Chamber and committees

Yes—that is important.

Finally, with expansion plans and in the current market, are you finding it difficult to recruit advocates who have the necessary experience? What sort of training have you developed?

Either the client or the advocate who is going to visit a client.

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions have taken place to consider providing cross-party groups with access to broadcasting services in committee rooms. (S6O-01605)

Good morning. In what we are examining, a gap exists in relation to housing and homelessness. I have raised that issue with the minister a few times, but it is still not being addressed. Frankly, the Government is also not talking about the housing crisis.

This week’s statistics show that, of the deaths of 222 homeless people, half were drug deaths. Ministers seem to have taken their eyes off the ball in that area, but we need action and supported housing models to be put in place. What is the Government doing about that?

I shadow Ms Robison and—let us be honest—the housing first model is sometimes part of the problem. Often, people who have chaotic lives are not able to hold down a tenancy, and that sets them up to fail. I have asked why we do not fund the building and putting in place of more supported accommodation, because we should have done so years ago.

I hope that, if she has not already seen it, the minister will visit Rowan Alba in Edinburgh with me at some point. The charity provides accommodation—supported living—for individuals with alcohol brain damage, which stops them being homeless. In Edinburgh, 50 people who could be in that type of accommodation are on a waiting list, but nothing is happening to take that forward.

There are also 1,095 children living in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh, and I know from my casework that they are developing acute substance abuse issues. We need to see a shift in that regard. Housing first is a good policy, but it is not delivering for that group of people and it needs to be rethought.

Have I got time to ask an additional question, convener?

Here in the capital, the number of people who have died while homeless has increased by nearly 150 per cent over the past four years. Shelter Scotland has said that the situation points towards “public services failing people”, and a “broken housing system”. The situation is simply not acceptable, and the City of Edinburgh Council does not have the resources to deliver a solution. As a fellow Edinburgh MSP, I ask the minister a very simple question: will he act today to declare a homelessness emergency here in the capital?

I declare an interest as co-convener of the cancer and chronic pain CPGs. A high number of incredibly ill or disabled people would like to attend meetings of both groups, but as we have moved back to holding in-person meetings, the numbers have reduced. Could we look into having a pilot project in which CPGs could, in future, use the broadcasting facilities in committee rooms to broadcast on the Parliament channel?

I welcome that. I was going to turn specifically to policy in relation to the “no wrong door” approach and how funding can then be allocated to various organisations, especially third sector organisations. That is not clear, so it is something that I want the Government to focus on.

There are so many things from this morning’s joint meeting of three committees that I want to raise; I will mention a few of them now. First, there was a great opportunity to look towards how stigma is addressed with regard to hepatitis C patients, especially those who are former injecting drug users. We need to do that. As one of the hep C champions, I am concerned that progress is not currently being made. Scotland was leading the world on the matter at one point, but we are falling behind, apart from in Dundee. I hope that we can address that issue, as well.

There are a few other issues. Alcohol treatment and services is one of my greatest concerns. We are seeing an increase in the number of people who are presenting with alcohol issues, and they are younger than ever before. The Scottish Government is also not taking on board medication-assisted treatment standards for alcohol, which I have raised with the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, and am raising now with the Minister for Drugs Policy. That needs to change: we need MAT standards for alcohol treatment, because we cannot take our eye off the ball in another crisis, which is the increasing amount of alcohol misuse in Scotland. The change in alcohol use might be because of the pandemic, but I hope that it is something of which ministers are mindful. Many charities and people who are working in the area are incredibly concerned about it.

Finally, the debate around stigma is welcome. We all need to address it in our language and our public services. Most important is that we need to do that for families because, as Claire Baker pointed out, families who are trying to support loved ones with alcohol addiction often face some of the worst stigma in our society. Public services need to consider that; we need to send a message that we are on their side, and that we will support families as they try to get their loved ones into treatment and secure a future for them.

When I was preparing for this speech yesterday, I was thinking about a case that I had just before the pandemic. It was the case of a constituent who had been in and out of Saughton prison, who contacted me to say that he did not want to go back to his family here in Lothian. On contacting public services, I was really shocked by their attitude towards that individual. Basically, I was told—I am paraphrasing—that I was unlucky that I had been landed with him. Specifically, he was described as a “problem junkie”. That attitude has to change in this country, so I hope that today’s debate can help with that. I welcome what Emma Harper had to say, because she made many positive suggestions on taking forward work in the area. It is not an easy thing to do, but it is something that we have to do.

I still think that homelessness and housing is an area that the Scottish Government is not building in to a solution to the drug deaths crisis. Figures that were released yesterday show that the number of estimated homeless person deaths across Lothian—my region—has, over the past three years, increased dramatically, from 26 deaths in 2019 to 63 deaths last year. The number of homelessness applications has also increased over the past three years across all the councils in my region, to more than 8,165, and the number of children in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh, as things stand today, is more than 1,000.

Those figures are nothing short of appalling, but we need to see them as part of the wider picture, because many people with problematic drug misuse are ending up in facilities where they are housed with other people with problematic drug misuse. If someone is trying to get off drugs—if they are trying to sustain their treatment—that approach does not work. That is something that the Parliament and the minister really need to consider. I raised the issue with the minister at the committees’ meeting this morning.

Six years ago, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Anas Sarwar, Monica Lennon and I, as our respective party spokespeople, called on ministers to declare a drug deaths emergency. Ministers dragged their feet for years, insisting that strategies were actually working. In the end, it was public outrage about Scotland’s drug deaths that really drove ministers to declare the public health emergency and to finally shift things. However, that happened after shameful decisions to cut funding, which had made the situation worse.

The Scottish Government’s approach to tackling drug deaths needs to be constantly improved and looked at and, as I have said, housing support and extra care need to be built in. That is lacking in current strategies.

Shelter Scotland has said, with regard to the situation—