Chamber and committees

That is a good point.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us today. Do you have any comments about the proposed changes to how joint private residential tenancies can be ended? We have touched on some of the issues where that has sometimes resulted in people being declared homeless where support has not been facilitated. How would you like to see that aspect progress, and do you have any suggestions on that?

What impact have rent controls had on council colleagues being able to put together sustainable tenancies in the private rented sector, especially for people who are experiencing homelessness? Has that been undermined? What has your experience been of that? I do not know whether you have specific data on what the situation was like before the rent control legislation and after it. If you cannot provide us with that today, perhaps you could send it to us after the meeting.

That would be useful.

We are marking 25 years of the Scottish Parliament being in existence. Over that time, collectively, with additional funding from the UK Government, we have doubled the amount of money that we have spent in our health service. I welcome that, and have always supported it. However, we have not doubled outcomes—in fact, in some cases, outcomes are going down. Has the cabinet secretary done any work to look at why we are not getting more out of our health services, even though we have put in more investment over decades?

In her statement, the Deputy First Minister mentioned the Ukrainian refugee support scheme—the FAST-CARE scheme. Reports suggest that the European Commission has offered that money and that it has been taken by countries—it has not been accounted for in the way that the Deputy First Minister outlined to Parliament. Will she confirm whether that money was not taken or was paid back? When will that money be accounted for? It is not quite clear from her statement how that will be achieved.

It is a broken record.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I recently held a round-table meeting in the Parliament, when I welcomed Jane and Dave Macdonnell, who told MSPs about the experience of their son, Harris. I thank the MSPs who attended that meeting, at which the Macdonnells bravely read out Harris’s essay, “Escape”, which captured his time being held in an adult service.

Harris said:

“When I became unwell, I was admitted to Huntlyburn Adult Psychiatric Unit, because there were no beds in Scotland available in any Young Person’s Unit. No other young person should have to go through the experience I had.

It was the wrong place for someone who was already mixed up, frightened and unsure of who they were. The environment heightened my anxiety. After treatment for my injuries I was cared for in the Young Person’s Unit in Edinburgh for 2 months and I began my recovery.”

Harris Macdonnell tragically took his own life in 2020.

I welcome the meeting that I recently managed to secure with Maree Todd. The family have had meetings with her, too. I also welcome the news of the fatal accident inquiry that is now to take place regarding Harris’s case.

However, the scandal of children and young people still being admitted to adult services has to end. It has gone on for too long. Will the Scottish Government now act and agree to introduce a ban on children and young people being admitted to adult services?

I might be pushing it.

The member will know of my interest in this area and of the work that I have done on it in my time in Parliament. In my region, the at-home nurse team in West Lothian, which provides intensive support to prevent children from being hospitalised, is a really important step forward.

I return to the subject of the different model that the Met has adopted. The Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, stated that the Met was failing Londoners

“first by sending police officers, not medical professionals, to those in mental health crisis, and expecting them to do their best in circumstances where they are not the right people to be dealing with a patient.”

In opening the debate for our party, my colleague and friend Liz Smith stated that the current failures in the Scottish economy were largely due to Scottish Government policy choices, from not passing on support to Scottish businesses, to its anti-growth agenda, which the Greens brought forward when they were at the heart of Government. I agree with that, and I believe that it is time for Scottish Government ministers to dedicate themselves to growing our Scottish economy to deliver the funding that our public services need.

Another factor, which ministers have not yet acknowledged or addressed, is the fact that we are seeing a shift in population from west to east. That is not being reported on but, in years to come, it will present significant challenges for our country. Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland is the only part of our Scottish economy that is still growing and economically active. On top of that, 80 per cent of potential future growth in the Scottish population is predicted to be here in my region, in Edinburgh and the south-east.