Chamber and committees

I want to move on to an issue that relates to the important points on preventing homelessness that Mark Griffin raised but which does not seem to have become a key part of what is being done. For example, with regard to responsibility for homelessness services, the City of Edinburgh Council is currently missing out on about £9.3 million of funding, because those services are administered by the council and not by the integration joint board. I have raised the situation about five times with ministers and have not got an answer on why it is being allowed to occur. I believe that the council is also still trying to get answers.

Why has something like that, which is really important, not been part of these measures, in order to try to fix that sort of problem, which we see across Scotland? I imagine that I will try to have that dealt with in relation to the housing bill, but lots of things have been highlighted to us, and it is only the specific issue that we are dealing with today that ministers have taken forward in this bill, when, in fact, there are lots of other things that we should be looking at.

In the interests of time, I will try to merge my questions into one. I know that we have seen some progress, such as the incorporation of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 into the updated Scottish social housing charter. Some of the submissions to the committee specifically pointed towards the need for funding around different prevention models. From your experience—and perhaps from your knowledge of what is happening globally—what different models do you think that Scotland should be looking at and the committee should be aware of? I will start with Dr Marsha Scott, and if anyone else wants to come in, they can put an R in the chat box.

Funding and beyond that. For example, one of the things that I have specifically been looking at is the family court model in Australia. I know that is more within the criminal justice side of what we might look at, but I just wondered what we should be looking at on this topic in terms of experiences and learning from around the world.

I totally realise that I have just put on the table a huge topic, so I would appreciate it if you could write to the committee with any further information.

I thank the witnesses for joining us this morning. I want to look across the two themes that we have been talking about today.

What are the barriers to leaving an abusive relationship in Scotland? Are there cultural barriers that we have not looked at properly? Is there more that we need to consider? I know from my work in Edinburgh supporting constituents in a couple of cases that one barrier is whether they can take their pets when those animals are also being abused. What additional services need to be put in place?

My second question—I do not know whether the witnesses want to answer it at the same time—is about funding gaps in specialist services.

I will hand that to Carolyn Fox McKay first. If anyone else wants to come in, please do.

It certainly did; it was very helpful and there was a lot of information in there. Could you provide the committee separately with information about access, or lack of access, to interpreters? I know that Glasgow City Council has more than 100 interpreters for various languages, but the picture will be different in other parts of the country. If you could provide any information about that, it would be very helpful. Thank you.

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government’s plans to replace carers allowance with a devolved benefit. (S6F-00864)

During the pandemic, 1.1 million of our fellow Scots have become unpaid carers and we, as a society, owe them so much. There is support from parties across the Parliament for the extension of support when the caring role ends due to bereavement and when cared-for people are in hospital or residential care. Will the First Minister commit to including those potential reforms in the next programme for government?

Scottish ministers have said that they want the £150 cost of living payment to go out before the end of April. Will the minister confirm that the software and information that councils will need if they are to deliver the payment are in place?

The minister will be acutely aware that councils have very limited options to meet the cut. That is one of the key parts of the debate, I believe.

The Scottish Government has to realise that, when it cuts budgets, that hits the most vulnerable in our communities, and it is damaging to the local government workforce, too. For example, the only options that my council here in the capital now has in trying to make up that reduction involve a tourism tax, which the SNP said it would never introduce, or the new car park tax, which will hit the lowest earners hardest. Many council leaders are concerned that, if they do not implement those changes, the Scottish Government will penalise them in future years, too. Perhaps that is why the City of Edinburgh Council is today receiving one of the lowest shares of funding from SNP and Green ministers within the budget.

I hope that SNP and Green ministers will genuinely pause and reflect following the budget process. Many of us have said that when debating previous budgets, but I really hope that they consider the point that it is not a great celebration for councils that this money is coming; there will be difficult decisions for them and they will have to cut vital public services. Again, we see a situation in which ministers put huge cuts to finances on the table, then they rethink that and come back with a slightly lower cut, and then they hope that councils and the Parliament will celebrate that. That is simply unacceptable.

We need to see the resetting of the relationship and a genuine partnership that delivers respect between the Scottish Government and local government, and gives local authorities the powers and funding that they need to deliver the vital public services on which we all rely.

Conservative members would take a different approach. It is time for the creation of a new fiscal framework for councils, which would see an automatic amount transferred each year from the Scottish Government’s budget, to help them deliver vital local services.

As I said, we will not oppose the order, because we do not want to penalise local authorities or disrupt their work. However, we need to highlight that the Scottish Government is delivering a poor funding settlement that will impact on all our communities.

It is clear that the SNP-Green budget will have a negative impact on councils across Scotland. We are already seeing councils setting budgets with an average increase in council tax of 3 per cent during a cost of living crisis, and increases in charges for local services while services are being cut. The responsibility for that rests firmly at the door of this SNP-Green Government.

I hope I that, in the future, councils will have an opportunity to have a grown-up, responsible debate with ministers about the finance that they need and receive. Councils will face many difficult decisions in the coming weeks and years. I hope that SNP and Green ministers will reset their approach and prioritise local government. That is something that we all, across the Parliament, want to see.