Chamber and committees

What work is being done to look at the situation for those individuals and families who have been staying in temporary accommodation, sometimes for up to two years? We have had discussions in committee about children in temporary accommodation. Legally, councils are not meant to house families in temporary accommodation for more than a week but, for many people here in Edinburgh, it has been years. What work is going on specifically around that, including a ban on families and pregnant women being placed in temporary accommodation by councils? What work is being done to develop a new model? Given what is being done with significant resources—£27 million is being spent on placing people in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh—why are we not using different systems to get a different outcome? Specifically what work is going on in councils and the Government around that? As an Edinburgh MSP, I have not seen any progress on that since I was elected. We need a different approach rather than repeating the same approach and hoping for a different outcome.

Many housing developers, especially housing associations, have highlighted the challenges in delivering affordable housing, particularly in the context of the recent budget and cuts to the affordable housing supply. Since 2022, there has been a 5 per cent decrease in the number of affordable housing approvals and a 20 per cent decrease in the number of affordable housing starts in Scotland. What are the Scottish Government and its partners doing about that decline? Based on the projected numbers, the Government will not meet its target in “Housing to 2040”. How is the Government responding to that?

I will come in with some separate questions afterwards that go beyond that issue.

Returning to homelessness services specifically, we are again seeing record numbers of rough sleepers being recorded. The Scottish Housing Regulator has been clear that there are systemic failures. What work is the Government doing with the councils that are involved, including the City of Edinburgh Council in my region? We all accept the need for and want to see the preventative work that is included in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, but that work will be done in the future. We are seeing the problems here and now, but we are not seeing an emergency response that asks councils what is happening.

A record number of people, including children, are living in temporary accommodation, but it does not feel as though the Government and councils are necessarily connected in an emergency response to that at present. There is not even recording of data on people sleeping in their cars, for example, and not declaring themselves homeless. I wonder where the Government is on that, because I think that the next set of statistics will be even worse. Where are we, as a country, in working with the councils that have the biggest pressures, the City of Edinburgh Council being at the top of that list?

Two years ago, in the “Coming Home” report, ministers pledged that, by March 2024, we would see real change, with out-of-area residential placements and inappropriate hospital stays for young people ending, and that we would see a proper care package put in place for families, with families and individuals having that choice taken into account. However, the Government has failed to deliver that, so I ask the First Minister when he will update Parliament on that promise, which was made to some of the most vulnerable people in our country and their families.

Good morning. I am Miles Briggs and am an MSP for the Lothian region.

I was not about to. [Laughter.]

That is an interesting point.

Housing is obviously an integral part of the committee’s remit, and I want to look at how housing could be part of the solution. Rob Davidson touched on the work that South of Scotland Enterprise is doing with registered social landlords. Matthew Brown, you talked about the auditing of land—I think that you were probably referring to land in the public sector. What has that work produced in relation to this agenda and the housing crisis that many parts of the UK are declaring?

My questions about those who are not traditionally involved have been answered. To follow on from that question, I wonder what role the Scottish National Investment Bank could play in that.

I start by congratulating Kate Forbes on securing this debate, which gives us an important opportunity to celebrate our charitable and third sectors in Scotland and to acknowledge the positive economic contribution that the third sector is making to Scotland. As has just been mentioned, all of us recognised that during the pandemic, when the third sector stepped up to help our society.

I also thank the organisations that provided useful briefings ahead of today’s debate. Some of the statistics that the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations provided us with ahead of today’s debate show the vital impact of the third sector—its important economic impact in particular, which I had not been fully aware of but which involves a huge amount of money, with £7.9 billion having been spent by the sector in 2021, rising to £8.8 billion in 2022. That spending impacts on everyone’s lives—that is one of the things that the debate has already shown.

It is also important to recognise the positive impact that the charitable and third sectors make in relation not only to reducing public expenditure but to maximising its benefit by providing services in sectors such as health, social care and education, and often doing so better than our national health service or our local authorities. I say that because, often, the third sector and charitable sector will take forward a more innovative sector-specific or person-specific solution. That is something that we should celebrate, and it is vital that we capture that.

I will give an example of that from my Lothian region. NHS Lothian looked into waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services—we have often heard MSPs complaining that it is unacceptable to leave people on long waiting lists. As a result, the health board has embraced a lot of work with the third sector to review CAMHS cases and, where appropriate, to get people into early intervention services that are run by mental health charities. That is helping to support families and individuals, instead of just leaving them on a waiting list. That is an example of an innovative solution that we should all celebrate and want to see being extended.

As Kate Forbes said, we also need to look to the third sector playing a more national role in our society and being at the table in relation to national and regional economic strategies.

Parliament should also allow the sector to come into our processes. Parliament and Governments—previous ones, as well as this one—have failed to take the opportunity to bring in the third sector at earlier stages. For example, in integration of health and social care it was a mistake not to have the third sector at the table earlier. I say to ministers that, in relation to development of the national care service, we should not make that mistake again. There is an opportunity, as the proposal progresses through Parliament, to embed the third sector in the process.

I absolutely agree that the sector’s involvement is valuable. However, having the sector at the table when it comes to decision making and commissioning of services will be really important. A lot of the work that the sector has done beyond integration of health and social care has been done outside the room. It is really important that we ensure that the sector is involved in commissioning services.

Members will be aware that I have launched a consultation on my member’s bill on the right to palliative care. In that area, the third sector—the hospice sector, in this case—is not embedded in the conversations on budgeting, and decisions that are being taken by the Government see it facing a £16 million black hole in staff budgets. That is an example of where we need to embed the sector in decision making.

Members will be aware that a Children’s Hospices Across Scotland reception will be held in the garden lobby this evening. It is one of many organisations that are doing fantastic work. Parliament needs to celebrate them, but we also need to engage better with them and to open up opportunities for them to do more and to make a bigger difference.

To conclude, I thank Kate Forbes for bringing the debate to the chamber and I thank members for contributing to it. We have a huge opportunity to encourage and nurture our third sector. We all want to celebrate the sector and make sure that that happens.