Chamber and committees

I will maybe write to the committee to give the details of access to the mental health and wellbeing hub and other services in more depth, and to give the committee an indication of what those services are doing and the kinds of difficulties that folk are going to them with.

I will answer Ms Harper’s question without giving her the in-depth statistics that she wants. I am spending a lot of time speaking to folk on the front line, and it is quite clear that a lot of them are under a lot of strain. Sometimes that is because of work, and sometimes it is because of home pressures as a result of the pandemic. A lot of different things are going on out there. We all need to be aware that there are folk out there who are not feeling at their best at the moment, and we—not just as a Government, but as individuals—need to do what we can to support people in the best ways. We have had suggestions from staff about wellbeing issues, which we have acted on. Why would we not do that if a difficulty has been highlighted to us? We increased investment because it was suggested that we needed to go further in some cases.

Beyond that, there are individual health boards that have gone even further in meeting the needs of staff during these times. For example, Fife Council received a substantial donation from a member of the public that went to supporting staff. Sometimes that support comes in the form of the simplest things, such as free hot drinks or free food. All that can make a difference and take the pressure off. I am open to suggestions on the issue, as is the cabinet secretary.

Are you giving me half an hour, convener? [Laughter.] I will try to be quick.

Our ambition for the national care service is that it puts people at the heart of the new arrangements, that it is holistic and that it enables people to have the life that they want to lead.

Derek Feeley answered a lot of questions about adult social care—that was his remit—but he also said that there were a lot of unanswered questions. Mr O’Kane asks why we enhanced the scope. Folks have told me about some of the difficulties that they face and it is recognised in the proposals that transition periods are often very difficult for folk. That is also recognised by Pam Duncan-Glancy’s proposed member’s bill.

In all of that, we decided to ask the questions about bringing everything together and getting rid of those transition periods, and seeing what folk out there think. Mr O’Kane mentions learning disability groups being wary about it all coming together. I have talked to a fair amount of folk from the learning disabled community and only a very small minority expressed concerns.

I know that, for some, change is threatening. However, we have a huge opportunity to get it right. That is why we have asked some of the questions in the consultation. We will analyse the responses—there are some 1,300 of them, although some may be duplications. We will also consider all that we garnered from all the meetings that were held and then we will come to a conclusion on the way forward.

We have to get it right. It is all about people. Some of the responses that I have seen focus almost entirely on people and others do not. If the committee goes out and talks to folk—as I am sure it will do over the piece—it will find that they want change. People do not feel that the delivery of social care is right in many places. They think that the postcode lottery that clearly exists is unfair and they feel that there is a lack of accountability. We have to get that right.

There will be a huge amount of modelling in various areas. Some of that work is on-going, and we will continue to look at the results from the analysis. Obviously, a huge amount of work needs to be done in looking at the 1,300 or thereabouts responses and everything else that has come in from consultation events. I can assure the committee that a lot of work is going on, because we have to get it right.

I can also reassure the committee that—as was the case in my previous role—I am happy to come back to the committee to deal with such issues subject by subject if necessary, because that is how we get good legislation. I say to Ms Webber and every member around the table that there will be a lot of hard graft, because I am determined to get this right.

Can I tackle that point, because it is a big question, although it was a shorter sentence than Mr O’Kane’s previous point.

Some solutions have to be found locally. That is why we are having conversations with partners across the country to mobilise everything and to ensure that we do the right thing.

We do not have the luxury of not involving everyone. There must be collaboration and co-operation between Government, local authorities, health and social care partnerships, NHS boards and the third sector so that we can do our level best for everyone in these precarious times.

The cabinet secretary, Humza Yousaf, recently announced additional resources for hospital at home. It is a great way forward. I recently had the pleasure of meeting teams in Edinburgh and Lanarkshire. The deputy chief medical officer, Graham Ellis, is from Lanarkshire and has been a great advocate for hospital at home. That is why we are investing to expand the programme further, which is a good thing.

I cannot give the retention numbers off the top of my head, but we will furnish the committee with that information.

I have spoken to a lot of social workers. Last week, I spoke to criminal justice social workers, and I have spoken to social workers in children and families services and adult services over the past few weeks and months. It would be fair to say that there is a lot of pressure on them, as there is on everyone else, and things have been very difficult for them at points, particularly during the lockdown periods, because of the way that they work. However, folks have behaved admirably, and they have done amazing things over the piece.

In conversations with social workers, one of the key messages from them is that front-line staff should be more empowered. We must do that. Social workers sometimes feel that they are the poor relation of other professions, and we have to change that. Part of the conversation in the consultation is about whether we should move to a social work agency, which was Derek Feeley’s suggestion. There is that issue to consider, and we will look at the analysis on that issue.

One big bugbear of social workers is that they feel bound by the eligibility criteria, which are often set locally. As I said, we must work with COSLA in the short term to eradicate some of that, because we are not doing good by the professionals and front-line staff, or by the individuals and families whom they serve.

There is much that we need to do there. I touched on that earlier with regard to our ambition and vision for this parliamentary term to put mental health link workers into GP surgeries. I know—as others around the table will know—that, where that has happened already in pilot schemes, it has made a huge difference in relation to linkages. There is absolutely no doubt about that. That will make a big difference as we move forward, and we will talk more about that in the very near future.

Sure. Each local authority has done things slightly differently. There will be a lot of learning from that, because we will be able to see where performance is better, and to export and share best practice.

We have also provided local authorities with moneys for prevention work with young people. I have been keeping a close eye on that. Some local authorities have moved quickly to support services and to establish new services where they are required, while others are lagging behind; I am afraid to say that a few local authorities have not done very much at all. We are keeping a close eye on that, because I want to ensure that investment reaches the community groups that were—and still are—at the front line during lockdown. They have done great work in preventing young folk from entering acute services.

We need to look at a number of things. I have already mentioned that we will be doubling the budget over the course of this parliamentary session, and we have to ensure that every penny is well spent. At the moment, we have pilots going on in Ayrshire and Highland to support folks with experience of suicide. I think that the findings from those pilots will be very important and that they might well lead to a national roll-out.

I am also really keen to explore how much more we can do in communities. I have already mentioned the St Mirren event, but I have recently come into contact with a lot of small groups that are doing sterling work. The question is how we can build on that work.

Yesterday morning, I met the family of Chris Mitchell, who are trustees of the Chris Mitchell Foundation. Chris was a footballer whose professional career ended because of injury and who then carried out suicide. Some of the work that the foundation has been doing with football clubs could be expanded. Indeed, the Scottish Professional Football League has been carrying out other work that we should be building on. The fact is that we need to reach certain areas of the population that our normal health messaging sometimes does not get to, and we have to continue to adapt and think outside the box with regard to what is required in order to get this right.

There is work to do, but we should also recognise the immense partnership involving the Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the national suicide prevention leadership group.