Seòmar agus comataidhean

Our second panel of witnesses focuses on local authorities. We are joined online by Douglas Hendry, executive director, Argyll and Bute Council, and in the room by Eddie Fraser, chief executive, East Ayrshire Council; Michelle McGinty, head of corporate policy and governance, Glasgow City Council; Paula McLeay, head of policy and insight, Edinburgh City Council; and Dr Dawn Roberts, chief executive, Dumfries and Galloway Council.

I will begin the questions. I am interested to know whether witnesses agree with the Feeley review that the Covid pandemic

“has demonstrated clearly that the Scottish public expect national accountability for adult social care support and look to Scottish Ministers to provide that accountability.”

I open that up to everybody.

Thank you.

Again, this question is for everyone, but there will be questions coming that might be focused on specific areas. I am interested in how much individual councils currently spend on social care, how that has changed over the past decade, and whether there have been changes in outcomes for communities and service users as a result of increased or decreased spending.

We move to questions from Paul McLennan.

That concludes our questions. Thank you very much for coming in. It has been good to hear the level of detail from all of you. I know that we could have talked for much longer, but we have your written evidence. We appreciate your being with us. I suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a change of witnesses.

Our final panel of witnesses will discuss housing and homelessness issues. We are joined by Ewan Aitken, who is the chief executive of Cyrenians and represents the Everyone Home collective; Yvette Burgess, who is a unit director at the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland, otherwise known as CCPS; Ashley Campbell, who is the policy and practice manager at the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland; Eileen McMullan, who is the policy lead at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations; and Shea Moran, who is the change lead at All in for Change. Welcome.

I will begin with the first couple of questions. Do you agree with the Feeley review that the Covid pandemic

“demonstrated clearly that the Scottish public expect national accountability for adult social care support and look to Scottish Ministers to provide that accountability”?

I have asked the same question of all the panels. Would anyone like to pick that up?

Thank you. My next question is initially directed to Yvette Burgess. What is the third sector’s current involvement in IJBs? Do third sector organisations feel that they are partners in the design and delivery of social care, within the current system?

Thank you.

Thank you for painting that picture of what is going on in East Ayrshire. Dawn, would you like to come in?

Thank you for that response. I am concerned about time, and we still have quite a few questions to get through. I therefore ask that, going forward, witnesses contribute if they are building on what has been said, if something has not been said or if, as I am sure we will hear now, their council is run differently. Otherwise, we will not get through our allocated questions in time.

Michelle, do you want to come in?

That is great—thanks. I will move to questions from Marie McNair.