Chamber and committees

Good morning. My question is kind of on the back of Sandesh Gulhane’s question. Will establishing a national care service increase the visibility of social care and give it equal weighting and equal standing? In previous scrutiny of the bill, I was keen to look at standardised education, career pathways, increasing social care’s visibility and establishing a process for recognising social care as a professional career pathway, because we see the work that social care providers do when they go into people’s homes, for instance.

I declare an interest, as I am still a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. I am interested in whether you agree that, if the national care service is nationally managed, it will improve the visibility of our care workers.

You have given some good examples, such as PEG tube feeding and caring for people who have stomas, and I was also thinking of the support provided to people for, say, reablement and recovery from stroke. That sort of support involves mobility, moving and handling, all of which requires lots of skill.

Are we confident that at the moment we have a multidisciplinary approach to assessing people’s needs so that care can be delivered effectively? Could we reflect in the bill that need for the right assessment to deliver the right care to the right person?

So you would promote a bill that supports the establishment of equity for social care workers, equivalent to national health service workers. I suppose that that is what I am driving at. If we are able to demonstrate in the bill that care workers will be given parity, and if the national care service was able to deliver a pathway that increased the visibility of social care, which is the career choice of some people—you are absolutely right that it is predominantly women and that it is not always full-time work—that would be something that you would support.

I have a quick supplementary question.

Cara Stevenson said that something needs to be done now. My understanding is that the Scottish Government published a winter preparedness plan on 24 October, which is a joint publication by the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care and Councillor Paul Kelly, who is COSLA’s health spokesperson. The plan has eight priorities for care and how we support people over the winter.

The development of the bill is for the future, and the winter preparedness plan is action that is being taken right now. Do the eight priorities cover ensuring care at home as much as possible, consistent messaging to the public and supporting staff? There is a focus on recruitment, retention and wellbeing of staff as part of those priorities. I am interested in the priorities that will be delivered over this winter. If we reflect on what works, those priorities could go into the future regulations for the national care service bill. Should we also consider that? The winter preparedness plan is being delivered right now, and its priorities could be reflected on for the future.

So, is the winter preparedness plan not deliverable?

Evaluation of the plan is essential in order to reflect on what works and what we should take forward in the bill.

Just a final—

Okay. Thanks very much.

Thanks for giving me the time back, Deputy Presiding Officer.

I am coming to that issue.

It is crucial that, when we look at what we need to do for housing, we look at how we will tackle depopulation. Depopulation restricts the local labour supply and affects public service provision, as funding is typically population driven. Those issues were raised at a meeting that I attended with the equalities and depopulation minister in Dumfries towards the end of the summer recess.

I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government recognises the key role that is played by housing in supporting the successful delivery of its aims relating to addressing depopulation and wider population sustainability. However, we need to think innovatively in Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders in order to attract more people of working age, address depopulation and have good-quality rural housing while ensuring Scotland’s food security.

There is a wealth of evidence and research, including from the Scottish Land Commission, that demonstrates that changes to VAT in construction, which is currently at 5 per cent could help to address rural housing challenges. We know that VAT is reserved to Westminster, but the evidence shows that, if VAT were reformed, we could renew, regenerate and rebuild some vacant, abandoned and derelict sites instead of using prime agricultural land, for instance. If VAT were reduced, we could use and change those sites, which are a blight on our communities.

That is good news. The issue has been raised in the chamber before when we have talked about vacant, abandoned and derelict land and what we can do about it.

We know that Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders have more than their fair share of derelict sites, such as at the former Interfloor factory in Dumfries, the George hotel in Stranraer, the Central hotel in Annan and the Mercury hotel in Moffat, to name just a few. There are also the N Peal and Glenmac buildings in Hawick.

Published research from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health shows that neglected environments can contribute to mental ill health. Dilapidated neighbourhoods and abandoned shops or houses can make people feel unsafe, with run-down environments found to contribute to anxiety and persistent low mood. Therefore, I thank the minister again for being willing to speak to me about the issue of VAT, so that we can encourage brownfield site redevelopment.

An additional point is that the combination of our legacy of out-migration and depopulation and the challenges of Brexit and demographic change means that Scotland urgently needs the powers to increase inward migration. Scotland needs a tailored migration solution to tackle depopulation. That is why the Scottish Government has called for cross-party support for a rural visa pilot scheme. The needs of Scotland are clearly not being met within the current UK Government immigration system, so that is something that we need to keep pursuing.

I am conscious of the time, Presiding Officer, but I would ask the minister to explore an innovative company called Iron and Pine, which is based in Dalbeattie. It is able to make bespoke types of builds for palliative care beds and accommodation for rural employees who might be coming just for training, but they can be used for long-term housing as well.