Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

I agree whole-heartedly with Mr Johnson—he makes a substantial point that poses a challenge to Government and to a variety of institutions around the country to ensure that the interventions that we put in place can directly and satisfactorily address the issue that he cites. There are vacancies in the labour market; Mr Johnson will know from speaking to businesses in his constituency, as I speak to those in my constituency and around the country, that they are facing real challenges around vacancies.

Equally, however—as Murdo Fraser and I discussed at portfolio question time yesterday—there will be individuals who are unemployed or whose jobs have come to an end after furlough but who may not have the ideal skills to enable them to move into another sector. Our colleges and institutions, and our training interventions such as the young persons guarantee and the transition training fund, must all be efficient and focused in order to address the issue that Mr Johnson fairly puts to me. I give him an assurance that the Government is constantly addressing those questions.

In addition, we must also focus—I made this point to Mr Fraser yesterday—on people in our society who are currently economically inactive and who, with appropriate levels of support, assistance and perhaps additional public services, could be assisted to enter the labour market. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has regularly raised concerns about the availability of the social care workforce, which is critical to ensuring that the demand for care packages in our community is satisfactorily met—a point that I discussed with Jackie Baillie at question time yesterday.

We can potentially enable some of those economically inactive individuals to gain access to the labour market with the proper support that they require. Indeed, ministers were wrestling yesterday with some of the issues in respect of wraparound childcare, which I recognise to be a significant issue. In closing the debate today, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights will talk about housing supply issues, which are material to ensuring that individuals can find the stability to enable them to enter the labour market. Mr Johnson makes a very fair point.

Mr Rowley puts his finger on an important point. He highlights the Raploch centre, which is a perfect example of exactly the point that I tried to make to Mr Johnson. However, I acknowledge that Raploch-style centres do not exist in every part of the country. We have to ensure that best practice is shared around the country and that we encourage different institutions and community planning partnerships at a local level to adopt those techniques, because it is clear that the Raploch centre model can assist individuals to enter the labour market with the necessary support. I commend that initiative, and I give Mr Rowley an assurance that, as part of the wider Covid recovery strategy, we are trying to ensure that more of those interventions are available around the country to support individuals.

We cannot return to how things were before the pandemic, when some people, because of their income, health, disability, race or gender, were less secure and less able to protect themselves and their families from circumstances beyond their control. Our recovery from the pandemic must be focused on creating a fairer future for everyone. It is critical that we deliver the type of recovery that people want and need.

During the summer, the Government heard from people that they wanted a recovery that addresses the harms caused by the pandemic; supports health and wellbeing; supports economic development; and provides financial security. The Government has listened to the valuable messages that have been shared through the Citizens Assembly of Scotland and the social renewal advisory board. I am grateful to all who have shared their views and experiences so openly and honestly. The message is clear: the people of Scotland want a fairer future for all fellow members of our community. That message is central to the Covid recovery strategy, which has a clear vision that will bring about a fairer future. We will address the inequalities that have been made worse by Covid, make progress towards a wellbeing economy in which our success is based on more than gross domestic product, and accelerate inclusive, person-centred public services.

The strategy details three outcomes that are central to achieving that vision of a fairer future: to increase financial security for low-income households; to enhance the wellbeing of children and young people; and to create good, green jobs and fair work. Those three outcomes are supported by an overarching ambition to rebuild public services and ensure that they are person centred in design and delivery. That very much relates to the point that Mr Rowley made about the approach that is taken at the Raploch centre. There are already examples of public services being delivered in that way. The Government’s ambition is that every person in Scotland should be able to access and benefit from public services in a way that meets their individual needs.

Our renewed and enhanced collaboration and partnership with local government, business organisations and the third sector will be critical to achieving our vision. We must build on the spirit of collaboration, urgency and flexibility that characterised our collective response to the pandemic. The challenge that I have put to Government, which we are sharing with our colleagues in local government, business organisations, the third sector and our communities, is that, if we can move so fast collectively and collaboratively to tackle a pandemic that was a direct threat to the lives and livelihoods of all of us in March 2020, surely we can deploy the same collaborative energy and focus in tackling poverty in our society and in the delivery of a fairer future.

The Covid recovery strategy details how the Government will work with partners to prioritise, co-ordinate and target actions most effectively over the next 18 months to meet the needs of those most affected during the pandemic. To ensure financial security for low-income families, we will roll out the Scottish child payment to children under 16 by the end of next year and double the payment to £20 a week per child as soon as possible in this parliamentary session. We will also commence work to expand funded early learning and childcare to children aged 1 and 2, and we will design a system of wraparound childcare in which the least well-off families will pay nothing. That can perhaps address some of the issues that Mr Johnson raised about supporting people into the labour market.

To further reduce the costs of the school day, we will expand the provision of free breakfasts and lunches and increase the school clothing grant each year.

To enhance the wellbeing of our children and young people, we will invest at least £500 million over this parliamentary session to create a whole family wellbeing fund. That fund will provide universal and holistic support services that will be available in communities across Scotland and give families access to the help that they need where and when they need it.

