Seòmar agus comataidhean

I offer my deepest condolences to all those affected by what we have heard about today. I commend the families who have bravely shared their stories and have spoken out about their experiences, and I thank them for sitting with us in the public gallery today. I also thank the families who are watching the debate at home. I understand that speaking about this will not have been easy, and I offer my personal thanks to them all for telling their stories. We have heard their call for a national investigation, and I hope that the Government has, too.

Jackie Baillie and Willie Rennie have shown that this is not an either/or situation. The cabinet secretary can support our motion, so I ask the minister to come back to me, through an intervention, with an answer to this question. Is your position that there will be an investigation, or is your position, as your amendment suggests, that it is a case of “if” there is an investigation? I would be happy to take an intervention.

I know that many members were shocked to read the findings of last week’s Healthcare Improvement Scotland report, on which many contributions to today’s debate concentrated. It revealed major concerns around culture, oversight of patient safety, and staff wellbeing. Staff reported feelings of frustration, burnout and being ignored. The culture of mistrust that has developed should never be allowed in our NHS. Staff should feel supported, appreciated and listened to, and they should never—ever—feel that they cannot escalate concerns. The duty of candour must be real, and the Government must show leadership in that area.

We have heard about the challenges of maternity services—in the interests of time, I will not go over them again. However, in my South Scotland patch, challenges in the Wigtownshire area are beyond what women should have to accept. The Galloway community hospital action group, some of whom are listening to the debate today, have fought a powerful campaign against the closure of the maternity unit in Stranraer. That closure means that people have to travel 70 miles to Dumfries, and I have heard from a constituent that the road was flooded and therefore closed today. That causes extra strain and stress to mothers and families in the area. The Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland met the group only a couple of months ago and felt that there was a gap in the service. That is not what 21st century midwifery care should look like.

The Scottish Government has failed to provide adequate oversight for the decision in Wigtownshire. It must look at how it interacts with the integration joint board, and it must listen to the community. Much of what has happened there is due to the Scottish Government’s inability to workforce plan effectively, which has left mothers and babies in Stranraer without a maternity unit.

Before I close today’s debate, I will take a moment to reflect on some of the calls from the Royal College of Midwives. In response to the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report, the RCM warned that

“staff shortages, rising workloads, and a lack of specialist and educator roles in maternity services are placing unsustainable pressure on staff and risking the long-term quality of care.”

As other members, including my colleague Michael Marra, have said, the RCM has been urging the Scottish Government to make changes—it has been raising the issue with the Government for years. Systemic challenges are letting down women, their families and the maternity staff. Many midwives feel that they are at breaking point, and the union is strongly urging the Government to invest in its maternity staff. The task force recommendations need to be implemented, and some investment needs to be put behind that. I urge the Scottish Government to listen to that.

Our calls today are clear. For the staff, improvements to workforce planning are desperately needed, to ensure that the maternity wards are sufficiently staffed. We need investment in leadership and in mentorship within midwifery. Many of the solutions already lie with the nursing and midwifery task force, and we support the task force. We want the solutions to be delivered, but that does not need to be done by the task force alone.

For the mothers, the babies and their families, a national investigation is required into the design and delivery of maternity and neonatal services across Scotland. It is clear that members must vote for the Scottish Labour motion tonight if we are to protect mothers, babies and families in Scotland.

Again, I offer my deepest condolences and gratitude to those who have shared their stories and experiences. Without you, change cannot happen. We want change to happen, and it is now over to the Scottish Government.

I thank Emma Harper, who knows that I always value her professional background. One focus of the task force is on leadership and mentoring and how investment needs to go into that. Would she support that?

I do not think that what the minister has said is clear.

I hope that Patrick Harvie has listened hard to what has been said, because we thought deeply about what to ask for. We understand what has been said about the task force, but it has not been implemented. We understand that the task force will be headed by the minister, but how can we be sure about what will happen?

I hope that Patrick Harvie will vote for our motion, which is absolutely clear about what the Parliament is looking to deliver today. Any loss or harm in maternity and neonatal services is tragic, especially when deaths could have been prevented. As others have said, such incidents are rare and the majority of the women have a safe and good experience when giving birth, but that does not diminish the experience of those who do not.

I fully agree, and Paul Sweeney will agree with me that we must have a culture of transparency, not secrecy. That comes from the top. Agreeing to our motion would show clear leadership from the top of the Scottish Government.

Proper and efficient scrutiny of health board finances is critical to ensuring the long-term sustainability of our health service. This week, Audit Scotland revealed that NHS Ayrshire and Arran, the health board that serves many of my constituents, owes nearly £130 million in loans and is on the brink of collapse. It has the highest outstanding loan amount of any Scottish health board.

Can the cabinet secretary provide any reassurance to people in my region that immediate action will be taken to recover NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s financial position?

If it is short.

Will the member take an intervention?

In closing, I say again how significant the report is in contributing to the change that we all know needs to be made for women and girls who are fleeing domestic abuse.

Jackie Dunbar’s example is still ringing in my ears. It is difficult for women to leave such situations, and we all need to try to fix that and find solutions.

Scottish Labour fully supports the report and we want to work with the Government to ensure that we can deliver on its recommendations. Delivery is crucial.

I commend the committee for holding the inquiry during the first half of 2025. Timeframes are tight for some of the committees, so it is important that it managed to hold the inquiry. Today’s debate has demonstrated how important that work has been and must continue to be.

I again thank those who gave evidence. Sometimes, we forget how difficult it can be for people to give such evidence—for the victims, of course, but also for the staff who work in our policing, housing and social services. It is difficult for them to offer support again and again, because we are not always getting those solutions for people.

The discussions with women with lived experience, the visit to Financially Included, which Bob Doris mentioned, as well as the evidence sessions on the wide range of relevant policy areas, such as housing, social security, legal aid, public debt, immigration status and policing, have paid dividends. The Government should methodically look through and respond to the recommendations.

We have also heard from members across the chamber that the themes in the recommendations that we have all mentioned need to be co-ordinated. There needs to be a co-ordinated approach across the wide range of policy areas and at different levels of government. That is something that we say in the chamber a lot, but we need to improve the delivery of that approach, so I would be interested to hear from the minister what plans she has to try to take it across policy areas.

Many members have mentioned key recommendations that they hope that the minister will do further work on. We know that there are difficulties in accessing advice. Where is that advice? How easy is it for people to access it? What do we have in place to ensure that we get that trauma-informed training for members of staff? What would the introduction of a national roll-out of the fund to leave look like? It is important that we get some answers. Members have also raised important issues around legal aid and investment. This must be a priority for Government. Delivery is crucial. It is a priority for the Parliament and it is most certainly a priority for Scottish Labour. We really value the opportunity to debate the issue this afternoon.