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I agree that it is not always recognised that it is the primary delivery mechanism. I meet constituents on a regular basis—as you all will—who say, “I’ve been put on to this SDS,” and they do not realise that that is the way that we deliver social care. For example, they think that option 1 is the only option with SDS.

As well as the geographical variation, which reflects culture, delegation practices and the levels of integration in each area, we operate in a system that has different external pressures. The pandemic has undoubtedly been a huge pressure on our systems, as is the financial situation in which we find ourselves. The post-Brexit challenges of immigration and the labour shortages that we have across the country are another pressure.

Even in the geographical area that I represent, I have seen real changes. When I was first elected, I met local representatives in the Highlands who blew me away with their description of the amazing opportunity that people had to live their lives to the full and avoid being institutionalised in any way, and I met young people who were using their SDS to follow their dreams. It was magical to hear about.

Now, I more commonly hear concerns that—this is probably common for every representative around this table—when there is market failure, when the local authority has struggled to provide care, people are being told, “Don’t worry, you can have this budget and find care for yourself.” That is not the intention. People are meant to be able to choose the option that works for them. Option 1 is not meant to be the final stop when market failure has occurred.

We are well aware of those challenges. I suppose that the way to avoid those challenges for people who are trying to access care is to focus our work on improving workforce planning and ensuring that sufficient funding is going into the system. We have a lot of work going on across the piece to do that. We committed to increasing the funding of social care by a quarter during this session of Parliament. We have delivered that two years ahead of schedule, but we are often not feeling that at the coalface.

We need the national care service to provide some grip and assurance in relation to following the money and making sure that the money is getting where we need it to be. The workforce issues are undoubtedly challenging. We will improve those by not just tackling pay, although that is really important, but social care conditions and the level of support for social care staff, so that they feel well supported and can flourish in their vital professional role.

Work is under way right across the piece to do that, but it is not as simple as flicking a switch, and it is exceptionally costly, so it must be done carefully. I would like us to go further and faster, but I think that we are on the right path. Each social care worker in Scotland is paid £2,000 more than they were paid last year. Their wages are going up substantially each year. Social care workers in Scotland are paid more than, and pay less tax than, their counterparts in the rest of the United Kingdom.

We are on the right pathway. We are not where we want to be, but, as a Government, we have set out our stall and are making incremental improvements in social care that will help us to solve the big-picture problems.

Absolutely. As I always say when answering questions of that nature, I am a Highland MSP, and I know at my core that one size does not fit all. In fact, where I live, in a rural west Highland village, social care is delivered very differently even from the way that it is done in Inverness, which is just along the road and within the same local authority and integration authority area. It is challenging to be prescriptive. However, that should not prevent us from recognising that there is an issue. Time and again, when we have looked at the health and social care system, we recognise that the variation is too great and that there are not good reasons to explain it.

We can see real and significant variation, and we talk about good and bad variation, or necessary and unnecessary variation. We are not interested in ironing out the sort of variation that has to occur in a remote west Highland village where limited assets are available. In that situation, we really want flexibility. In my part of the world, I mostly meet people who are desperately keen to stay in their communities and who are happy to tolerate some variation in how care is delivered to enable that core aim.

The unnecessary variation, which comes from culture, systems and, in particular, risk aversion, is what we need to iron out. We need to give people the confidence to operate the system properly and to properly put the person at the centre of decision making and in the lead on that. That will not look exactly the same in every part of the country, but it will reach the standards of quality that we are aiming for with this legislation.

That is why we have a programme in place to try to improve the data. We are working with Public Health Scotland to improve the quality of data. I agree with you: it is very difficult if we do not have high-quality data. We are therefore working on that with Public Health Scotland. It has suspended its collection of data. We will come back with better data collection, to enable us to manage more appropriately and more effectively the whole system through the use of that high-quality data.

As Joanne Finlay mentioned earlier, we have also looked at the health and care experience survey. That is a different methodology. It is always difficult to introduce different ways of collecting information, but we look at a variety of data sources. Some are well scrutinised and of high quality, whereas others are more anecdotal and less what you would call management information. We cannot publish those because the data is not of sufficiently high quality. However, we are looking at data and we are determined to find ways to measure the right things without putting a burden on a system that is already overburdened, in order to enable us—not just me, but the local system—to have that grip and assurance, exactly as you said, in order to ensure that delivery improves.

