Chamber and committees

I, too, send my condolences to anyone who has lost a baby—these cases are indeed tragedies.

The Government is right to make it clear that there is no link to neonatal Covid or to the Covid-19 vaccine, but Dr Sarah Stock, who co-led the Covid-19 in pregnancy Scotland study, has said that further research is required to understand the effects of Covid-19 in pregnancy, because it can cause complications such as early birth. She has also said that the wider impacts of Covid-19 on the NHS workforce and services need to be looked at.

Can the minister confirm that the inquiry will examine those issues? When does she anticipate updating the Parliament further on the matter?

Like colleagues, I begin by thanking Emma Roddick for bringing the motion and the debate to the chamber. I also thank Jamie Greene for his contribution as co-convener of the LGBT+ cross-party group and both colleagues for the work that they do on that group; indeed, I thank all other colleagues who are members of or who support that group. I think that it does vitally important work in our Parliament in representing the important issues for LGBT+ people across Scotland—and none is more important than the issue that we are debating this evening.

I also thank SHAAP for its work with Glasgow Caledonian University on the report. If I may, Presiding Officer, I would like to plug an event that is coming up in the Parliament in June. I am delighted to be hosting SHAAP and Glasgow Caledonian University to mark pride month, which will give us all an opportunity to hear more about their work and to engage more fully in it. I would welcome all colleagues to that event.

As we have heard already, many communities in Scotland suffer from health inequalities when it comes to the overconsumption of alcohol, and Scotland’s LGBT+ community is among them. Evidence shows that although alcohol-free spaces for LGBT+ people are highly valued where they exist, alcohol still plays a central role in most LGBT+ safe spaces. We have heard from colleagues about their own experience of that, and I would echo much of what has been said. It is so important that our towns and cities have a gay scene and areas where there are bars, cafes and other places that are safe spaces for LGBT+ people. However, those spaces are often based around a drinking culture and alcohol, and that can be very challenging for some people. We need to widen out those safe spaces and ensure that many of them are as safe as they can be.

I point to what Jamie Greene said about the challenges that we know exist around access to sports for LGBT+ people. Historically, many people have not engaged in sports and find it difficult to do so. We know that LEAP Sports Scotland and others are doing a huge job of work to try to make sport more accessible and to ensure that people are welcomed.

The SHAAP research points to challenges for LGBT+ people in accessing alcohol support services as a result of misconceptions that are embedded in those services regarding the sexuality or gender identity of their service users. Indeed, very often how people’s sexuality or gender identity influences wider relationships with alcohol is misunderstood.

We have made great strides in Scotland when it comes to protecting the rights of LGBT+ people and amplifying voices, but it is clear that we still have a lot of work to do. The threat and reality of discrimination can have a devastating impact on wellbeing and can contribute to the reality that LGBT+ people are particularly vulnerable to experiencing poor mental health. Colleagues—particularly Pam Duncan-Glancy—have spoken about LGBT Youth Scotland, evidencing some of their recent work in that regard.

Testimonies have shown that mainstream health services are not always inclusive. Members of the LGBT+ community are not just more likely to struggle with mental health issues and alcohol misuse, but less likely to receive the support that they need when they are facing those struggles. Glasgow Caledonian University’s report displays the LGBT+ community’s concerns that alcohol services are often intimidating and oriented towards white, straight men, and that support groups are not gay friendly. We all have a right to support and it is vital that that right is accessible to everyone across all communities, especially marginalised groups such as LGBT+ people.

We must commit to the provision of additional alcohol-free spaces in the LGBT community and more widely. We must provide spaces where people can express themselves and unite, free from alcohol, if that is what they choose to do. That is a key step towards improving things for people who are isolated and providing social support, and I think that it is particularly important for people who are under 18. I think that we would all want to try and engage with LGBT Youth Scotland and others to look at those issues, in particular.

Once again, I thank Emma Roddick for bringing this timely debate and urge all colleagues to attend the event with SHAAP in June.

I do not think that anyone would deny that the pandemic has exacerbated the pressures. I was just pointing to the fact that the Audit Scotland report says that there was no financial sustainability prior to it. The committee will be keen to hear an update on the progress of the boards to which I referred when we get to the financial year end.

I will ask more broadly about the increase in funding. The Scottish Government committed to a £2.5 billion increase in funding for health and social care over the parliamentary session. However, the medium-term framework for health and social care has not yet been updated. In the absence of any medium-term financial framework, how can the cabinet secretary be confident that the additional funds that were committed will be allocated and used effectively? When will the updated medium-term financial framework be published?

I will continue in that vein. We have seen evidence in the Audit Scotland report that data and planning have not been adequate. That answer suggests that we have to do a lot more to understand and profile where we are.

I return to the cabinet secretary with a question about nursing places and vacancies. There are 6,674.4 whole-time equivalent nursing and midwifery vacancies in the NHS, and we have heard some of the cabinet secretary’s reasons for the challenges in that. Will he also accept that the reduction in the number of nursing training places—a decision that was taken by his predecessor—has exacerbated those challenges?

I am trying to ask you a question and get the answer.

