Chamber and committees

I pay tribute to Willie Rennie for the work that he has done on the issue. It has been very good and very important. I will give him a commitment that resources will be part of the consideration. The Daily Record has drawn attention to the need for funding to make sure that there are places for young people to go, but I know that Willie Rennie is particularly talking about resources in schools.

Teachers are often at the front line of the situation, particularly when bullying is happening in schools, and we must take account of that. However, that should not take away from the fact that this is not just about what happens in our schools; it is a wider issue about how young people are coping with the pressures of modern life, particularly over the past few years. Mental health support—another issue that Willie Rennie has raised often in the chamber—is an important part of that. However, making sure that those who work most closely with young people, which obviously includes teachers, have the right support and resources to do that job is an important part of it, and I will have further discussions with the education secretary, over my remaining few weeks in this post, about exactly that issue.

We have provided an additional £8 million to health and social care partnerships to secure provision of 300 extra interim care home beds so that places can be purchased above the national care home contract rate. That has resulted so far in 331 people being able to be discharged from hospitals to those placements, with a total of 581 people currently benefiting from an interim care placement.

As part of the work of our ministerial advisory group on health and social care pressures, we are supporting local systems to gain a better understanding of care homes data, and supporting partnerships to understand local availability and the suitability of care home places for people in their care.

Our plans for a national care service, to which I alluded earlier, represent the biggest public sector reform in Scotland since the Parliament was established. They will help to ensure consistency and fairness at a national level, with services being designed and delivered locally.

Foysol Choudhury raises an important issue. I am happy to respond in more detail if he wants to send me the details of that individual case, but what I am about to say has general applicability.

First, no one should be denied their rights or forced into a place that is inappropriate for their needs. What the guidance seeks to do is, first, recognise that hospital is not the best place for any patient who is a delayed discharge, so being in another setting is better for them. Although partnerships obviously want to meet preferences, they also need to consider what the best place, relative to a hospital, for somebody would be. Individual preferences are important. However, the case that has been raised with me is about not just preference but need, given the condition involved.

That takes me on to another point. I referred to the work that is under way to gain a better understanding of care homes data. This is not just about the total number of places that are available but about the type of care that individual care homes are offering. These issues are complex but important and, as we continue to reform health and social care and better integrate it to ensure that people get the care that they need in the best place, we need to continue to grapple with those issues to get the right outcome.

That is a general response, but I am happy to amplify some of that in relation to the individual case of John—I think that that is the member’s constituent’s name—in order, I hope, to give some reassurance about the matters that have been raised with me.

I am bemused that Conservative members seem to think that it is not appropriate for the Parliament to consider issues such as the energy costs that the people of Scotland are having to pay right now. That is exactly the kind of issue that we should be discussing, and Paul McLennan is right to raise it.

The new price cap strengthens the case for the UK Government to reverse its plan to increase the guarantee for an average household from April. We estimate that such an increase would result in there being around 980,000 fuel-poor households in Scotland, which is a significant increase compared with estimates for this winter with the price cap set at £2,500. We have called on the UK Government to provide additional support, and we will continue to do so, because people need that support and they need it now.

—because it is for the benefit of our environment, and we will do that responsibly, because that is what people across Scotland have a right to expect.

I agree very much with Emma Roddick. I think that the Conservatives should be deeply ashamed of the impact of their welfare policies. We have known for a long time that the current United Kingdom Government benefits system is not fit for purpose. People across the country are paying the price for that every day in ways that Emma Roddick has pointed out.

Over many years, we have called for improvements. For example, there should be an immediate uplift to universal credit and other means-tested benefits, and we should see the scrapping of the unjust and cruel two-child limit and benefit cap. The latter two policies alone were singled out in a recent report by the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe. The report said that the policies

“continue to exacerbate child poverty.”

