Seòmar agus comataidhean

Could you ask it here as well?

There is some work to be done to find that detail.

That concludes our questions. I thank the witnesses for coming in this morning and sharing their perspectives in that discussion about the local government workforce in Scotland.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Does anyone else have anything to add?

Robert, do you have anything to add?

Good morning and welcome to the 21st meeting in 2023 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting. We have received apologies from Mark Griffin and Marie McNair.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take item 4 in private. Do members agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We move to questions from Miles Briggs.

I will come to Johanna with my next question, which will layer on the challenges that have been spoken about. Thank you for flagging up the current dispute. You will be aware of the new deal with local government. The Scottish Government and COSLA are working on the details of that. What are your thoughts on the key ways in which the new deal could support local authorities to address the workforce challenges that they are facing?

That concludes our questions. This has been another rich panel discussion. It has worked well in getting more detail from your perspectives, so I thank you all for coming to share your thoughts with us.

As agreed at the start of the meeting, we will now move into private session.

I will bring in Willie Coffey.

Thank you for that.

I am going to start with the general question that I have been asking at the beginning of each session. What are the main challenges for the local government workforce at the moment? I will start with Fiona Whittaker.