Chamber and committees

That is why I have consistently championed investment in our public services here in Lothian, and it is why the Scottish Government needs to look at funding formulas in a way that it has not wanted to do. I have consistently raised that issue with both cabinet secretaries. The City of Edinburgh Council is the lowest-funded council and NHS Lothian is the lowest-funded health board, but we in Lothian are seeing all the pressures of growth. I know that some SNP colleagues would support me in what I am saying about that. Our public services need to be able to respond to that.

We all acknowledge that Scotland is facing many challenges in delivering sustainable public services. However, we need solutions from this Government, not simply a blame game. I will support the amendment in the name of my colleague Liz Smith.

The cabinet secretary is calling on others to reflect. Has she reflected on her time as health secretary and on the £20 million cut to drug and alcohol partnerships and the drug deaths crisis that we see, or on the £200 million cut to the housing budget while she was Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government? Where is the Scottish National Party taking responsibility for problems in Scotland?

To ask the Scottish Government when it will end the reported practice of children and young people being admitted to adult services for treatment, rather than a national health service specialist child and adolescent mental health ward. (S6O-03573)

Like other members, I start by thanking and paying tribute to those who work in our public services. As other members have said, they are the backbone of our society, and we should thank them for the work that they do. I never stop thanking them for the work that they did during the pandemic, which we should recognise every day in this Parliament.

During the SNP leadership election in 2023, the now Deputy First Minister famously—or, perhaps, for SNP members, infamously—said to the former First Minister:

“When you were transport minister, the trains were never on time; when you were justice minister, the police were strained to breaking point; and now as health minister, we’ve got record high waiting times.”

I have to say that I do not agree with the Deputy First Minister, because I do not think that she should have just blamed the former First Minister. This Government needs to take responsibility for that, which it has not, and today’s debate has demonstrated that, after 17 years, the Government finds it easy to get into the comfort zone of just blaming others.

The debate has probably not shone any light on where the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament genuinely could transform and reform our public services.

I will if there is time in hand.

I will come on to that in my speech. I welcomed what the health secretary said last week. I have been calling for that during the whole time that I have been in this Parliament. We need to have a national conversation about where our health service is. The fact that, every single week, as MSPs, we raise problems about our health service requires us to look in the mirror and consider why that is the case.

We should start by looking at Audit Scotland’s reports. It has highlighted workforce challenges, and has said:

“The Scottish Government needs to act quickly to deliver services differently.”

It has called on the Government to act on the workforce crises that our NHS has faced for too long.

Audit Scotland has said that the Scottish Government’s economic strategy “lacks ... political leadership”. There can be nothing more damning than Audit Scotland saying that politicians in the Government are not providing the leadership that we need to grow our economy and deliver our public services.

I want to touch on the recent declaration of a housing emergency by the Scottish Government. That is welcome. Each week, local authorities have declared housing emergencies—last week, it was Scottish Borders Council and, just this week, it was South Lanarkshire Council. However, we need a fundamental look at how we deliver housing in Scotland. I have consistently raised the issue of children living in temporary accommodation. The numbers on that are now through the roof, but ministers have not done things differently. They have put more and more pressure on local authorities at the same time as taking away funding from them. That has delivered the housing crisis, and ministers need to take responsibility for it.

The charitable sector has asked to be part of the solutions and has called on ministers to let it in, but we have not seen that happening, and we are now in a position in which we have another national emergency. We cannot simply allow every part of our public services to be given emergency status.

The cabinet secretary did not mention the need to reform our public services. Over the past 17 years, the SNP Government has neglected that opportunity, and the potential that exists for our public services to be improved has not been realised. Although the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has launched a national conversation, we do not know which direction of travel ministers want to take.

At general question time earlier today, I raised the issue of children being placed in adult services. Over the past 25 years, we have not reformed our mental health services to deliver the levels of provision that we need. We say that we want parity of esteem between physical health and mental health, but we need to make sure that our mental health services are there to respond.

One area that is of interest, and which I hope that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is looking at, is the reform work that is being done in London in relation to the Metropolitan Police. I know from my casework—I am sure that every member knows this—that, when someone is in a mental health crisis or in distress, we send out Police Scotland to deal with that, which is a completely inappropriate response. The police will then take that person to an accident and emergency department, where they will sit with the police for hours and not get an outcome. They will be taken home, and they might have their meds reviewed. We need to see something different happening.

It is important that we reform services in such a way that the third sector can be used to deliver a different outcome. That is why, as a country, we need to look at the right care, right person model that is being delivered by the Met Police. That model delivers a different response and a different outcome.

Good morning, panel members. Thanks for joining us today. I want to ask two questions on implementation. From the research that you have been doing, what lessons do you think that the Scottish Government could learn about how any new legislative change will be implemented?

On the emergency legislation that the Parliament passed and then had to reconsider, the social rented sector had specific concerns about the rent freeze, which was taken out of the legislation by the Government in the end. Mid-market rent still sits within that, and there are concerns over the impact that that is having, especially in my area of Edinburgh, where the building of MMR homes has completely dried up. I have put forward two lessons, and I wonder whether there are other things that you would like to tell us about. I do not know who wants to start on that.

Alex Marsh, did you want to come in on that?

I will bring Joshua Davies in, because the Nationwide Foundation’s submission states that a

“a wider scheme of tenant support and enforcement is needed.”

Could you outline what that might look like? Other panel members might have something to add, too. We have already heard some information on a home report for tenants, which is an interesting concept. What would that look like? I go back to your point, Alex, about the sector needing to have certainty over what is needed and who will do that work, both in local government and in the housing sector. I will bring you in, Joshua, as I was looking specifically at your submission.

You have picked the short straw, Anna.