Chamber and committees

Long waits are not acceptable, and if Pauline McNeill wants to write to me with the details of her constituent, I will be more than happy to look into the matter, come back to her in writing and follow up with a meeting, if that would be useful.

More generally, we are seeing significant demand for neurodevelopmental assessment support. The issue is, of course, not unique to Scotland. Members might be aware of the announcements that have been made south of the border that reflect the significant pressures being experienced in England, and the picture is similar in Wales.

The Government is doing a lot of work at the moment. Parliament has also been engaged, with the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee undertaking an inquiry, and I look forward to reading the report that it will produce. Invitations to a cross-party summit have also been sent out to respective party spokespersons, and I look forward to that summit taking place.

The issue is complex and challenging. It has been characterised as a wicked problem, and we will have to work constructively to identify long-term solutions, but it has to be based on need. I must stress how important it is that a diagnosis should not be required to access support, and I am committed to working constructively with our partners to make sure that that is a reality.

Again, if Pauline McNeill writes to me with the details of the specific case, I will be happy to get back to her.

The Scottish Government recognises that demand for ADHD assessment and support has increased significantly in recent years. We also understand that a diagnosis can be helpful for people who are seeking support with ADHD. However, that should not be a substitute for providing support to people based on their specific needs.

We are working closely with national health service health boards and local authorities to improve services and support for neurodivergent people. Although the responsibility for ensuring that funding is used to provide the highest quality of care and support sits with NHS boards and health and social care partnerships, the Government is playing an active role in supporting that work nationally. For example, we fund the national autism implementation team to support health boards and HSCPs to redesign neurodevelopmental services and develop stepped-care pathways for ADHD and autism.

Christine Grahame makes an important point, which is fully recognised and considered as part of the Government’s policies.

For most parents who have suffered a pregnancy loss, bereavement and grief support will be provided by their health board or by third sector organisations and they will not require specialist services. Our funding for Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK facilitates a range of support, care and advice to families who have been bereaved, including those who have lost a child.

The Scottish Government also funds the baby loss charity Sands, which was referenced earlier, to support NHS boards to implement the national bereavement care pathway for pregnancy and baby loss in Scotland. I am pleased that all 14 NHS boards have signed up to the pathway.

The grief that is experienced by those who lose a loved one to suicide can also be particularly profound. Bereavement support is therefore an important strand of “Creating Hope Together”, which is the joint Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities suicide prevention strategy. We greatly value not just the pilot projects that we have supported in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Highland but the great work that is being done elsewhere by health and social care partnerships.

Support with prolonged or complicated grief and bereavement is also integral to our new palliative care strategy, which highlights the importance of support and training for staff.

Although the effects of bereavement are most notably felt on a personal level, it is important to acknowledge its wider impacts. In addition to the impact on a person’s wellbeing, bereavement can place a financial burden on them. Our funeral support payment is helping to alleviate the burden of debt that many people face when paying for a funeral and is likely to contribute towards reducing funeral poverty.

The motion rightly points out the impact that bereavement has on the wider economy. We know that workplaces that support and promote good mental health benefit individuals and employers. That includes supporting people who are affected by bereavement. That is why we have worked in partnership with Public Health Scotland to develop a platform for employers that signposts them to a range of mental health and wellbeing resources, including support for employees who are affected by bereavement.

The “Bereavement Charter for Scotland” was launched in 2020 by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. Charter mark status is given to employers who demonstrate that they are working to make their community a place where people who are bereaved feel supported by their employer and people around them.

As we have heard today, bereavement can have a wide-ranging set of impacts on an individual and across society. The Scottish Government remains committed to working with partners to enable a joined-up approach in which people are signposted to advice and support that meets their needs.

Again, I thank members for their speeches and Elena Whitham for securing this important debate.

I need to make some progress. If I have time, I will give way to Mr Cole-Hamilton later.

Prior to the election, inflation was running at around 0.4 per cent and the Bank of England’s interest rate was 0.1 per cent. Within 18 months, inflation was in double digits and interest rates were at 3 per cent.

I am afraid that I have only a minute remaining.

Otherwise, it is just rhetoric. This does a disservice to those working in the social care sector and to unpaid carers.

I thank Elena Whitham for securing this debate on the important issue of bereavement, which will affect everyone at some point in their lives and commands our collective compassion. I also thank colleagues for their speeches, which included profound, deep and meaningful personal reflections.

