Chamber and committees

In politics, it is often easy to give something a title and forget about the magnitude and the reality of what lies behind those words. We have already heard today about austerity, but that really means falling standards of living for the poorest in our society through Government cuts. The Government speaks of a budget of choices, but what it really means is cuts to the moneys that are available to local government to educate our children, lift the bins and fill the potholes.

I fear that the expression “cost of living crisis” is becoming another one over which there is much hand wringing by Scotland’s Government but little real action. We know the reality of the crisis: sleepless nights for thousands of people about how they will pay their bills, ensure that their children have enough to eat and get to work as the cost of petrol and public transport goes up and up.

We cannot allow the cost of living crisis to become another phrase that is timeworn by the inaction of the UK and Scottish Governments. As we emerge from the pandemic, during which many Scots experienced a collapse in their earnings, thousands of people who were just getting by are being propelled into poverty and precarity. The crisis continues to devastate family finances and the UK and Scottish Governments are simply not doing enough and are not focused on the real needs.

Despite promising cheaper energy bills during the 2016 Brexit referendum, the Tories have alternated between being completely silent on the crisis and being completely tone deaf. Despite the crisis, they have hiked up taxes for working people and dished out temporary loans—a heat-now, pay-later measure that only exacerbates the issues in the long term.

Let us not forget that the SNP Government has presided over the crisis in Scotland. It recently nodded through increases in water charges and increased rail fares at a time when families are least able to afford them. In response to urgent calls for support, the SNP and Green Government has failed to use the extent of the powers that it has and instead has offered one-off payments equating to less than £4 a week. That is the equivalent of one single off-peak ticket from Paisley to Glasgow and, with current fares, it is hardly a measure that will soften the blow.

While Scottish families are choosing between heating and eating, Government-owned Scottish Water and its subsidiaries are sitting on a cash mountain of more than £500 million. Scottish Labour’s amendment demands that that cash mountain is used to deliver a rebate of £100 to every household on their water charges.

As I come to the end of a decade as a local councillor, I have been reflecting on the importance of local government in delivering targeted support to those who would otherwise remain in crisis. Our local councils are quickly becoming the last line of defence in the cost of living emergency. The amazing people I have had the privilege of working with in local government are being starved of cash and forced to make unpalatable decisions. We need more money, advice and rights services, more funding for Citizens Advice, more community resilience groups and more support to help people pay their bills.

Copying the Tories by giving people a £150 council tax rebate will not cut it. If the Government is serious about tackling the cost of living, it must properly fund local government to deliver the services that people rely on, and give people real financial help that they can spend in their local communities to build up local economies. I point to the innovative work that is being done in Labour councils across Scotland, such as the community wealth-building agenda in North Ayrshire in my region, and the club 365 holiday hunger programme in North Lanarkshire—once again, councils being the last line of defence.

It is clear that, as my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy articulated, Scottish Labour has a plan at every level of government to tackle the crisis and help people through it. It is also clear that the situation is grave for people across Scotland, and it will take more than warm words to heat homes and put food on the table.

Convener, I have not quite finished.

I am tempted to go into a shopping list of things that I would like Audit Scotland to look at, but I will resist.

Given the pressures that exist in emergency medicine, which this committee hears quite a lot about, and, more broadly, in respect of A and E attendance and the Scottish Ambulance Service, will a particular focus be placed on emergency medicine?

The committee is holding an inquiry on pathways into care, and we are looking at GP and pharmacy services and the different levels of service that can be offered. Is there any work forthcoming from Audit Scotland that might help to supplement and support our work?

Key to many of our questions this morning is the issue of scrutiny and the on-going assessment of the work that has been done in order to deliver change. What future work on health and social care is Audit Scotland currently planning to undertake?

Good morning. I am interested in how social care and the national care service sit alongside each other. In January, you produced a report in which you highlighted the scale of the challenge in social care, which sits alongside the pressures that exist in the NHS. We know that delayed discharge and blockages further up, at the other end of the scale, are often caused by a lack of availability of care packages.

In your January report on social care, you said that the Government needed to move faster to take action to alleviate some of the issues than the five-year timescale that is envisaged for a national care service to be set up. Are there things that can be done now to alleviate the issues that are being experienced in the NHS and to provide social care more quickly? Do those include improving pay and conditions of staff, further recruitment of new care staff and looking at care packages across the country?

I thank the minister for her undertaking. I think that everyone in the chamber would welcome that detail as the situation develops, because it is concerning.

