can continue to benefit from Scotland’s rich natural environment.

I was proud that, as part of the Bute house agreement between the Greens and the Scottish Government, it was announced that there would be at least one new national park in Scotland, as one of the many ways in which we recognise the important part that experiencing, and exercising in, nature plays in people’s wellbeing.

People who spend quality time walking and wheeling in nature are happier and more likely to care about the local environment and climate change. Walking can also widen access to sport. Many sporting bodies have created walking versions of their sports, such as walking football, to encourage more people to take part, regardless of their age and fitness level. That can help to tackle social isolation, as well as helping people to get or stay active.

Recent data published in the Scottish household survey has shown that walking has grown in popularity—that is not shown only by Graeme Dey’s obsession with his Fitbit. It is encouraging that the survey found that 89 per cent of respondents aged 16 to 24 were likely to take part in walking as a recreational activity. Of those who were surveyed who had a disability, 61 per cent regarded walking or wheeling as their most common activity.

However, the survey also revealed stark differences with regard to areas of deprivation. It found that physical activity dropped by 20 per cent to 66 per cent in the most deprived areas, compared with 89 per cent in the least deprived areas. That must give us pause to reflect and ensure that public spaces and the natural environment are welcoming to all.

As I have said, the mental and physical health benefits of walking and wheeling outside are well known. Reflecting the point that Gillian Martin made, meeting many of the dogs around Callendar park in Falkirk undoubtedly boosts my mental health, but if people do not have a space or route nearby where they can walk or wheel while feeling safe and free from heavy traffic, pollution and blocked pavements, they will simply not do it. We have much work to do before Scotland’s streets are truly accessible.

The World Health Organization states that physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor in global mortality. Walking and wheeling might not be the silver bullet to fix poor health outcomes, but they can make an important contribution to maintaining and even improving health across the nation, and the removal of barriers must be prioritised.

During the pandemic, the importance of walking and other active travel infrastructure became clear to many of us. The continuation of measures such as the spaces for people scheme represents recognition that active travel, including wheeling and walking, must be an accessible option as part of our everyday lives. Such schemes simultaneously promote active travel and reduce our impact on the environment through having fewer polluting cars on the road, and can minimise congestion across Scotland’s towns and cities when they are applied well.

Supporting the development of 20-minute neighbourhoods will also reduce the need to travel and will ensure that people can walk, wheel or cycle to most places that they need to go to.

Going forward, we must prioritise measures such as reallocating road space to people and supporting the creation of low-traffic neighbourhoods, so that walking, wheeling and cycling are accessible, practical and significantly safer. Programmes such as the safe to school initiatives, which aim to ensure that every child who lives within 2 miles from their school is able to walk, wheel or cycle there safely, could be a catalyst for ingraining more walking and wheeling in the everyday lives of Scotland’s children.

In national walking month, it is important that we acknowledge and celebrate the many benefits that walking and wheeling can have for our mental, social and physical health, because there are many such benefits, but we must also renew our efforts to ensure that those benefits are felt by everyone across Scotland.