Chamber and committees

I am very happy to respond to Mr Ross’s point. As the First Minister has set out, the Scottish Government is wrestling with a budget settlement that was agreed when inflation was at 2 per cent. Inflation is now at 10 per cent, hence the emergency statement that I will give to Parliament tomorrow and the extensive opportunity that will be available to members to question me on its contents.

I think that any rational individual would understand that it is sensible for us to wait to see what decisions a new United Kingdom Government might take to jeopardise our budget—because that is a very real threat that we face—before we take measures to support individuals, within our responsibilities, in addition to the marvellous news about the Scottish child payment. That is the only payment to support families in poverty around the country, and that is what this Government has delivered today.

Will Mr Ross take an intervention?

Will Mr Ross give way again?

I think that Mr Ross needs to think about his gratuitous comments and about what he is muttering just now.

I would like an answer to my question. Does Mr Ross support the pay deals, which are higher than 2 per cent and incur higher costs for the Government to resolve? Yes or no.

I welcome the steps that NHS Grampian is taking, which are part of the work that is being undertaken in the national health service to expand the recruitment of staff and to exhaust all options to address the shortages issue.

Obviously, there are challenges with international recruitment, which have been exacerbated by the issues around Brexit and immigration, but the Scottish Government will work with health boards to encourage them to take the steps that NHS Grampian has taken.

In 2021, we published the NHS recovery plan, which set out commitments that will support recovery over the five years to 2026, supported by the implementation of improvements and new models of care. We have on-going discussions with key stakeholders, including the NHS, across Government and with other United Kingdom Governments around the recovery of the NHS. A full update on progress in the first year since publication will be published in September, after the parliamentary recess.

That type of activity is right at the heart of the decisions that the Government takes on our priorities. In relation to the NHS, which is the subject of Mr Stewart’s question, we are looking at increasing NHS capacity to meet healthcare needs in the enhancing of primary care services and cancer services and in the transformation of mental health services.

All those points are right at the heart of the Government’s agenda to improve public services, to tackle the very clear impact of the pandemic on the waiting times of individuals for services and, as a consequence, we will endeavour to make as much progress as possible, as swiftly as possible, on improving public services.

As part of the Government’s measures to assist public bodies in addressing the issue of Covid-19-related staff shortages in Aberdeen Donside, in 2022-23 Aberdeen City Council will receive £409.8 million to fund vital day-to-day local services, which equates to an extra £35.2 million—an additional 9.4 per cent—compared with 2021-22.

Councils and other public sector bodies have flexibility to manage their resources and budgets as long as they fulfil their statutory obligations and address jointly agreed national and local priorities. The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities have agreed shared priorities for recovery, which involve targeting support to those people who have been most affected during the pandemic.

The issue that Sue Webber has raised is obviously very important, but the judgments that have been arrived at are clinical judgments that have been made by the services involved. I would consider some of the issues that Sue Webber has fairly raised with me within the context of the whole family wellbeing analysis that we are undertaking. If we provide more effective support to individuals—through community organisations, in some circumstances—we can avoid the crystallisation of mental health and wellbeing challenges, because people will be better supported, more included and more assisted in their endeavour. That thinking has been brought to bear.

I am delighted that our local authority partners are working closely with us on the Covid recovery strategy in trying to make it a practical reality, but we need the engagement of the third sector—which I warmly welcome, because the third sector has a track record of being able to reach individuals who might be more challenging for statutory services to reach.

I acknowledge that, in some parts of the country, there are particular challenges around the recruitment of general practitioners. Without generalising too much, I would say that the issue looks to be more acute in rural areas than it is in urban areas, although urban areas are not without their challenges.

The Government has invested heavily in the recruitment of general practitioners and has worked to make general practice attractive through a number of different interventions, such as reducing the financial burdens that some general practitioners have, in the past, been expected to carry and enabling them to be better supported by NHS infrastructure. Scotland has more GPs per head of population than there are in other parts of the United Kingdom, but we must continue to work to recruit general practitioners, which is a priority of the health secretary as we speak.