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To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its proposed budget spend increase of £0.1 million for alcohol and drugs policy, which is reportedly a real-terms reduction, is sufficient to address the challenges faced in this area. (S6O-02956)

I start by paying tribute to all our public sector workforce, in everywhere from the NHS to schools to the fire service. They deserve our praise, but more than that, they deserve a Government that is prepared to meet the promises that it has made and that treats them with respect. The motion does not do that.

I want to speak directly to our communities, who are being let down. I understand that it is they who suffer long waits in our health service, cannot access community facilities and see no future in the education system. It is our communities who suffer as the mess deepens and deepens. We need action, and that action needs to work for our communities and our dedicated workforce.

Before my colleagues on the SNP benches start to jump up and down at me, I want to make this point: I am no friend of the Tories. I believe that the chaos that has been created by Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, on top of the constant Tory attack on working-class people, means that the Tories have undoubtedly contributed to a raid on our public purse.

However, to be clear, our job in this place is not to deflect and not just to blame—it is to deliver on the commitments that have been made and the services that are required. The reality is that, if we do not reflect on our own actions and our own contributions to the problem, we will never seek to find the solution; we will just absolve ourselves of the responsibility.

The reality is that this tired Government, as it enters its 18th year, must be prepared to acknowledge its failures. Currently, it just grasps at straws, such as trying to build a set of “values”—as it describes them—out of the wreckage of Scotland’s public services.

The Government’s motion seems to be about dressing up brutal cuts in the language of reform and values; it is about window dressing rather than substance. If we are absolutely honest, everyone in the chamber knows that, even those who sit on the Government benches. For 17 years, no priority has been given to our public services.

I want to make progress.

If I speak to constituents, they say the same thing. They see a lack of investment in the public sector, particularly in their communities. They see a Government that is not capable of tackling NHS waiting lists or reducing the attainment gap.

That is a very well-made point. We have addressed how much Scottish people value hospices, and they would do everything that they can to ensure that that funding continues. Therefore, we, in the Parliament, have a responsibility, as does the Government, to do everything that we can to fill that funding gap and have the sustainable plan that Bob Doris and others mentioned.

We need to not only value the work of our colleagues in hospices but recognise the pay gap and ensure that it does not continue. We do not want to lose staff or discourage people from moving to the sector, because it is so important.

Finally, I will raise a point that I have raised many times in the chamber, which is the injustice of inequality. Others have mentioned it, so I will not labour the point. Members have spoken about the dying in the margins exhibition, and we all know that a picture expresses 1,000 words. The richest of us can often afford to stay at home and receive daily care directly in the places in which we have lived and prospered, but for those who have suffered through their life and struggled to make ends meet, often no such option exists. They leave their life with the same sense of powerlessness that they had in aspects during their life. It is simply not right that that happens.

Surely, in a time of need such as the end of life, we must look to find solutions to provide all the care and comfort necessary.

I thank Bob Doris for bringing this important debate to the chamber.

Everyone deserves as pain-free and peaceful a death as possible, surrounded by those who love them, in a place that comforts them and in which the choice is theirs. We can all agree that, at some point, we will all be touched by the death of a loved one, and that, should that loved one need end-of-life care over a period of time—palliative care—we would all wish that to be provided in the best way possible, by trained and sensitive care staff, who, as Bob Doris indicated, are passionate about what they do and have the knowledge, time and training to support not only the physical side of our loved one’s deterioration but their emotional needs and those of the wider family.

As we have heard, since its inception in 1948, Marie Curie has developed to do just that. I welcome the commitment of Marie Curie to working with those at the end of life. Nowadays, Marie Curie works not only in hospices but in people’s homes, in our communities and with our NHS. My South Scotland region is served by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries and Galloway. I know that patients and staff from all of those health boards hold that working relationship in high regard.

The report that others have mentioned talks about numbers of visits. In my region, in 2022-23, 59 people in NHS Ayrshire and Arran were seen, 95 people in NHS Borders were seen and there were more than 4,000 visits in NHS Dumfries and Galloway. Every number represents a person who may be in pain and feeling overwhelmed and lonely as they approach those last days of life. Like others in the chamber, I am thankful that we have a dedicated organisation such as Marie Curie, which does its best to provide visits to patients, often in very challenging circumstances.

