Chamber and committees

I know that SNP back benchers will be comparing the performances of their respective candidates last night.

Clearly, there is no unity in the Government on the way forward with the bill. In a matter of weeks, we have shifted from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and other senior ministers defending the bill to the hilt to the cabinet secretary now admitting that the bill, in its current form, needs to be paused and overhauled.

The Government’s motion suggests that the timetable for completion of stage 1 should be moved to June, but the Government has failed to explain why June is the most suitable time. Is it because it is politically expedient for the Government to move stage 1 until after the SNP leadership election, once the candidates have finished ripping one another to shreds and the Government has cobbled together a common position?

Presiding Officer,

“How much longer do people who need adult social care need to wait until we’ve got a system that isn’t being called into disrepute by the trade unions, local government and four parliamentary committees?”

Those are not my words; they are the words of Kate Forbes from last night’s debate, when she was eviscerating Humza Yousaf’s record as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. It appears that she and I agree on something, because she is right.

If the Government is serious about re-engaging with stakeholders, bringing people back around the table and building confidence in its national care service proposals, the stage 1 process cannot be moved down the tracks to a more suitable time for the SNP with no action in between to re-engage those stakeholders. It must be paused until at least the later part of the year to give sufficient time for the bill to be redrafted and brought back to the Parliament by a new health secretary for scrutiny. Indeed, that is exactly the position that the current health secretary is advocating since his Damascene conversion to supporting a pause to the bill.

How can the bill proceed on a June timetable when the Government is in such a state of disarray? Last night, it was made abundantly clear for all the public to see that Humza Yousaf’s own Cabinet colleagues do not have faith in his ability to serve as health secretary. Kate Forbes said the quiet part out loud when she less than discreetly admitted that she would sack him as health secretary if she became First Minister.

We need a proper pause to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill to allow an opportunity for stakeholders to get back round the table and to make it right. Moving stage 1 until June does not allow sufficient time for that vital work to be undertaken. In the context of the Government being in a state of total disarray with Cabinet colleagues publicly arguing and contradicting one another, we need a proper pause until at least November to ensure that we have a proposal for a national care service that is fit for purpose and has the confidence of key stakeholders. That is what we, on the Labour benches, have argued for consistently. It is time that the Government got a grip and got on with redrafting the bill.

I move amendment S6M-08151.1, to leave out “30 June 2023” and insert:

“1 November 2023”.

This week, we have heard much about the proposed National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, not in the chamber but in the newspapers and, of course, on our televisions, including during last night’s unedifying—I think that that is putting it mildly—SNP leadership debate.

Indeed, positions on the bill have been shifting more quickly than the bureau and the Parliament can keep up with. Last night, the national care service was discussed—sorry, rammied over—by the candidates. It has been clear since the start of the leadership campaign that all the candidates are now articulating different forms of a pause to the bill. [Interruption.] I am pleased that the SNP leadership candidates have now accepted what Scottish Labour, trade unions, professional bodies and local government have been arguing for months, but it is becoming—

I recognise what the minister said about that investment, but I think that it is fair to say that that money was the restoration of previous cuts. Also, we have already heard about the various flavours of a national care service, so we are not sure what the future of the bill will be or how it will address the postcode lottery in the way that the minister suggested. We are in a wait-and-see situation right now. The reality is that, no matter how well intentioned the dementia strategy is, it cannot and will not succeed in achieving its aims until the Government gets serious about tackling the systemic issues in the NHS and social care.

That is why Scottish Labour has been calling on the Government to end the indignity for dementia patients who are stuck in hospital when they could be back living in their house or care home. That issue could be resolved if the Scottish Government took the necessary action to increase the availability of care packages. At present, provision is patchy and access to suitable packages depends on where someone lives. All members’ inboxes show examples of people who are in real need, so we need real action.

The SNP promised to scrap non-residential care charges in its manifesto, as recommended by the independent review on adult social care, and it is time that it took action and delivered on that commitment.

