Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, welcome you to your new role. As is traditional with first speeches, I take a few seconds to thank all who campaigned and voted for me, and my wonderful family and partner for all their support.

It is a privilege to be here representing Central Scotland and its wonderful diverse communities, and I look forward to engaging with as many of them as possible over the next five years.

The past year has been one that no one in this building could have predicted. We have seen the best from our communities—both in my region and across the country—so much hardship and social isolation, the disproportionate effect that the latter has had on disabled communities and the unprecedented use of the word “unprecedented”.

As the new Green health spokesperson, I want to put on the record my deep and sincere thanks to all our health and social care workers across the country, who have worked so hard for so long to protect lives and provide the care that we need. We need to thank key workers from all sectors, who have kept Scotland going throughout the pandemic. They deserve our gratitude and I am deeply thankful for everything that they have done.

The Scottish Greens are committed to ensuring that the health and care sector does not just recover as we emerge from the worst of the pandemic. We must take this opportunity to build back stronger and better services that have people at their heart, both patients and workers—nurses, doctors, carers, pharmacists, porters, cleaners and all those across all services.

Part of that agenda is clearly about fair pay. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is to value health and social care workers and the vital role that they play. I am proud that the Scottish Greens played their part earlier this year when we secured an additional £100m investment into public sector pay.

Fair pay, however, is only part of the story. We also need to radically improve working conditions. We have all heard of the toll that working in our NHS takes on staff. We need to change that culture and give staff access to proper mental health support and counselling, as well as ensuring a work-life balance and progression opportunities that allow them to thrive.

I take this opportunity to give my condolences to all those who have lost loved ones, and my sympathies to those who have suffered from Covid—particularly those who continue to suffer from long Covid. Long Covid will be with us for a time, and appropriate support and staff need to be put in place to give patients the best help. We do not yet fully understand the wide-ranging and complex nature of long Covid and how long many of the symptoms that are experienced will persist, so investment in research and multidisciplinary treatment should be a minimum to ensure that no one is left behind.

Although the vaccine roll-out and current lower prevalence give us cause for hope, we still have a way to go before some form of normality can resume. I encourage everyone under 30 to make sure that they have registered for their jag and to take their appointment once it is sent to them. I also encourage employers to ensure that their employees are available for their vaccine appointments if they happen during work time. Getting the jag is not just about protecting oneself but about protecting everyone, so I ask people to go online, book their appointment and roll up their sleeve.

As we continue our vital work, we must support recovery in the health service, which means the huge task of remobilising services and taking the opportunity to improve on the way in which we did things previously. Our staff have had a hard year and need our support when it comes to the backlog of needs. Measures such as the expansion of the workforce in general practitioners’ practices, so that patients can get at least 15 minutes with their family doctor, and growing practice teams to include welfare rights officers and mental health clinicians would improve access to primary healthcare and support at a time when people might have put off a visit to the doctor. Restarting cancer screening and other health screening is a must, as well as ensuring that a cancer workforce plan is agreed to so that services can meet patient demand.

Mental health is another area that lacked pre-pandemic investment. That issue is not just about treatment at the sharp end, however. We need to end the current cycle of crisis management and look upstream to expand mental health support such as talking therapies as well as cognitive behavioural therapy, exercise referral schemes and peer support.

The improvement of self-directed support in care is an issue that many of us heard repeatedly from disabled people during the election. Personally, I cannot wait to get involved in the development of a national care service and look forward to working with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on that. However, while we wait for a national care service to become a reality, we should end the process of competitive tendering and invest in our dedicated workforce. A national care service is needed because caring is a national priority. It is also a public need, so it must be a public service.

The recovery of our health and wellbeing from Covid is about the ability of our communities to look after themselves and one another. From Airdrie to Motherwell to Falkirk, we have come together in the past year to keep one another safe from the virus. We need to harness that solidarity to support our health and care services.

Last week, the SQA sent a panic directive to schools advising them of the need to apply “appropriate penalties” if pupils have been found sharing assessment papers online. Given that, in any normal year, pupils are allowed to take their exam paper when they leave and discuss it afterwards, it should have been entirely obvious that this year’s senior pupils would also wish to discuss their assessments after they had taken them.

The SQA is engaged in a process of allocating blame to everyone but itself for an entirely avoidable series of problems for which it is responsible. Will the education secretary instruct the SQA to drop that threat and accept that pupils are going to discuss their assessments after they have sat them, that those discussions will take place online and that fair enforcement of that directive will be impossible?

made a solemn affirmation.