Seòmar agus comataidhean

A follow-on question will be asked about the whole family wellbeing fund. Thank you for your comment about disinvestment. Many people do not seem to understand the implications of having a fixed budget.

I invite Mike Burns to comment on prioritisation of investment.

Again, it is one of those areas where, if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority because of potentially chronic constraints. However, I am guessing—I do not know.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. My question is similar to the one that I asked the previous panel, in which I referred to the oversight board calling on the Scottish Government to set out a strategic investment plan to deliver on the Promise. What, specifically, should be prioritised for investment, given the Scottish Government’s chronic fiscal shortfall and the nature of its funding?

I do not know whether any of you were in the room for the earlier session. We heard quite a lot of commentary on the complexity of that aspect, and we heard that some areas need to be deprioritised so that others can be prioritised. We also had a long discussion about capacity.

I do not who would like to go first on that. I am trying to get a sense of what we should prioritise, because we have to prioritise something.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. In preparing for the meeting, I read “The Promise Oversight Board: Report TWO June 2023”, which calls clearly on the Scottish Government to set out a strategic investment plan to deliver progress on the Promise. To what extent does the board appreciate the challenges in doing that, given the chronic funding constraints that are in place at the moment? Following on from that, what are your thoughts on areas for prioritisation, given that, as you know, the Scottish Government operates to a fixed budget and has significant constraints? It is about areas for prioritisation. If you were to develop that strategic plan, what would you prioritise?

I see Kevin Mitchell nodding, so he might like to go first.

Yes, I have a quick one. I am fairly new to the committee and I am not aware of the reason for the priority being paused. If you could help me to understand that, that would be useful.

Okay. Thank you.

That is helpful. Going back to your first point, do you think that the Government recognises the scale of the transformational change, from a leadership perspective, that is needed? We are talking about quite significant stuff, and you are right to say that there is a cost associated with that, too.

Thanks for that. I invite Nicola Killean to come in, followed by Louise Hunter.

I will take that last point as being the most important. I know that other members will come in on many of the other areas that you have covered.

I am interested in what you said about capacity, which is an issue of both labour availability and skills. With that in mind, would you support the devolution of immigration powers, for example? We can grow the skills that we need only at a certain speed and, often, you can circumvent that issue by bringing people in. However, as you know, immigration is restricted and those powers are reserved to Westminster. Would you support that?