The Scottish Government must deliver for the social care workforce, because it is the backbone of ensuring that people get the care provision that they need. We have consistently called for an immediate pay rise to £12 per hour, rising to £15 per hour. If we are serious about rewarding the workforce and increasing staff retention, we have to make that move. Week after week, the minister has derided calls from those on the Labour benches for £12 per hour, rising to £15 per hour, for social care workers, claiming that it was unreasonable and unaffordable, yet this afternoon in the Daily Record, his colleague Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, stated her commitment to deliver as First Minister what she steadfastly opposed and refused to introduce as finance secretary: £15 per hour for social care workers. It is amazing what U-turns can be performed when there is an SNP membership to be won over. Given the Government’s track record on delivery, I will not be holding my breath.

The challenge for the Government is that it needs to close the gap between the rhetoric and what is delivered to ensure that people living with dementia and their families and carers have an improved quality of life. It is time for the Scottish Government to get serious about delivering for people with dementia, and that starts by fixing the omnicrisis in the NHS and social care.

I move amendment to motion S6M-08053.1, to insert at end

“; regrets that the current NHS workforce challenges are impacting on dementia care, with timely access to diagnosis and post-diagnostic support becoming a postcode lottery, and calls on the Scottish Government to publish a plan for ending the high level of delayed discharge among dementia patients, and to improve support for people with dementia by removing non-residential social care charges and increasing the availability of care packages, supported by efforts to grow the social care workforce by delivering an immediate increase in pay to at least £12 per hour, and a plan to increase pay to £15 per hour by the end of the current parliamentary session.”

I am sure that most, if not all, members in the chamber have been impacted by dementia in some way. When I was a student, I worked in a care home as an activities organiser. I know that colleagues will struggle to see me as the home’s redcoat, but in many ways that allowed me to get a better understanding of people living with dementia, and to build relationships with their families and understand something of the illness and the support that is required to ensure that we work hand-in-hand with families to deliver the care and support that is needed.

It is estimated that 90,000 people in Scotland live with dementia. As we heard, new research from Marie Curie estimates that the number of people dying with dementia as the primary underlying cause of death will rise by almost 200 per cent by 2040.

I begin with the areas of consensus that exist in the debate. Our public health approach to dementia must recognise and respond to the increasing prevalence of dementia across society. That is why that we, in the Labour Party, believe that it is imperative that we have a person-centred approach to dementia that focuses our energies on empowering people with dementia to continue to live fulfilling lives with access to additional care and support when they need it.

Any strategy for dementia must, first and foremost, recognise that people who live with dementia are human beings just like you and me. They have social needs and are supported by their loved ones, who, as we have heard from members, are often struggling in their own ways to cope and find the space to deal with the illness. We must explore how we make our communities more dementia inclusive and dementia friendly, so that people with dementia can live at home for as long as they are able to do so. We support the work of the dementia-friendly communities network, which brings together hundreds of dementia-friendly communities that have made meaningful changes to local villages and towns across Scotland to create inclusive spaces for people with dementia.

When the Government launched its national conversation on a new dementia strategy for Scotland, last autumn, we welcomed that development, and we take seriously the responses of people with lived experience, clinicians, third sector organisations and the family carers whom I have spoken about.

What is clear from the conversation is that people who live with dementia and their families need to see action. They need to see tangible signs of progress from the Government, because national conversations become devalued unless they result in substantially improved outcomes for patients. We have had a national conversation, but have we really been listening to what has been said? Despite encouraging rhetoric, the Government’s delivery record has been less than impressive.

The SNP has been in power for 15 years and the first dementia strategy was published 13 years ago, yet people with dementia and their families still face a postcode lottery for diagnosis and post-diagnostic support. The most recent statistics, which are from 2019-20, show that only 42 per cent of people who are newly diagnosed with dementia are referred for post-diagnostic support. Indeed, during the pandemic, people with dementia and their families were at the centre of that maelstrom and they did not receive support in their lives often enough. In some ways, that reflects the Government’s failure to learn lessons since the implementation of the first national dementia strategy, in 2010.