To push the minister further on her previous answer, how does the Government intend to increase awareness of the symptoms among parents and carers, given the importance of early diagnosis and health interventions? Public Health Scotland has highlighted the importance of increased hand and general hygiene, as the minister alluded to. How will the Government support that messaging for families at home and in early learning and childcare settings and school settings, particularly at a time when people might be becoming more lax or less observant in that regard because Covid-19 regulations are changing?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the reported recent outbreak in cases of hepatitis in children across Scotland. (S6T-00640)

The situation is, naturally, very concerning. There has been an increase in cases across the UK, with the World Health Organization having been informed and the UK Health Security Agency co-ordinating that investigation. It is vitally important that work to identify the factors that are causing the infections moves at pace, and that a high level of support is offered to the affected children and families.

We all want to avoid speculating on the causes of infection, which could cause further anxiety in communities; however, there have already been media reports suggesting a number of potential causes. I note what the minister said about Covid-19 vaccination, but there have also been stories about toxins in food, drink and toys, which all cause concern in the wider community.

Will the minister say when she expects further detail on the causes, in order to avoid such speculation and to ensure that the right plan is in place to tackle the concerning infections?

I thank Jeremy Balfour for securing this debate on the Down Syndrome Bill, which has passed its stages in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

As the motion states, Dr Fox’s bill received cross-party support across the house and has moved through its stages, allowing for important debate and discussion about the human rights of people who have Down’s syndrome and their families and carers. That is what is important tonight. I do not want to get bogged down in a constitutional debate; I want to talk about the important lived experience of the people we are talking about.

My Welsh Labour colleague in the House of Commons, Ruth Jones, spoke very powerfully at the bill’s second reading about her experiences as a paediatric physiotherapist and, in particular, about the work that she did in supporting children and young people. I believe that that was perhaps the first time that many of the issues experienced by those people and their families were heard in the United Kingdom Parliament, so it was crucially important.

Although the provisions of the bill relate to England, they have been welcomed by charities in Scotland. Eddie McConnell of Down’s Syndrome Scotland, who we heard about from the previous speaker, said that

“The Down Syndrome Bill has the potential to be a landmark moment in advancing the rights of people with Down’s syndrome.”

He went on to point to the important collaborative work already being done in Scotland to move forward the rights of people who have Down’s syndrome and other learning disabilities. I am proud to have already played a small part in that journey in my working life prior to becoming an MSP and I hope to continue that work in the Parliament.

The Down Syndrome Bill seeks to remind public bodies of their duties and gives legal weight to the rights of people and their families who are fighting to get the support that they need. That is so important for many people who describe trying to access the right support and services as a daily battle.

As I have said, although the bill has been broadly welcomed in England and by organisations in Scotland, it is fair to say that there have been some divergent views on how the far the bill has gone and the fact that it could have gone further. Mencap has said that it would have done things a bit differently had it been more involved at an earlier stage in the development of the bill. For example, it would have made the bill apply to everyone who has a learning disability and framed it in the language of a social rather than a medical model, going to greater lengths to engage more people with lived experience. However, rather than oppose the progress that bill represents, Mencap has acknowledged that it has looked optimistically at what the bill could lead to in the future in England. To be honest, I think that that is where we find ourselves in Scotland—with a very clear opportunity.

I have already alluded to my previous work. When at Enable Scotland, I had the great honour of working with people who have a learning disability, their families and carers, and organisations such as Scottish Autism and the National Autistic Society, to secure cross-party commitment to a learning disability, autism and neurodiversity bill, with the introduction of a commissioner to advocate, support and protect the rights of people across Scotland. I know that the current minister, along with Jeremy Balfour and colleagues across the chamber, share our passion and concern so that we get that right, working with people across the country, listening to what they need and delivering both that bill and a commissioner with a robust set of powers to make a real difference.

Now that I am a member of this Parliament, as convener of the cross-party group on learning disability, I will seek to act as a bridge between the many people who have a learning disability and the Parliament as we work to deliver a bill that will deliver for them. The work of Dr Liam Fox through the Down Syndrome Bill is an important start and we can draw inspiration from it, but I believe that we can and must do more for people across Scotland who have Down’s syndrome, other learning disabilities and autism. I look forward to doing that work, which must be done at pace because we do not want to be left behind and we do not want to leave behind the people who need such a bill. I look forward to the work, the discussion and the debates that we will have across the Parliament and our country. We will want to undertake to ensure that the voices of those who, all too often, are not heard in the Parliament are indeed heard.

Our hospitals are under immense pressure, and A and E waiting times are shocking. Care at home and residential care services are also under immense pressure, and schools in some parts of the country are having to temporarily close. Already high staffing shortages are being exacerbated by Covid-related absences. As a consequence, people who need support are often falling through the gaps and staff are struggling to keep things going. I am talking about older people who need care and young people who are preparing for exams.

What urgent additional support will the First Minister provide to support services that are in desperate need? Will she clarify the Government’s plans for self-isolation and testing as we move forward into the spring and summer period?