Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have been told that the average working life of a social worker is around six years before they burn out and decide that they cannot do it any more, which speaks to the point that you were making about the level of corporate expertise.

When the national care service board is created and the IJBs are renamed, we will have a whole new layer of bureaucracy, which is what the previous panel was telling me. How will that impact on and help social workers?

I will pick up on what you said. Are social workers—your members—in favour of the NCS, as the bill is written now?

The national care board would add another layer of bureaucracy. We also have IJBs, which are going to be renamed, health and social care partnerships and a whole load of other acronyms. Do you think that a patient understands what all those agencies are and where to go if they have a problem?

What would be different if we changed the name of an IJB to a health board, a health service board, or whatever we are going to change it to? Essentially, those bodies would have the same people on them.

I assume that the NCS bill and the money that is going into it will help to solve that problem.

I declare an interest as a practising NHS general practitioner. I have a question for Keir Greenaway and Simon Macfarlane about the shared accountability agreement. If COSLA withdrew its support for the national care service, would the bill be dead in the water?

Keir, your union has been engaging with the bill for two years now. In your opinion, what will the national care board do, and what is it for?

Changing sex in medical records can potentially be quite dangerous. I will give you an example. The normal range of haemoglobin is different for men and women, so not knowing that somebody has changed gender could perhaps lead to quite significant harm occurring. How can we ensure that that is addressed in a standardised way across the NHS in Scotland?

Going forward?

The average age of puberty is 11 for girls and around 12 for boys. HIS standard 8 talks about understanding the risks and benefits of treatments and interventions. We are asking children of 10 to understand the risks and benefits of medications that have lifelong implications, that we do not fully understand yet as medical professionals and that we do not have a pathway set up for. How can we bridge that?