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In my area of East Ayrshire, which has been highlighted as one of the places most affected by the issue, the key to successful intervention is to work with people early and have properly funded training, so that we can embed the concept of suicide prevention throughout every stage of care and treatment. Many professionals in primary care require further training to recognise those signs, and in doing so, they would bring down the backlog of people who are waiting for treatment, which is, of course, concerningly high. Given that it does not match previous investment in suicide strategies, I will ask the minister directly whether he really thinks that the annual funding of £2.8 million and a rebranding exercise will cover the training requirements and the work that we need to put in to make the strategy successful.

I support Gillian Mackay’s position on writing to the health boards. We would then have some information that we could look at, and we could speak to the cabinet secretary.

I tend to feel that we should keep all the petitions open. I do not think that any of us covers the Caithness area, although I am not 100 per cent sure about that. I would like to speak to somebody about that issue, because I do not know a lot about it. That would give me a chance to refer to somebody who covers the area.

Thanks so much for your time, Dr Connon. I am interested in two things. They are big things, but perhaps you can comment on them quickly.

The first thing is about reporting on the quality of care that individuals and families get and the second is about the staff who provide that care. Perhaps I can link those two things together by highlighting my interest in local accountability. With healthcare, we often say that the closer the decisions are made to the person, the better the outcomes will be. I wonder whether there is any sense of that in any of the models that you have discussed.

I am interested in the local accountability that exists in the models, given the ways in which the services have been set up and are managed.

Women in Moray are being let down by a lack of services close to home. However, they are also being let down by the Scottish Government’s sheer inability to value our NHS workforce properly and to fill vacancies across the country, particularly in rural communities. It is clear that Scotland needs a women’s health champion to lead and push on such issues. In June, the First Minister told the chamber that the appointment would be made in the summer. In early September, the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport told me that the appointment process was almost complete. Will the cabinet secretary tell us when Scotland will finally have a women’s health champion and show women in Moray and across Scotland through action rather than words that the Government is listening and taking their concerns seriously?

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support the rural economy in areas impacted by long-term population decline. (S6O-01417)

Can the minister confirm that the £5 million for the now-abandoned islands bond is still ring fenced for tackling depopulation? Can he advise whether plans for utilising that resource will be set out in future financial plans?

Does any particular area cause the most tension, or do things depend on what you are discussing at the time?

I think that everyone would recognise that, over the time in which there has been integration, financial integration has been one of the key factors that have been difficult. Will each of the panel members discuss why, with hindsight, they think that that has been the case? Realistically, with the Government saying that financial strains are ahead, how likely is it that better financial integration can be achieved? How can we get the organisations to work together on the budgeting?

Will one of the panel members from one of the other IJBs contribute a wee bit to the discussion?