Chamber and committees

Good morning, and thank you for joining us this morning.

I want to talk in more detail about the culture within councils, and specifically to look at the past five or six months when we have had new councillors in place. Do you have any information about training being provided and councils making their newly elected members feel welcome and part of the organisation? Obviously, we have councils with very different numbers of elected members. Do you have evidence about the introductory phase for new councillors?

Thank you. There might be something to learn from the Scottish Parliament. The Presiding Officer might not agree with me in relation to the chamber, but there is probably learning from our code of conduct that could be applied to other people who are in elected office.

There was a concerning story in the Edinburgh Evening News after the last election about a newly elected disabled member of the City of Edinburgh Council. No assessment of her needs was done. I hope that newly elected members coming to Parliament feel that assessment is made of whether they have additional needs. Is that something that you have had feedback on from newly elected members?

Good morning, minister, and good morning to your officials, too. In the limited time that we have had to take evidence from planning stakeholders in Scotland on the matter, we have heard that they are unclear about the term “planning data”. What do you think planning data is, and do you think that that demonstrates that there are gaps in data in our planning system in Scotland?

Thank you. Does anyone else want to come in?

That is helpful. Thank you.

I cannot remember who gave us this evidence, but last week we heard about an information technology platform on which the data would be hosted. That might present an opportunity for data to be shared and accessed across the UK and Scottish Governments, with all local authorities being able to share it.

On potential benefits, would you agree that planning data would benefit from being processed at a Great Britain level, and that the data could be compatible?

Good morning, panel, and thank you for joining us. I have a couple of questions on barriers to disabled people seeking office and what happens when they gain elected office.

I am sure that you are both aware of the quite high-profile case in Edinburgh of a newly elected disabled member who highlighted the lack of support, accessibility and, to be honest, basic workplace health and safety advice that were provided. What conversations have taken place in COSLA to ensure that that changes? I do not think that it is acceptable that the situation arose in the first place.

Following on from that, what positive impact has the access to elected office fund made?

My final question is on the fact that the vast majority of councillors in Scotland represent a political party and come through a party political network. What more can be done? My party established the Women2Win campaign, for example, which has provided the peer support network that was missing. Are there also lessons from other political parties that could help to turn the situation around?

I agree with Mark Griffin that there is growing concern about the lack of leadership from the cabinet secretary and the Scottish Government. Our constituents expect action. I am concerned by the reports that I am getting that people living in those buildings are being told that they, rather than the developer, will have to pay. The cabinet secretary needs to be clear about how the programme will be properly resourced and funded. The accord was meant to be delivered in September, but it is now November. Can she guarantee that that work is taking place and that people living in relevant developments are being communicated with, given that they are having conversations with factors in which they are being told that they will have to foot the bill?

I agree with Elena Whitham on that and, as I have said in committee, I hope that the UK Government can look at the issue. We have heard evidence that that needs to change. I am happy to accept that.

People with lived experience have provided the committee with a lot of key thinking on issues that we need to take forward. There is a lot that the Scottish Parliament and councils need to do to change, and I want to focus on our role.

It is important and incredibly concerning that Scottish National Party and Green ministers have now targeted employability schemes for some of the largest budget cuts without any information about the impact of that or, indeed, without providing any assurances on what the schemes will look like and whether they will be restarted. We need to ensure that ministers monitor and consider the unintended consequences of that.

SNP and Green ministers have highlighted digital exclusion in the past. That was also highlighted by Siobhian Brown, from her committee’s work. We have not seen enough on that for people who live in poverty in rural communities, in which advice services are not necessarily local. Access to those services and to the online services that are provided by many charities across the country needs to be improved. That is something that has not been touched on yet, and we need to see action on it.

Ultimately, we need to see action from every level of government. Our local councils need to be properly resourced to be able to play their role, and both Governments need to work together to deliver on the targets that we all signed up to.

Parliament has previously debated the need for more to be done to tackle child poverty in Scotland. The Audit Scotland report in September pointed to the need for the Scottish Government to take a better strategic planning approach. Audit Scotland concluded that SNP ministers need to focus on a more long-term strategy to prevent children from falling into poverty. All of us agree that it is not acceptable in 21st century Scotland to see such numbers of children living in poverty, but how we work together across the Parliament to deliver on that is important.

I make no apology for highlighting that the number of children who still live in temporary accommodation is increasing, especially in the capital. The Scottish Government is simply not doing enough to provide resources to councils to help to prevent that or to rethink policy around that area. I have asked the cabinet secretary to act on that previously. We have seen the situation getting worse, not better.

The committee heard that an area in which the greatest difference can be made is access to free school meals. The cabinet secretary touched on that earlier. We are not seeing the agreed progress on delivering that policy. There were clear commitments in the programme for government that are now not being met. I hope that, if anything comes out of this debate, it is the need for leadership from the Scottish Government on that issue and for delivery of that promise. If the Scottish ministers and local authorities respond to the issue in the same way as they did during the pandemic, for example, the policy could be delivered without further delay.

Scottish Conservatives support the delivery of free school meals. We believe that all primary school and special school children should be given free breakfast and lunch. We also support continued provision for eligible children during the school holidays. We have seen the evidence that that is a crucial way of preventing people on low incomes from dropping under the poverty line and of ensuring that children from the most deprived backgrounds are cared for and receive access to nutritious food. We have all signed up to that but we need a focus on delivering it. I had hoped that we would have seen that before the winter.

I call on the cabinet secretary to make that happen. She could chair a free school meals delivery group with COSLA to drive delivery of the policy before Christmas. I hope that she will take that on board and consider it.

Yesterday, I visited Fedcap Scotland in Livingston to learn more about the employability support schemes that it provides. I was hugely impressed by the work that it is doing and the support that it provides, which genuinely takes a person-centred approach. We often talk about that, but what does it mean? For many of the people who are furthest away from the employment market, their mental wellbeing also needs to be considered, so I was impressed with what Fedcap is doing. I do not have time to expand on the point in this debate, but we also need to consider generational unemployment in Scotland and what additional support can be given to families.

If we aspire to be a just, fair Scotland, we must afford all our citizens fair and equal opportunities. The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are two of the chief reasons why we are now witnessing global cost of living increases and seeing more people in Scotland and across the UK fall into debt problems and face significant living costs. We want the Scottish Government, Westminster and local authorities to work together to take on that unprecedented crisis and try to provide solutions for all our people.

I hope that local authorities and, importantly, the Scottish Government can implement the report’s actions and recommendations. There is a lot of good work in the report, and I look forward to ensuring that the committee continues to pursue it.

The member is making a very negative speech. Does she welcome the fact that, between 23 and 30 November, people on tax credits will receive a cost of living payment of £324? Does the member support anything that the UK Government is doing to support people?