Chamber and committees

I was not about to. [Laughter.]

That is an interesting point.

Housing is obviously an integral part of the committee’s remit, and I want to look at how housing could be part of the solution. Rob Davidson touched on the work that South of Scotland Enterprise is doing with registered social landlords. Matthew Brown, you talked about the auditing of land—I think that you were probably referring to land in the public sector. What has that work produced in relation to this agenda and the housing crisis that many parts of the UK are declaring?

My questions about those who are not traditionally involved have been answered. To follow on from that question, I wonder what role the Scottish National Investment Bank could play in that.

I start by congratulating Kate Forbes on securing this debate, which gives us an important opportunity to celebrate our charitable and third sectors in Scotland and to acknowledge the positive economic contribution that the third sector is making to Scotland. As has just been mentioned, all of us recognised that during the pandemic, when the third sector stepped up to help our society.

I also thank the organisations that provided useful briefings ahead of today’s debate. Some of the statistics that the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations provided us with ahead of today’s debate show the vital impact of the third sector—its important economic impact in particular, which I had not been fully aware of but which involves a huge amount of money, with £7.9 billion having been spent by the sector in 2021, rising to £8.8 billion in 2022. That spending impacts on everyone’s lives—that is one of the things that the debate has already shown.

It is also important to recognise the positive impact that the charitable and third sectors make in relation not only to reducing public expenditure but to maximising its benefit by providing services in sectors such as health, social care and education, and often doing so better than our national health service or our local authorities. I say that because, often, the third sector and charitable sector will take forward a more innovative sector-specific or person-specific solution. That is something that we should celebrate, and it is vital that we capture that.

I will give an example of that from my Lothian region. NHS Lothian looked into waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services—we have often heard MSPs complaining that it is unacceptable to leave people on long waiting lists. As a result, the health board has embraced a lot of work with the third sector to review CAMHS cases and, where appropriate, to get people into early intervention services that are run by mental health charities. That is helping to support families and individuals, instead of just leaving them on a waiting list. That is an example of an innovative solution that we should all celebrate and want to see being extended.

As Kate Forbes said, we also need to look to the third sector playing a more national role in our society and being at the table in relation to national and regional economic strategies.

Parliament should also allow the sector to come into our processes. Parliament and Governments—previous ones, as well as this one—have failed to take the opportunity to bring in the third sector at earlier stages. For example, in integration of health and social care it was a mistake not to have the third sector at the table earlier. I say to ministers that, in relation to development of the national care service, we should not make that mistake again. There is an opportunity, as the proposal progresses through Parliament, to embed the third sector in the process.

I absolutely agree that the sector’s involvement is valuable. However, having the sector at the table when it comes to decision making and commissioning of services will be really important. A lot of the work that the sector has done beyond integration of health and social care has been done outside the room. It is really important that we ensure that the sector is involved in commissioning services.

Members will be aware that I have launched a consultation on my member’s bill on the right to palliative care. In that area, the third sector—the hospice sector, in this case—is not embedded in the conversations on budgeting, and decisions that are being taken by the Government see it facing a £16 million black hole in staff budgets. That is an example of where we need to embed the sector in decision making.

Members will be aware that a Children’s Hospices Across Scotland reception will be held in the garden lobby this evening. It is one of many organisations that are doing fantastic work. Parliament needs to celebrate them, but we also need to engage better with them and to open up opportunities for them to do more and to make a bigger difference.

To conclude, I thank Kate Forbes for bringing the debate to the chamber and I thank members for contributing to it. We have a huge opportunity to encourage and nurture our third sector. We all want to celebrate the sector and make sure that that happens.

I agree that we need a real call to action to bring the estimated 43,000 empty homes in Scotland back into use. Shelter has done some welcome work in England to support councils to bring homes back. Here in Edinburgh, in my area, there are 3,000 council-owned empty properties. What work will the Scottish Government do to help councils to fund projects to bring properties back? Has the Scottish Government looked at an empty homes refurbishment fund, for example, to enable councils to bid for money to do that?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to bring empty properties back into use for housing. (S6O-03199)

I thank the organisations that have provided helpful briefings ahead of today’s debate, and I thank our committee clerks for the amount of work that they did on what has been quite a long committee inquiry. I was keen for the Social Justice and Social Security Committee to undertake the inquiry, and I very much welcome the evidence that has been given on what needs to improve to help parents to get back into employment and how we can work collectively to tackle child poverty. The two visits that I undertook—in Glasgow and in the Western Isles—provided, at the heart, that lived-experience evidence, which the committee report has managed to capture.

The report makes a number of key asks of the Scottish Government, and we Conservatives welcome those. The committee has called on the Scottish Government to share

“the annual and quarterly progress reports produced by the Tackling Child Poverty Programme Board”

and I believe that those reports, as well as better data on outcomes, are needed in order to understand how policies impact and what is needed to address child poverty across Scotland. As we heard from the committee’s deputy convener, it has also called for greater

“scrutiny of the effectiveness of cross-portfolio cooperation on tackling child poverty”

in Scotland.

However, as we will hear today, what is perhaps the biggest challenge remains, which is the issue of childcare not being available. All MSPs will know that acutely. Bob Doris outlined the seamless package of support that parents are looking for. I am sure that, as a former education secretary, the cabinet secretary will be acutely aware of that.

I will not rehearse the problems that have been widely reported—and documented by Meghan Gallacher—in relation to the limited flexibility that the 1,140 hours childcare policy currently offers to parents who seek work or opportunities for study. As the Poverty Alliance briefing states, there is a real need now for

“greater flexibility”

at the heart of the delivery of 1,140 hours,

“to ensure the policy meets the stated aims, with a focus on increased flexibility”

for the provision of childcare for families.

Councils across the country face the difficult task of delivering that, and I have a huge amount of sympathy for Aberdeenshire Council in the difficult decisions that it has had to take. Per head of population, it is the council that is second-lowest funded by the Scottish National Party-Green Government—the lowest being my own, the City of Edinburgh Council.

The minister has to recognise that there is a critical need for more childcare provision outwith the times that it is traditionally provided. That is at the heart of what the report is calling for.

I am happy to.

I do not think that I will be able to get six minutes back.