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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 10 January 2025
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Displaying 1051 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

I have not talked this morning about anybody being resistant to change—I want to put that on record. However, we sometimes have to take folk on a journey to see the benefits of the change on which we are embarking.

To answer Mr Rennie, in the previous session of the Parliament, the Government, under the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, asked Derek Feeley to look at adult social care, and that independent review took place. I will not go through all the elements of that because I am quite sure that the committee is well aware of Mr Feeley’s recommendations.

After that, we, as a Government, went and talked to the voices of lived experience about the recommendations. That included folks from the likes of the social covenant steering group with real experience of where the service works for them and where it does not.

What became very apparent from those discussions with not only the voices of lived experience but stakeholders, too, was that folks thought that there could, and should, be a widening out of the proposed service and that we should look at that. That is why, in our consultation, we included questions to enable us to look at whether there was an appetite for moving beyond adult social care. From the responses that we have had, we see that there is such an appetite.

However, Mr Rennie asks a pertinent question about the work that we are doing in relation to not only children’s services but criminal justice and other areas. If we are going to do this, we have to have the evidence and the reasoning for doing it. That is why we are currently carrying out the review work, which I am sure Ms Haughey will tell us much more about.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

It stood on a manifesto commitment of creating a national care service to cover adult social care. Since then, we have listened to people who have said that we should make other considerations as well, which we are looking at and which we included in questions in the consultation. As the committee is well aware, we are carrying out work to examine and review all the suggestions.

I canna reiterate this enough: no matter what is out or in the national care service, we have to ensure that the linkages are there, and that work is valuable, no matter what, in order to get things right for delivery for people. To get things right for delivery for people, people should be at the heart of co-designing that with us.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

The financial memorandum, as it stands, includes everything that is covered off by the bill. I have said to the Finance and Public Administration Committee—

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

The Government has said to the finance committee that, at each stage as we move forward, we will publish the business case for each aspect of delivery. That will give the Parliament the transparency and openness to enable it to scrutinise everything.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

Well, I would dispute that, convener, but I think that we had probably better not go into the machinations of that today.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

I would dispute that figure. Beyond that, as I highlighted earlier, we cannot afford to stand still on the national care service. We know that we need to build services that are fit for the future. We have to build services that are sustainable and meet the needs of the changing demographics of our population. That is required, so there can be no standing still.

What I cannot do here today is give the committee the annual budgeting for each aspect of service delivery, because that is dealt with annually. However, I assure the committee that I have reiterated to the finance committee that, as we move forward, we will publish all the financial and business cases for our decisions.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

Again, Mr Greer will be well aware, from what I said to the Finance and Public Administration Committee, that the work that we are doing at the moment, including the review work, will look at all of that as we move forward. As we propose and seek to make changes, we will bring all the elements of the business cases for those changes to committees and to Parliament so that they can be scrutinised. I imagine that a huge number of other stakeholders will scrutinise us on that front, too.

There are difficulties with some of those calculations. As the committee is well aware, it is often quite difficult for us to get certain aspects of data. The work that we are doing on the national care service creates a good opportunity to improve data collection as we move forward so that we know about the spend that goes on out there, some of which we are not quite sure about at the moment.

I go back to Mr Dey’s point about carers. We know that the Government provides £84 million or £85 million—if that is not the right figure, I will correct it—to local authorities to ensure that the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 is implemented, but we are not absolutely certain that all that money is spent on that particular service, as Mr Greer and others will know.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

Ms Maguire is absolutely right to concentrate on implementation gaps. The committee has talked—and, more important, listened—to a number of young people. In some respects, far too much resource has been put in at points of crisis and not enough has been put into prevention. When people concentrate on prevention and have linked-up services, they spend much less on crisis. We need to recognise that, at the moment, much of the system—not just children’s services, but adult services—is focused on crisis spend. That costs a lot of money, and we also need to consider the human cost of not getting those preventative services right.

Ms Haughey is absolutely right to highlight the opportunity that we have in that respect. No matter whether children’s services will be in or out of the national care service, the work that we are doing now means that we can look at where things are not working and see how we can improve them. That will be easier with the national standards in the NCS, but that does not mean that we should not be aspiring to bring up standards across the board for all services, whether they be out or in.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

I am quite sure that we can provide you with many examples from the evidence that we have gathered. I do not know whether Iona Colvin has anything to hand just now.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 23 November 2022

Kevin Stewart

Ministers will not impose on any of those things. We are going to build a system that allows folks the opportunity to get redress—the right redress—for their complaints. We are talking about improving the complaints system, and what you have highlighted is certainly not how I would describe things. We want to get complaints and redress absolutely right. That is a major issue for the public at large, and it is one of the areas that we are absolutely adamant that we will get right.