People can feel particularly vulnerable during bereavement and grief. Grief can affect our physical and mental health, and it is often accompanied by feelings of loneliness, anger, anxiety and sadness. It is important that people know that they are not alone, that it is perfectly normal to have such feelings and that sources of advice and support are available to them.

We want people to feel that they can openly discuss bereavement and its impacts, to remove any stigma surrounding the issue and encourage people to access support if they need it. Given the wide-ranging impacts that bereavement can have, it is important that the public sector works across boundaries and with third sector partners to ensure that the right support is available.

The Scottish Government welcomed the UK Commission on Bereavement’s report in 2022 and the focus that it brought to improving the experience of people who are affected by grief. The report covered a range of issues, which reflects the range of impacts that bereavement can have on different aspects of our wellbeing, and it highlighted instances in which people might particularly benefit from support following a bereavement.

One thing that everyone might benefit from is basic access to advice. That is why coping with bereavement and grief is an important theme in our mind to mind online portal, with advice and videos from a range of individuals describing their experiences. I thank those who contributed. Such resources demonstrate what an intensely personal experience it can be, affecting us all differently, but that range of support and coping strategies can help.

Bereavement support is also an area of focus in our communities mental health and wellbeing fund for adults, in which we have invested £81 million since 2021, with a further £15 million committed next year. The fund supports several grass-roots community projects with a sole focus on supporting those who are experiencing bereavement. Peer support can be invaluable.

The third sector is a key partner in the delivery of support, so I am pleased that Cruse Scotland is one of the beneficiaries of the Scottish Government’s fairer funding initiative, which provides multiyear investment in key front-line support.

Although we will all experience bereavement, it is important to recognise that some instances can be particularly traumatic. As the motion highlights, it is especially important that we support children and young people who experience bereavement. Schools play a key role in supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing, and Education Scotland provides a range of materials and resources that are specifically focused on bereavement to aid teachers in delivering sensitive and effective learning on the topic.

We have provided £16 million a year to deliver our commitment that all children aged 10 and above have access to a school counsellor. More than 2,000 children and young people benefited from the support of a school counsellor to deal with bereavement between April 2024 and March 2025.

Outside of school, since 2016, the Scottish Government has funded Child Bereavement UK to provide support for children and young people who are experiencing bereavement, as well as their families.

The loss of a baby or a child can have a profound impact on parents. I offer my deepest sympathy to anyone who has experienced that.

I thank members for their speeches in the debate. I put on the record my profound appreciation and gratitude to all those who work in the social care sector across Scotland, and particularly our 700,000 to 800,000 unpaid carers, without whom we could quite simply not function as a society. They are unsung heroes who deserve our everlasting praise and gratitude—and not just our words, but our actions.

I am about six months into my ministerial post, and I listened carefully to the speeches of members across the chamber, which has built on my many engagements since my appointment. It has struck me that discussions about social care tend to fall into one of two broad areas: the question of funding or resourcing and the question of structures. In addition, there are specific issues to do with workforce and the recruitment and retention of social care workers from overseas. In this afternoon’s debate, the questions of resourcing and of our hugely valued social care workers from overseas both featured strongly.

I will touch on funding first. It is profoundly important, and it would be remiss of me not to recognise the significant pressure that exists across the system and the decisions that are being taken locally by integration joint boards. If we are to engage with the matter seriously, it is incumbent on us all to understand the nature of the financial challenge that we face. We have been through a profoundly challenging economic period in the past decade and a half, with a global financial crash, austerity, Brexit, a pandemic and a war on the European continent that precipitated an energy and cost of living crisis. That has placed strains on the public finances that none of us could have contemplated.

I need to make some progress to articulate my point.

That has placed significant pressures on the public finances.

It is important to recognise that, during the 26 years of this Parliament, there have been only five years in which one party has commanded an outright majority. On every other occasion, it has been necessary for at least one other party to engage in relation to each piece of legislation and each budget vote. When we consider questions of resource, it is therefore incumbent on Parliament to work towards and build consensus and not simply to make proposals. Parliament also has to have the honesty and integrity to state how those proposals would be paid for.

Much more could be said on the subject, but it is incumbent on all of us in the Parliament to work constructively with partners in the sector. If there is an ask for new resource—

I need to make some progress. I have limited time and I have barely made any progress. I listened patiently to everyone else.

If members wish to ask for additional resource on top of the £15 billion that has been given to local government this year, the £21.7 billion that has gone into health and social care overall, the £2.2 billion that has gone into social care and the £125 million uplift to enable payment of at least the real living wage, it is incumbent on them to engage and not simply to abstain and sit on their hands.