I will raise three issues that have been touched on by others and that really struck me about the provision of end-of-life care and the provision of hospice care in 2023, as we go into 2024. We can all agree that it is valuable work and a service that we want to continue. For that to be a reality, we need to address the issue of funding. We have heard that statutory funding has not kept pace and that hospices across Scotland face a £16 million deficit. We need the Scottish Government to make clear what steps it can take to support the funding of hospices. That links to my next point, which is about staffing.

We all agree that hospice staff are trained to the highest level and need to be seen on a par with NHS colleagues.

After a lengthy campaign from trade unions and third sector organisations—in particular, I commend Aberlour for its campaign—I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to providing the funding that will see school meal debt cleared. However, it remains a very short-term fix. If the Scottish Government is truly committed to reducing the debt owed to public bodies in the future and for the long term, will it increase the thresholds for free school meal eligibility, which Aberlour research suggests have barely risen in 20 years? Increase in eligibility for free school meal provision is a key ask, and a fair one, too.

I, too, thank Clare Adamson for bringing this important debate to the chamber and for her heartfelt and honest speech about the reality for patients and their families. It was well received and I appreciate her doing that.

On behalf of Scottish Labour, I mark complex regional pain syndrome awareness month, which, as we have noted, was in November. I pay tribute to all those who work to raise awareness of CRPS and the impact that it can have on individuals and their families. As the motion states, CRPS is a debilitating chronic disorder that mostly affects the limbs and is characterised by severe pain, changes of bones, joints and skin, swelling, temperature and colour changes and motor dysfunction. Like other members, I was totally unaware of the effects and the presentation of symptoms.

As we have heard, those characteristics are debilitating and are often not recognised—that was clear from the speeches of Clare Adamson and other members—but we know that approximately 15,000 people across the United Kingdom live with the condition.

At this juncture, as Clare Adamson and others have done, I pay tribute to CRPS UK and Burning Nights, which are registered charities in the UK and do tremendous work not only to increase awareness of CRPS but to support those who live with it and to help them to improve their lives through advice, information, briefings and the development of research in this important area. From the briefings that we were kindly sent, I gather that we need to make sure that we are resourcing research into the condition on behalf of people who are suffering.

We have heard that Burning Nights holds an annual conference to bring together in a formal forum people who are impacted to enable them to discuss matters pertaining to the condition, and CRPS UK also holds regular events that raise awareness, inform people of the condition and encourage them to think about the importance of research in the area.

We have heard tonight that what is really important is that sufferers of CRPS are helped by the charities, families and loved ones and, often, volunteers who are keen to publicise the impact of the disorder on individuals. The latter is a key point. CRPS is so poorly understood that we need engagement from our clinicians to make sure that it is seen as an important area to research. I am keen to hear from the minister whether the Scottish Government understands that and whether it can see the need to progress research in that area on behalf of individuals. I am sure that we can do that through the work of the charities and the families.

I will make one final point about research. I often mention allied health professionals, because I have worked in that area previously. I know that they have been looking to come forward with ideas for research, because a multidisciplinary approach can be helpful. They recognised that there was not enough research in the work that they did, so they have put a lot of effort into doing that. Any time that I get an opportunity to speak with them, as I often do, I will ask how that is going and about what they have done.

I thank the national health service and the charities, but mostly I thank the patients and their families for being so committed to moving forward with this poorly understood condition, which causes a lot of pain and distress to the families that are involved. I thank Clare Adamson again for bringing the debate to the chamber.

As well as expanding the number of specialist endometriosis centres, it is also critical that the impacts of endometriosis are recognised in the workplace. I was pleased to learn that East Ayrshire Council has become the first local authority in Scotland to officially recognise the impact that endometriosis has on female employees by signing up to the endometriosis friendly employer scheme. What engagement has the minister had with that important scheme, and will she take the necessary steps to encourage all councils to engage with it?

I am interested in some of the points that you have made around the balance between grass-roots community sport, with football as part of that, and the national team and the drive to get quality in that team.

First, on community space, I know from what we have read that you have an influence on it and you meet with stakeholders about it. Where are we at the moment in terms of having good quality space for people to play ordinary games of football?

Do you have a strategy to try and work with stakeholders? I think that everybody here would agree with your point that having those facilities is important for preventative health impacts, but have you started to pull together a strategy for that? Who might be able to work together to improve grass-roots clubs?