The Audit Scotland report states that

“The NHS was not financially sustainable before the Covid-19 pandemic”

and that six boards require additional financial support from the Government or to use non-recurring savings in order to break even. Is the cabinet secretary confident that those boards will be able to achieve financial balance in 2022-23, or is it likely that on-going support will be required? What is his assessment of the issues that are being experienced by the boards? Is it a case of weak financial management, or is a lack of adequate resourcing a more fundamental issue?

The £10 million fund was announced in September of last year, but there was no spending until the beginning of this financial year. Why was that and what is the long-term strategy for funding this crucial work?

I heard the cabinet secretary’s initial answer to David Torrance’s question on workforce pressures, and his answer about Brexit. When the Auditor General for Scotland gave evidence to the committee, he spoke about historic problems with staffing. He said:

“We know, and have previously reported, that the NHS has, historically, struggled to achieve all its staffing ambitions.”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 19 April 2022; c 3.]

Will the cabinet secretary acknowledge that there has been something of a historic failure to deliver a workforce plan, and that there were failures in meeting staffing targets before the pandemic?

This debate is extremely important as we mark national walking month. We should take the time to thank all the organisations that have engaged with and briefed us ahead of today’s debate, in particular Paths for All, sportscotland and the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society. Their engagement in the debate and more widely on the issue of walking across Scotland is hugely important and they make a vast contribution.

We also start with a degree of consensus on the vital importance of getting out and walking or wheeling, and on the improvements that that simple activity can make to our physical and mental health and wellbeing. I am sure that, like me, members across the chamber rediscovered what it is to take time to walk or wheel during the lockdown periods of the past two years. Many people found huge benefit from going out for that daily walk or wheel, whether in our beautiful countryside, beside our lochs and mountains, in our urban parks or along canals. In many ways, people rediscovered the joy of what was around them and saw huge benefits for their health and wellbeing.

We know from evidence that a 20-minute walk can reduce the risk of a number of preventable health conditions, including certain cancers, depression, heart disease and type II diabetes. Supporting people to be physically active is vital to our public health mission in Scotland and active travel is vital to reducing health inequalities, meeting our climate targets and relieving pressure on the national health service. It is not just walking, of course; associated activities such as running and cycling also have an impact and must be supported.

The national walking strategy is hugely important for encouraging people to walk. As the strategy was originally launched in 2014, I hope that the minister will say more about its refresh and update, particularly as we recover from Covid-19 and hope that people sustain that level of activity. There are many strong recommendations in the strategy and it points to the work that we still have to do. Figures from local authorities in 2019 show that the proportion of trips made on foot ranged from 39 per cent in Dundee to just 11 per cent in East Renfrewshire. As I hail from East Renfrewshire, it is clear to me that we need to do more locally and nationally to get those numbers up.

Another key recommendation in the strategy is that there must be

“Better quality walking environments with attractive, well designed and managed built and natural spaces for everyone”.

That brings me to the Labour amendment. Although, as I have said, many people in our communities rediscovered walking in the lockdowns, they also discovered that paths are often inaccessible or covered in litter, that too many pavements are cracked and broken, and that too many parks are dark, unlit and unsafe to go to, particularly for women on their own. Councils are struggling to keep up with repairs and it is becoming harder and harder to sustain

“attractive, well designed and managed”

areas for walking, wheeling and cycling.

The truth is that, since 2013, the Scottish Government has cut £6 billion from local authority budgets and, right now, there is an eye-watering outstanding roads repair bill of at least £1.7 billion. That bill has been accumulated under the Government, and it makes already dangerous conditions worse—and that is even before we come to pavements. People will not walk if the infrastructure is not there to support them. Understandably, cash-strapped councils have had to prioritise other issues.

That has had an adverse impact on our most deprived communities and has limited the options for people to get out and take the most cost-effective form of exercise. We on the Labour benches have called for active travel spending to be increased to 10 per cent of the overall transport budget, to give priority to encouraging and enabling people to get out of cars and on to bikes, and to walk more, which will benefit their health and the health of our communities. We have also called for additional measures to improve women’s safety, including a pilot of physical space safety audits and providing planners with guidance on how to make communities safer.

That brings me to cycling, which we believe is a key component of the wider active travel agenda and is highlighted in our amendment. In last year’s election, the Scottish National Party promised free bikes to all school-age children who cannot afford them. In August 2020, the Greens called for all children from low-income families to receive a grant towards bikes and helmets to get to school safely. However, 18 months on, only 238 bikes have been given out, and the Government does not even have the statistics on how many children are using those pilot schemes.

I am in my last seconds.

That is a case of something perhaps looking good in a leaflet but not being delivered in reality.

Walking, wheeling and active travel are paramount for our health as a nation and our sense of wellbeing. However, we must do more to encourage more people to get out and about and to get active, particularly in our most deprived communities, and further cuts to local government services and infrastructure will hinder, rather than help with that.

I move amendment S6M-04256.1, to insert at end:

“; recognises that wider cuts to local authority services hamper active travel and the implementation of a gendered approach to safety; considers that improvements to roads and pavements are necessary to improve levels of walking and wheeling, particularly in more deprived areas, and calls again on the Scottish Government to provide access to a bike for every child who cannot afford one by the end of 2022.”