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Thank you

Planning, because—.

Good morning. As you probably know, today is the first day of industrial action by non-teaching staff. Last week, we heard that the Verity house agreement has had little impact on Unison’s discourse with COSLA. Johanna Baxter, who is the head of local government at Unison, suggested that it might be used as a reason why one side cannot take on the other. For example, COSLA cannot criticise the Scottish Government by asking why it will not provide more money to fund pay deals. Similarly, the Scottish Government refuses to interfere in COSLA’s relationship with the trade unions. Where are the lines of accountability drawn here? How can you guarantee that there will be constructive conversations about financial resources? I put that question to Councillor Hagmann, in the first instance.

Councillor Hagmann, you are absolutely right to show where the accountability lies. However, although there is a pay offer on the table, I heard—I hope that I heard right this morning—that the trade unions want certainty about where the funding for that pay offer is going to come from and confirmation that it is not going to come from more cuts. Local government is really suffering. You are right to say that those workers are the people who are delivering on the ground. If the money is going to come from cuts, it will be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. That is why they want to know where the funds are going to come from.

Therefore, I think that the Scottish Government is accountable here, because the issue comes down to the funding settlements and where the Scottish Government can help. As you said, the Scottish Government cannot step in directly, but the process starts with the Government, so it can help out. That is why clarity is needed about where the cuts will be, if there are to be cuts. What is your view on that?

Talking about skills shortages in local authorities, the Accounts Commission noted that there were challenges in recruiting “at operational and leadership levels”. At last week’s meeting, one panel member said that higher levels of economic inactivity play into the recruitment challenges and that councils are coming up with different innovative ways of engaging with their potential workforce. Of course, education, skills and employment are also the responsibility of the Scottish Government, so how is the Scottish Government supporting that drive?

I have a follow-up question on carers, but I will wait for you to say whether I have any more time, convener.

Earlier, minister, you spoke about the future and said that it is important to have early consultation with local government on new Scottish Government legislation and members’ bills. We have talked about that today and we know that 700 planners will be needed in the next five years. Councillor Katie Hagmann spoke about the challenges around that, with only one university offering a course. We have new legislation coming out nearly every week, such as that on short-term lets, and the committee has spoken about that many times. Minister, discussions about the future are happening now, but what about current legislation? We know what the shortages are, and we know that there is a huge demand on planning and building standards. How are you looking to tackle the demands that are coming up now?

Thank you, minister. It is great to hear that some great work will be done in the future, and I look forward to seeing it. What are we going to do about current recruitment challenges? We have so much legislation, including members’ bills, going through Parliament. How are we going to help local government with its current challenges? What talks are you having in that regard? How can we help?

Good morning, panel. My question is about recruitment. We have heard this morning that vacancies are high and that Scottish councils fail to recruit workers for one in four jobs. We also heard from the previous panel and this panel that underfunding is one of the biggest challenges that local government has today. Those cuts lead to cutbacks in service provision as well as strikes over pay and conditions.

What impact will lower pay and uncertainty in relation to job security have on the skills shortages and on local government’s ability to deliver on priorities? We have also heard about people moving to the private sector more because of job security and pay issues, which are having the effect of fewer people coming into local government.

I ask Paul Manning to come in on that first, please.

Earlier, we spoke about work pressures on departments, and we heard that the overall reduction in local authority personnel has had a disproportionate impact on certain council departments, such as planning and building standards departments. Upcoming pieces of legislation that have been proposed by the SNP-Green Government, including those covering heat standards for new builds and the short-term lets licensing scheme, will undoubtedly result in an influx of applications to such departments. Are those departments adequately staffed and resourced to deal with an increase in workload without there being adverse effects on stakeholders?