A number of pieces of work are in place to support the social work profession to ensure that a standard level of knowledge exists across the profession for all social workers. We are also beginning a programme of support for newly qualified social workers and for social workers who choose to specialise and continue to gain qualifications throughout their career.

We are trying to standardise that approach. You will be aware that there are 32 different employers for social workers across Scotland, with 32 different sets of paying conditions and 32 different local authorities that do workforce planning for social work. We see the national care service as a real opportunity to bring some cohesion to that picture. The planned national social work agency will sit on the national care service board and bring some national standards and planning to the particular challenges for that profession.

I see the national care service as a real opportunity for social workers. As you rightly say, they are crucial to the high-quality functioning of a social care system. Supporting the profession and ensuring that social workers flourish and thrive and are able to do the job that they came in to do is a really important part of how we intend to improve the quality of social care in the future.

My colleagues might wish to add something, particularly about the social work profession.

First, as a Warriors fan myself—as I say regularly to folk, I am Glasgow by marriage, so I am a huge Warriors fan—I was absolutely delighted, in a tough weekend of sport for Scotland, that their win in Pretoria was absolutely uplifting for the whole nation. We are very proud of what they have achieved—they are inspirational to many.

With regard to the social work profession, I absolutely recognise that there is a challenge in there for Government. I will put it simply. You are a clinician, and I am a clinician, too—I worked as a mental health pharmacist for 20 years in a multidisciplinary team, of which social workers were a key component. In my experience, social workers are social justice warriors: they come in to uphold the human rights of the people with whom they work. Over a number of years, however, the system has forced them to focus on issues such as budgets and eligibility, rather than on the individual requiring care who should be at the centre, and who requires their needs to be met and their rights to be upheld.

I see it as a responsibility of Government to ensure that social workers can go back to the job that they came in to do. One of the reasons that so many social workers are leaving the profession is because they are disappointed with the reality of their job once they are qualified.

As I have said previously, there are a number of issues. We need better workforce planning across the country, and higher numbers of social workers being produced and trained. We need better liaison between local authorities and universities in order to ensure that there are training placements for undergraduates and postgraduates so that they can be supported to become the professionals that we need them to be.

We need a strong postgraduate process of further education. Any professional—there are a number of health professionals around the table—will recognise that you do not come out of university ready to be the professional that you need to be. There is a period of further training once you are qualified, so we want that post-degree support, mentoring and training to be in place, solidified and nationally led.

The national social work agency will provide us with an opportunity to put in core standards to which every social worker will be expected to work. Although—as you allude to in your question—that might be felt by some social workers as a pressure, and as a further thing that we are asking them to do, many social workers tell me that it will give them the ability and the freedom to focus on the things that are important, such as upholding the human rights of individuals. They will be expected to work to a national standard rather than follow the local pressure of ensuring that the budget is delivered.

There is a huge amount that we can do to support the social worker profession. I reiterate how crucial social workers are. When I go around the country, in areas where systems are working really well, usually the social work profession there has a high profile and is well supported to do the job that it needs to do. The evidence is anecdotal, but it is clear that if we support the profession, the quality will be lifted throughout the country.

Responsibility for the social work profession lies with Angela Constance. She is a social worker, so has a passion for that. Natalie Don also shares some responsibility, as the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, so the three of us work regularly with the chief social worker, Iona Colvin, and her team, to try to ensure that we are delivering a social work workforce that is fit for the future and that it supports autonomous professionals who are empowered to deliver within the system.

We want every individual in Scotland to be able to access social care, in a way that is flexible, meets their individual needs and enables them to flourish. To go back to some the challenges that we discussed with Tess White, we recognise that it is challenging to provide data. With the health system, for example, we can look at things such as the four-hour accident and emergency metric, which gives us an indication across the whole system. In social care, we do not have such simple metrics that are easy to measure and that give us an indication of the health of the whole system, and for which we can set targets. However, we are keen—

I would like to start by thanking the committee and all those who have taken time to give evidence during the past few months. I very much welcome any chance to shine a light on self-directed support, which is a policy with which Scotland leads the rest of the world.

The SDS journey began with the passing of the 2013 act, which signified a fundamental shift in mindsets, recognising that individuals are the experts in their own lives and should be fully supported to make their own decisions about their care and support. Since then, we have witnessed the tangible impact of the introduction of SDS on the lives of countless individuals across Scotland.

