Seòmar agus comataidhean

It is not a love match.

I am shocked that Tory members cannot even applaud the child payment, which is needed so much because of Tory austerity and outrageous inflation.

Will the Deputy First Minister take an intervention?

I share Craig Hoy’s concerns about Broughton brewery, which is in my constituency.

Dryden Aqua, which is a very profitable company and is also in my constituency, recycles glass for innovative water filtration systems. The proposed DRS, as it stands, puts that business at risk. Will the minister meet that company to discuss its concerns?

The big difference is that we do not have macroeconomic powers. We have a handout in the form of Barnett consequentials from the United Kingdom Government, and that limits us. However, we mitigate, and we should be mitigating, policies that we do not agree with. While we bring in the Scottish child payment—[Interruption.] Does Mr Mountain want to make an intervention?

I am delighted to.

I am a spontaneous speaker in the debate—I did not intend to speak, but Edward Mountain really got to me. I accept that Putin’s war and Covid have contributed to the cost of living crisis, but why did Edward Mountain sidestep Liz Truss’s disastrous economic policies? What about Brexit, which 62 per cent of Scotland sensibly voted against? There is no doubt that that percentage would be higher now. Practically every economist tells us that Brexit has exacerbated the current situation, including Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England and hardly a Scottish nationalist.

I say to Carol Mochan that I am a socialist, too, but I have lived through too many Labour Governments, starting with Harold Wilson’s—that is how far I go back. Then there was James Callaghan and the winter of discontent, Tony Blair and an illegal war that cost lives and millions of pounds, and then Gordon Brown and the banks’ collapse. With each of those Governments, I could see no distinction between them and the Conservatives, because the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Then I saw the light, and I decided that Scotland could make a better fist of it itself.

Some of that did not relate to what I was saying about not having macroeconomic powers, but I will let Mr Mountain bleat on about those issues again.

I say to Carol Mochan that there was more mobility for my generation, after the war, than there is now. On that I agree with her. I started out in a prefab, and then we moved on to a council house. I was the oldest of five children; we were very working class. I became the first girl to stay at my school beyond the age of 15—we were supposed to leave school at 15 and get married early. After that, I was the first to go to university, and so on.

I do not see that mobility in those areas any more. We now have silos where people are trapped by the economic system and warped taxation system that we have. The people who are suffering now from inflation are ordinary people, whether we call them the middle or working class. They are bearing the burden, not the millionaires who can put their money offshore and keep it safe somewhere and who can afford to heat their houses and still eat in posh places.

The only growth industry that I see just now as a result of UK Government policy is food banks. Even some Tory politicians have the temerity to attend and celebrate the opening of a food bank. It is disgraceful. We should not have food banks in Scotland.

I will try to set a good example for once, Presiding Officer.

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made, as part of its cross-Government co-ordination of Covid recovery policies, of the wider on-going impact of Covid-19, including on the economy. (S6O-01868)

I ask, with specific reference to my constituency, whether we have any data on the impact on the economies of Midlothian and the Borders. If the Deputy First Minister does not have that to hand, will he please write and provide me with it?

I begin by agreeing whole-heartedly with the Liberal Democrat motion, right down to the words

“shortage is impacting the waiting times of those who require care packages”,

but no further.

As we clapped during the weeks and months and, indeed, years of Covid, recognition grew among all of us of the valuable dedication of the people who work in the care sector as well as those who work in the NHS. Covid threw the spotlight not only on the nature of care work, whether through home visits or in care homes, but on the personal and selfless commitment of carers to the people in their care.

The Liberal Democrat motion highlights the various levels of pay and conditions. Of course, employment law is reserved to Westminster—would that that responsibility lay here. However, the Scottish Government is aiming to deliver work and fair pay bargaining in the social care sector. Although employment law is reserved, it might be able to do that by including fair pay conditions in a contract or in funding dished out to the sector.

I note what the minister has said about pay, but have Alex Cole-Hamilton and Paul O’Kane entered into discussions with the finance secretary regarding even more funding for the sector? I, too, would like the sector to get more funding, but they have to say how much and where it is to come from.

Regarding loss of staff, which has a ripple effect through the care and health sector, it is well documented that that has been attributed in no inconsiderable manner to Brexit, and now it has been exacerbated by UK criteria for immigration, which is not helpful. Indeed, Donald Macaskill, the chief executive officer of Scottish Care, called the UK system “unusable”.

The Lib Dems, of course, do not reference Brexit in their motion, as they have now thrown in the towel and support it. That loss of staff means delays in accessing care packages and hospital discharges, which in turns leads to delays in people having access to hospital beds and treatments. The Liberal Democrats refer to those delays but do not attribute them in the least to Brexit or, indeed, Covid. I would hope that, in summing up, the Liberal Democrats will at least recognise that.

I turn to national standards in the sector. During Covid and before Covid, I was certainly aware, not only from searching Care Inspectorate reports but from constituency cases, that there were huge variations, and not always for the better. Thank goodness for the Care Inspectorate, which was set up in 2011 to take over from the Care Commission. It beefed up, and it is still much needed.

We need a national standard of delivery in order to consign the well-worn expression “postcode lottery” to the bin. To me, that is exactly the purpose of a national care service. It is not a duplicate of the national health service, nor is it centralisation of delivery. It will have criteria that are set at the national level but delivery at the local level. I say that to Liam McArthur as well as to people in the Borders. Of course, things are different depending on where you are in Scotland, but the standard must be at a certain level and not variable. I repeat: criteria and standards at the national level; and delivery at the local level, with local input from people on the needs of their area.

As for career progression, I fully support that, but, of course, it is already available if transition is desired between the care sector and nursing. Indeed, Borders College in Galashiels has full-time higher health and social care courses and health and social care national 5, which can deliver that. I am happy to give Alex Cole-Hamilton contact details if he needs them.

Let me repeat my recognition of the dedication of all workers across the care sector, paid and unpaid. Wherever members are in this chamber, let us get it right for them and for those they care for.