We will also deliver our young persons guarantee by providing up to £70 million this year so that every person aged between 16 and 24 has the opportunity to study or take up an apprenticeship, employment or work experience. That will include targeted measures to support care-experienced young people, disabled young people and those from low socioeconomic groups. The Government will also provide £120 million of further funding through the mental health recovery and renewal fund, which includes increased support for child and adolescent mental health services.

To create good, green jobs and fair work, we will support the creation of more jobs through the green jobs fund and the green jobs workforce academy. The forthcoming 10-year national strategy for economic transformation will set out plans for strengthening Scotland’s economy, recognising that a strong and sustainable economy goes hand in hand with a fair and equal society.

There is a substantial issue here. I hope that Mr Fraser understands that the Government and health boards have to say to people that there must be good and appropriate reason for individuals to use accident and emergency. They are not called “accident and emergency” departments for any casual reason; they are for when people have had an accident or for a situation that is an emergency. There are many other aspects of healthcare available.

I encourage Mr Fraser to take a considered view—which is the point that both Christine Grahame and John Mason made—as to the judgments that people should make in seeking the appropriate healthcare for the circumstances and difficulties that they face.

It is undeniable that citizens in our country face a significant cost of living crisis, which will become ever-more severe over the winter months due to the significant increases in fuel and food prices that are prevalent at the moment. Mr MacDonald is correct that the increase in the minimum wage, although welcome, does not in any shape or form offset the impact of those factors.

During the budget, changes have been announced to the decisions on universal credit. I have not had the opportunity yet to fully assess their implications, but, without a doubt, there are households in Scotland that are facing an acute cost of living crisis, and the Scottish Government is focusing its efforts on doing all that we can to support those in our society who face the challenge of poverty.

It was an absolute pleasure to visit the Belville Community Garden Trust in Mr McMillan’s constituency. The trust is an example of a local organisation that had a core purpose of involvement in community activity pre-pandemic but adapted significantly and quickly during the pandemic to meet the needs of individuals in the Greenock area. As a consequence of that, the trust has established itself in a variety of different areas around connections among individuals. For example, there is a fantastic knitting gathering, which I met there and which is providing socialisation for individuals who have felt isolated during the pandemic; and there is a gardens project and a skills project. The trust is a fantastic example. Such ventures exist in all communities in the country, but I compliment Belville Community Garden Trust on its outstanding work.

Our Covid recovery strategy recognises that many critical sectors across the Scottish economy—from food and drink to transport and social care—are reporting issues with the supply of labour resulting from exiting the European Union.

The strategy therefore includes investment of an additional £500 million over this parliamentary session to support new, good, fair and green jobs and to equip people with the skills to enter and progress in those jobs. We are working with employers to help people into vacancies through our employability programmes, one of which is, of course, the young person’s guarantee.

The real solution, however, lies in an end to policies that are damaging to the prospects of the Scottish economy and which emanate from the United Kingdom Government. My ministerial colleagues and I have made repeated representations to the UK Government on putting in place emergency changes to the UK immigration system to combat acute post-Brexit skills and labour shortages. So far, the United Kingdom Government appears intent on ignoring the problems that it has itself created.

I would be delighted to meet Mr Gray and representatives of the business community in his constituency to hear at first hand about their experiences. I have listened to a range of businesses in my own constituency and in other parts of the country that have been expressing their concern about the availability of staff and the acute challenges that are being faced in a number of sectors, as I listed in my initial answer. In social care, hospitality, distribution, the health service and food processing, we are suffering as a consequence of the removal of the free movement of individuals. That has been a retrograde step. The Scottish Government warned that it would be damaging to the Scottish economy, and that warning was ignored by the United Kingdom Government as it pursued the hardest of Brexits and the removal of the free movement of individuals.

We welcome the post-Covid-19 futures commission’s report and will consider the recommendations closely. The Covid recovery strategy sets out the need to work collaboratively and we look forward to further engagement with the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the issues that the commission raised in its report.

The Government is absolutely focused on helping businesses to recover. We have supported businesses in a variety of ways to recover from the pandemic, and we continue to do so.

The app is working perfectly well. It is entirely operational, and it was able to be utilised at football grounds over the weekend, with many thousands of people in attendance; there were no reports of disorder or difficulty in the operation of the app. The app works perfectly well, and I suggest to the Conservatives that they move on from this argument. Countries around the world are using apps of the same type, and I do not see why anyone should think that Scotland should be an exception. The app is working perfectly well.

As Mr Kerr will not be surprised to hear, I will look very carefully at all the details of today’s announcements. I shall look at the shiny, glossy announcements and pore over the detail to make sure that the United Kingdom Government is not pulling the wool over our eyes, as it has done on so many occasions. If ever there was a group of people adept at having the wool pulled over its eyes, it is the members of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party who are sitting right in front of me. In fact, the knitting group in Greenock that I talked about would have delivered the wool to pull over the eyes of Mr Kerr and his colleagues.