Seòmar agus comataidhean

Emma Harper has a question.

We need to move on. We are running short on time, so I ask members to be concise with their questions and panel members to be concise with their answers. I move to Evelyn Tweed.

David Torrance has some questions.

I call Tess White, who is joining us remotely.

We have to draw our session to a close. I apologise to members who have not been able to get their questions in. I thank the witnesses for their evidence.

At our meeting next week, we will hear from Public Health Scotland about minimum unit pricing for alcohol. That will be followed by an evidence session with the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport on the Mental Health (National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service: Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Agenda item 2 is evidence taking on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. Our first panel comprises representatives from trade unions, and I welcome to the meeting Dave Moxham, who is deputy general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, who is joining us remotely. We are also joined by Cara Stevenson, who is organiser for the women’s campaign unit at GMB Scotland. We hope to be joined by Lilian Macer, who is the regional secretary at Unison Scotland, and who unfortunately has been delayed.

We will move straight to questions. I call Stephanie Callaghan.

I would like to hear the panel members’ views on the proposals for legal accountability for social care and it being shared between the Scottish ministers and local authorities, which is quite a significant change to what was first proposed in the bill. I come first to Rachel Cackett.

I am very conscious of time. This session is due to finish in 11 minutes, but members still have quite a lot of questions that they want to ask. If the witnesses are happy to stay until 12 o’clock, that will, I hope, help us to get through more of our questions.

We continue our scrutiny of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. The second panel of witnesses that we will hear from today is comprised of representatives of care providers and the voluntary and third sectors. I welcome to the meeting Rachel Cackett, who is the chief executive officer of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland; Dr Jim Elder-Woodward OBE, who is the convener of the Inclusion Scotland board and a member of its people-led policy panel; Rob Gowans, who is the policy and public affairs manager of Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland; and Dr Donald Macaskill, who is the chief executive of Scottish Care. Jim Elder-Woodward is supported by Lisa Ehlers from Inclusion Scotland.

We move straight to questions from Tess White.

Good morning, and welcome to the 30th meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in 2023. I have received apologies from Emma Harper. James Dornan joins us as her substitute.

Our first agenda item is to make a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take items 5 to 8 in private?

Members indicated agreement.