The minister talked about the importance of keeping people at home. Does he accept that, if we are to do that, there have to be good-quality care packages and we need to retain care workers in the system by paying them £15 per hour? Does he agree with the finance secretary’s current position, which is that she would support £15 per hour for care workers? He did not agree with the approach in previous exchanges with me in this chamber.

Will the minister give way?

On behalf of members on the Labour benches, I associate myself with the comments of Stuart McMillan and Jamie Greene on the tragedy in Greenock on Friday. I spent yesterday at the Port Glasgow New parish church, where a space for reflection had been provided to local people to ensure that they could have time to channel the palpable sense of grief in the local community.

How will the minister ensure that messages about marine safety, which will ensure that local people have confidence in what is happening on the river, get out and about in a community that is as close-knit as Greenock?

I begin by thanking Joe FitzPatrick for bringing the debate to the chamber this evening as we mark LGBT+ history month 2023.

It is good, once again, to have an opportunity to speak about the rich and diverse history of LGBT+ people here in Scotland and around the world. Ours is a story often marked by pain and struggle, but also by love, solidarity and joy. I am sure that, like so many, we are thinking of our own histories and our own moments on the journey—the good and the bad, the painful and the joyful. We think on the progress that we have made, here in Scotland and around the world. We take stock with pride, but we also look forward to what we still have to do to create a more equal society for all LGBT+ people.

As we have already heard, the theme for this year’s history month is “Behind the Lens”. It is not only a celebration of LGBT+ people’s contribution to creating cinema and film; it is also a call to look behind the lens and to listen to all LGBT+ people’s lived experiences, particularly when, as we have heard, their lives are in the media, so sharply and so darkly, over the past year.

That is a really good way to approach the month: to get behind the lens of the world that we live in and to understand how we created this Scotland that we live in: a Scotland where LGBT+ people can be accepted for who they are, a Scotland where section 2A lies in the dustbin of history, and a Scotland where I could say “I do” to my husband, surrounded by our friends and family, joined together legally by the state—and, for us, blessed by the love of God.

Behind the lens of this happy image we must remind ourselves of the struggles to make it a reality, remembering those in this place who stood up and spoke out, and those outside who marched and wrote and persuaded. We should remind ourselves that it was not always this way. For too many in the world, it still is not, and we have more to do. It is not so long ago that being gay was a crime in this country. It is not so long ago that the state actively sought to imprison people for who they were and who they loved.

One of my favourite poets is Edwin Morgan, the first makar, who addressed the Parliament in verse as this building was opened in 2004, a man who came out at the age of 70. Edwin Morgan wrote some of the most beautiful love poetry I have ever read. I have a copy of “Strawberries” on the wall of my office upstairs:

“the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates”.

I read that poem through the lens of a love between two men finding love in the simple things of everyday life and everyday relationships. Morgan did not gender his poem, however, and that adds a universality, but it also speaks of a different time: a time in our history when the love that he so beautifully describes was hidden and had to be hidden. Those days may seem distant for so many people in Scotland today, but they are all too real for many LGBT+ people around the world. That is a reminder to all of us that rights are hard fought for and hard won. They are also fragile, and it is on all of us in this place to protect and enhance them, to row forward and build that more equal society that we would all wish to see.

As this LGBT+ history month comes to a close, let us all acknowledge the past, stand up and speak out in our present and seek to build a more equal future.

It is difficult to comprehend that a year has passed since Russia launched its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine. We will all remember that day and our sense of outrage and deep worry for the people of Ukraine, but also the unity of purpose as we gathered in the chamber to offer them our solidarity. I join colleagues in paying tribute to that sense of unity across the Parliament and to the work of the minister and the cabinet secretary, which has helped to foster it.

We mourn those who have lost their lives, and we pray for all those who have been victims in Russia’s campaign of brutal and indiscriminate attacks. We have all seen evidence of the atrocities that have been committed by the barbaric Russian regime in towns and cities across Ukraine as it has indiscriminately bombed civilians and attacked Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. There is a clear sense of anger and injustice about what has been happening to Ukraine and its people, alongside a sense of outrage at Russia’s decision to provoke a war that is an unjustifiable act of aggression.

