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—requests for statements or time in the chamber that is devoted to other things.

I do not believe that there is any uncertainty, because I think that we are further on now. Mr Ross, I believe that you said that that update was from September, and I think that we are now further on and that we have more of an understanding of the landscape in relation to legislation and parliamentary scrutiny going forward. I do not believe that that is uncertain—

Of course—sorry.

I appreciate that it is a concern. I have been very clear in my engagement with other MSPs; indeed, I invited all the other party representatives to discuss the Promise bill with me to get an idea of their priorities for it.

I have been quite open about the bill. I appreciate that there is an urgency in terms of timing, but I do believe that—

No, it has not gone to the Cabinet sub-committee on legislation.

I believe that we are on course. I appreciate that we have faced pressures and difficulties. As I said, we have faced some significant barriers as a result of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. However, I still believe that we are absolutely on course to deliver the Promise by 2030. Iona Colvin and I have spoken about the work that we are doing to support, retain and add to the social work workforce, and other things are under way across the Government that will bolster and support that work. As Iona said—obviously, I am not referring to the specific examples that you gave, Mr Rennie—sometimes, a social work interaction might not be what is required.

The work that we are doing on whole-family support is instrumental, and the First Minister has given it priority in the programme for government. I do not need to rehearse the lines about prevention and getting to families earlier. However, understanding families’ local needs in specific areas, getting to them before crisis points and intervening at appropriate times will definitely ease the need for a number of organisations to provide intensive support in later years.

I appreciate that that work is on-going, but I am not saying that it is for the long term, because we are taking action in that respect now. We must look across the board at a number of things that the Government is doing, over and above the specific work relating to the workforce, that will help to deliver the Promise.

There have, of course, been difficulties with the national care service, but I cannot speak about them today, because responsibility for that bill does not sit with me.

I appreciate what Mr Briggs has said about the delays, but I hope that we have assured him that action is being taken at pace to establish the national social work agency, and I have spoken about some of the other areas of work. However, I agree that difficulties with the national care service will impact the Promise. There were compelling reasons why reform of children’s services should have been considered alongside wider social care reform. That would have helped us to take a multi-agency approach, join up services and ensure that services talk to one another. I agree that the issues with the national care service bill have had an impact in a number of areas, but we are taking action at pace to remedy those and implement changes as quickly as possible.

Mr Briggs, you said that the work on social work is just starting, but that is not the case. The creation of a national social work agency is one very important aspect of our work in supporting the workforce, but Iona Colvin and I have alluded to work in a number of other areas that is not just starting but has been worked through and progressed over a number of years.

I appreciate that there have been delays relating to the national care service. Difficulties were raised from members across the Parliament as we have sought to get the bill over the line. However, I can speak only about the work that we are progressing to make the changes that are needed to support the workforce.

Iona, do you have anything to add on timescales?

The detailed information will be available this afternoon, when I give my statement. I can assure Mr Rennie that every appropriate action has been taken to support secure accommodation providers that are facing capacity issues. There have been issues with St Mary’s Kenmure, but those have now been dealt with. I visited St Mary’s a couple of weeks ago to see the improvements and to understand what has taken place. We are looking at other ways to increase capacity and are working with COSLA. I will be more than happy to provide more detail on that in my statement this afternoon.

I am sorry that that has not happened, but the capacity issue is not a result of the legislative change resulting from the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024. There have been various issues. I did not know about the issue at St Mary’s at that time. There has been an increase in the complexity of cases and the support that is required, which sometimes means that not all beds can be utilised because a child might require more than one bed or more than one space. Discussions on cross-border placements are on-going, and there are also a number of unaccompanied children who are asylum seekers. A number of issues are related to the problem.