Chamber and committees

It follows on from the language question and concerns access to healthcare services. The language barriers around healthcare are often critically important. This question is directed at Pat Togher. What work is under way on that? We know that barriers to access to healthcare already exist for homeless people but are greater for people who do not have English as their first language.

Would anyone else like to come in on that?

I want to ask a couple of questions about the pressures that councils face, a number of which are highlighted in the helpful briefing from COSLA. Glasgow City Council and the City of Edinburgh Council face particular pressures. How do you manage to balance your resources? Specifically, what work are you doing with the third sector, which can play an important role, especially in assisting people who have no recourse to public funds?

Andrew Morrison, Alistair Dinnie and Pat Togher all want to come in. I will bring in Andrew Morrison, specifically on my question about the third sector.

I want to move on to the budget pressures that will be faced as a result of the coming budget. We know about the concern that has been expressed about cuts to council funding. Martin Booth, who colleagues from Glasgow will know is the executive director of finance at Glasgow City Council, recently represented the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. He expressed concern about support for English as a second language, which will undoubtedly come under challenge as a result of the budget. We know that around 100 different languages are spoken in the school population in Glasgow.

How is the specific issue of the need for language assistance to access services prioritised by councils? I will bring in Susan Aitken first. If anyone else wants to answer that question, I ask them to put an R in the chat.

In that case, can I go back on my word and briefly ask another question, convener?

Clearly, those things are not having the desired effect in the capital. In Edinburgh, people’s average wait for access to an allotment is more than eight years; in East Lothian, it stands at more than 15 years. Currently, 4,259 people in the capital are waiting for an allotment. Will the minister agree to my request to take forward a national allotment viability study, with all Government agencies looking at what potential land they could use to develop allotments and community growing spaces?

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to help increase the numbers of allotments and community garden spaces available in Edinburgh. (S6O-00712)

That is helpful. Any details that you can provide to us of what that looks like would be very useful.

I want to move on to the issue of addressing stigma, which you touched on in your opening statement, and the role of trauma-informed services. I will specifically focus on local government. There are concerns that budgetary pressures will mean that the task force’s recommendations and local authorities’ work in trying to turn around the public health crisis will not necessarily be carried out. I fully accept that there are pressures because of the pandemic, but why do you think that that is the case? Given the cuts that we are seeing to local council budgets, are you concerned that the issues that we need local authorities to address—housing is often one of the key issues—will not necessarily be addressed? How will the task force recommend that those aspects are given the priority that they need?

I thank the organisations and charities that have provided helpful briefings ahead of the debate, including Shelter Scotland and Crisis. Both charities have been incredibly helpful in briefing me on homelessness prevention and highlighting what needs to be done to end homelessness and rough sleeping in Scotland. I pay tribute to them and to all those who are working across Scotland to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

All parties in Scotland are committed to ending homelessness and rough sleeping by the end of this parliamentary session. Disappointingly, there has been limited progress on reaching that goal, especially here in the capital, with concerning figures being published today.

If we are serious about ending homelessness, we need to see people in sustainable accommodation now, not just good intentions about the progress to be made in the future. No one doubts that ending homelessness is not a straightforward task. Ultimately, we need to have enough homes for everyone in Scotland.

Having sustainable, suitable accommodation that meets the needs of the people and families living in it is vital to ensure that accommodation becomes a stable home. Making sure that local authorities keep people in mind when they plan homes and communities and make decisions about the location and locality of the services available is also very important.

As well as getting people who are currently homeless rehomed, preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place is hugely important. That is why I welcome the publication of the joint Scottish Government and COSLA consultation on the homelessness prevention duties and the work that the prevention review group has undertaken to date.

The plans that have been outlined to strengthen the rights of people who are experiencing or who are at risk of experiencing homelessness in Scotland present a welcome step forward. I have long supported the development of a preventative system; indeed, I welcome the package of measures that is outlined in the consultation, including the introduction of new legal duties on public bodies and landlords to ask and act in relation to any risk of homelessness.

A major flaw in the current system is that people must register as homeless before they are given any housing support or access to services. The current model prevents people from presenting or asking for help at an early stage; often, they are at a crisis point, which is completely counterintuitive to what we are all trying to achieve.

If we want to prevent people from becoming homeless, we must give them the necessary support to stay in their accommodation, as the cabinet secretary mentioned, at least six months ahead of them potentially becoming homeless. Local authorities are still not required to provide housing support before someone becomes homeless. As I have said, that must change if we are going to be more effective at preventing homelessness in all our communities.

Policies such as rapid rehousing are very welcome, but keeping someone in their home is often more important, especially when children are involved. Legislation takes time to put in place and often even longer to implement on the ground in council areas. That is why I hope that the homelessness prevention duties will be given the priority and resources that they require.

The duties will require proper funding—for example, in Edinburgh, we see pressures on local budgets, especially in light of the additional challenges that the capital faces in preventing homelessness. I welcome the conversations that I have had with the cabinet secretary on the issue and I welcome her commitment to take forward cross-party talks with regard to the situation in Edinburgh.