In Scotland, we have all witnessed generous acts of solidarity as our villages and towns have rallied to support Ukraine. In March 2022, in the early days of the war, the Deanston bakery on the south side of Glasgow, which is owned by Ukrainian baker Yuriy Kachak, organised a bake sale to raise funds to support people in his homeland. The response was overwhelming. People travelled from across the west of Scotland and formed a queue that snaked around the blocks of tenement flats as they willingly waited for more than an hour to donate and show their support for Ukraine. Yuriy raised a staggering total of £25,000 from that bake sale, and funds raised from a JustGiving page started by the bakery increased it to more than £36,000. That amount was more than doubled by an incredibly generous anonymous donation that brought the total amount raised to £72,451, all of which was donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine humanitarian appeal.

That example is reflective of the people of Scotland’s response to the early days of the war. They felt powerless to stop the atrocities that were being committed by Russia, but they wanted to do something—anything—to express their solidarity and provide meaningful support to the people of Ukraine.

Since the onset of Russia’s war of aggression, Scotland has welcomed more than 20,000 Ukrainian people through the supersponsor and homes for Ukraine schemes. It is right that Scotland should remain their home for as long as they need or wish to live here, because the war has altered their lives irreversibly.

That is why we must help to provide displaced Ukrainians with stability and security and allow them to make Scotland a safe haven and a place that they can truly call home. In my region, in the west of Scotland, we have been pleased to welcome Ukrainian people to our communities. Indeed, hundreds of people are living on the cruise ship MS Ambition, which is berthed at King George V dock, in Renfrew. That has provided much needed safety but, ultimately, a cruise ship must be only a temporary solution; it does not provide the security of tenure that people require.

As we have heard, it is imperative that the Government devises a longer-term strategy for housing displaced people from Ukraine, because it will give them certainty about their future and the opportunity to truly root their lives here, in Scotland, if they wish to do so. That means the Scottish Government providing necessary funding to local government to allow it to meet the needs of the Ukrainian diaspora population.

Ukrainians have become integral members of our communities, and they are now our neighbours and friends. I want to share a few examples of how they have been welcomed in the communities that I represent. In East Renfrewshire, the Park parish church in Giffnock opened its doors as a hub for newly settled Ukrainian families, providing free face-to-face English lessons and access to support services that have allowed families to integrate more easily into the local community. In Inverclyde, pupils at Clydeview academy, in Gourock, organised a variety of fundraising activities as they aimed to provide Ukrainian refugees who had newly arrived in Inverclyde with bespoke welcome packs to make them feel at home in the area and telling them something about the community and Inverclyde’s rich history of welcoming people fleeing war and persecution.

As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, it is important to state that the issue is so much bigger and more important than party politics, as we have seen across the chamber today. That is why Labour has supported the UK Government’s approach every step of the way and will continue to work constructively with both of our Governments at the UK level and here, in Scotland, to maximise the resources and support that we provide to Ukraine. Like my colleagues, I was proud to see Keir Starmer visit Kyiv last week to express that solidarity and show our willingness to continue to support the people of Ukraine and defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

I was heartened to hear Donald Cameron quote the great Seamus Heaney in his contribution. I offer members two further quotations today. Seamus Heaney wrote:

“If you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way.”

I hope that our words today in the Scottish Parliament have been helpful to the people of Ukraine and have shown that, together, we will work to find a way through this. Heaney also wrote, in “Beowulf”:

“Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what’s said and what’s done.”

That could apply perfectly to President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine. We are in awe of their words and their actions. Now, may our actions match our words. Victory to Ukraine!

On the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care’s watch, we are facing a waiting times crisis. There are stories of people having to fundraise for private surgery, rather than wait in pain. Where is the Scottish Government’s urgency on treatment options and treatment centres? How will the health secretary ensure that people have access to meaningful waiting plans that are influenced by a waiting well strategy that is supported by the third sector?