For our part, we will continue to seek to do the right things through our social security system and, in particular, the Scottish child payment, which is lifting children out of poverty at the same time as the policies of the UK Government push them deeper into poverty. If we were able to join up all those approaches and have all social security powers under the ambit of this Parliament, we could do so much more for the people who need our help most.

Yes, I agree. Addressing the climate emergency, for the sake of this generation but also generations to come, is a massive obligation. I think that it is a moral obligation for all of us, and I hope that everybody across the chamber will have the same conviction in tackling climate change as I do and the Government does.

Gillian Mackay is right to point out the need for all countries to accelerate the move away from fossil fuels. There is an added reason to do so in Scotland, which is the maturity of the North Sea basin. Even if there was not a climate emergency—which there is—we would need to make that just transition.

Investing in that transition and in alternative sources of energy is really important. In Scotland, we are blessed to have an abundance of those alternative sources of energy, which is why ScotWind and our green hydrogen ambitions are so important. They allow us to make the transition for energy needs in a way that is just and fair and that supports those people who currently work in oil and gas into alternative employment.

That just transition is one of the most important obligations of Government, and the updated climate change plan will be one of the most important documents to be published over the period ahead.

General practice is an important part of primary care, and primary care is an increasingly important part of our entire national health service, so we will continue to support general practices as part of wider teams. As I said earlier, since 2018, we have recruited more than 3,000 healthcare professionals to work in wider multidisciplinary teams, and we will continue to do that.

We are on track to meet the GP recruitment target for 2027, although, as Audit Scotland rightly says, that will be challenging. We will continue to focus on that so that we meet the target, and we will continue to ensure that we are making general practice an attractive proposition for people who wish to pursue medical careers.

These are extremely important issues, and these are challenging times for all parts of our national health service. However, the hypocrisy of Conservative members in the chamber is breathtaking at times. I will end my answer with this statistic: in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party is in office, the number of GPs per 100,000 of population is 95, but, in England, where the Conservatives are in office, the number is not 95 but just 78. These are challenging times, but this Government can evidence how we show support for general practice and the NHS as a whole.

I thank the member for her question. Forgive me if I am getting this wrong—I am not sure if she was referring to Fiona Duncan of The Promise. Fiona has said many things and has done fantastic work with the care review and with The Promise. I know that she is someone who seeks to hold all policy makers and Government ministers to account.

Of course there is much to do. The experience of the pandemic has been tough for everyone, but it has been particularly tough for those who were already vulnerable and marginalised. There will be many respects in which that has been the experience of the past two years for young people in care.

We talk about the Promise—we have been talking about it and I have been talking about it today—in the abstract. We have already done so many things to improve the experience of young people in care. When I speak to young people, those are often the things that they cite to me. The care-experienced bursary is one example. I have spoken to many care-experienced young people who have had the opportunity to go to university only because of the bursary that we introduced. We have taken away some of the other costs, whether those are dental charges or the burden of council tax. Those practical measures are important because they are about levelling the playing field and giving opportunity.

Do we have more to do? We absolutely have more to do. We will absolutely have to rise to the challenge of keeping the Promise. I hope that everyone across the chamber is as committed to that as I am. I will continue to be a very loud and, I hope, powerful advocate for care-experienced young people as we, collectively and as a society, keep the Promise. It came much later than it should have done and we now all have a responsibility to deliver it in full.

First, I take the opportunity to mark the first anniversary tomorrow of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and to express my solidarity and that of the Scottish Government and, I am sure, of everyone in Scotland with the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend and protect their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. This afternoon, the Parliament will debate this issue and, this evening, I will host a reception in Bute house for Ukrainians in Scotland. Our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time for them and their country.

I should say, first, that it is for members of my party to elect a new leader of the Scottish National Party and, in effect, a new First Minister for Scotland, subject to the approval of the Parliament.

First, on the issues of the NHS and the health secretary, he is the only health secretary anywhere in the United Kingdom who has managed to avoid a single day of strikes in the national health service during this last period.

Secondly, notwithstanding the significant challenges in accident and emergency—[Interruption.]