Through personalised budgets and tailored support plans, people have been able to live more independently, pursue their passions and participate in their communities in a way that just was not possible previously. I have seen for myself the impact of SDS on individuals, including at a recent visit to the Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living.

Although I am aware that the committee has heard of many examples of SDS being implemented in accordance with the 2013 act, I am aware and have heard that work is still to be done across a number of areas. They include ensuring consistency of implementation across local authorities and in provision of information and access to advocacy; addressing wider workforce issues, including recruitment, retention and training of staff; and clarifying how SDS will work in the context of the proposed national care service.

As members will be aware, the self-directed support improvement plan that was jointly published by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities sets out how we are continuing to drive improvements in SDS. The plan recognises the need for a whole-system approach. Although the Scottish Government can set the legislative framework and foster connections to promote collaborative working in the areas where it is most needed, it is vital that delivery partners across the statutory, third and independent sectors all play a role in implementation. That includes local authorities and integration authorities, which have statutory responsibility for ensuring that people can get the support that is right for them. The plan is supported by updated guidance and a framework of standards that make clear the expectations of local authorities in provision of care and support.

However, I want to be clear. It is not right that an individual in one locality has limited options available to them in comparison with their counterparts in another part of the country. Such inconsistency in access to SDS is an example of the reasons why the Scottish Government has introduced the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, which will allow Scottish ministers greater oversight over the quality of social care in Scotland and greater ability to drive consistency in order to reduce the inequality that we all know exists in the system.

Through the national care service national board, there will also be the opportunity to share good practice further across the country to enable it to become more widespread. With the NCS will also come greater financial clarity and transparency, which is something that becomes more and more important as financial pressures continue to build.

The 2013 act was a significant step, but we still face many challenges, and I recognise the need for further improvement in delivery of SDS at a local level. The Scottish Government remains committed to driving forward improvements in the way in which social care is delivered, and that commitment extends to embedding the principles of SDS in the national care service.

That is a really good question. This committee will be well aware of the complexity of the health and social care system and how challenging it is to have an impact from the centre. One reason why I am so committed to the national care service is that I recognise that, although we absolutely need to have Government direction and responsibility, we need to work with local systems, as well. It cannot be one or the other; it must be both. The tripartite accountability agreement that we struck with the national care service will help us to bring some cohesion to the complex landscape in which we are all operating.

The other challenge that we have in health and social care systems as a whole is that we cannot afford to get it wrong, because people’s lives depend on it. These are essential services, so we really need to manage change very carefully. We are well aware of that responsibility, and we are managing change carefully.

One thing with self-directed support is that, rather than it being about the operational directions and guidelines on how to do it, it is really about the ethos of it. That was a huge shift in culture to where the person is at the centre of the decision, and a shift to where their human rights are upheld and early intervention, prevention and support are wrapped around that individual in order to make decisions that suit them and help them to achieve their life goals. I think you will see that ethos firmly embedded in everything that we do from now on. We know that it is absolutely the right thing to do. It is challenging, but this post-legislative scrutiny of the act is welcome. We are keen to keep going back and looking again to see how we can improve it.

Again, and you would expect me to say this as somebody who is steering the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill through Parliament, I see an opportunity through the bill to pick up on areas of good practice, as well as to bring grip, coherence and assurance to areas where practice is falling down. I see an opportunity to pick up on areas of good practice and to quickly translate them across the country. That excites me, because that has been challenging in the past.

As you might imagine, as I represent Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, that issue is very close to my heart. Work is being done in collaboration with Samaritans Scotland. I recently visited its project at its base in Fort William. The project is assessing the risk of suicide and is doing suicide prevention work among lone rural workers, recognising that they are a particular risk. People can be very isolated working in the Highlands and, often, because of the work that they do, they have access and means. It is an important piece of work.

As you might expect, I was hugely impressed by the work that Samaritans Scotland is doing. It is a national organisation with a real level of respect among the community and the nation, but here it was, in a local community, working very carefully and sensitively with some of the groups that were already operating in the area.

A couple of local charities are very prominent in the area. They have sprung up—I am sure that it is the same in every part of the country—because of tragic events and in memory of people who have been lost by suicide. I was impressed by the sensitive way in which this national organisation had come into the local community and was working very carefully, thoughtfully and impactfully along with the rest of the community. I think that that work reports fully next year. I am keen to see the outcome of that, and it will be of interest to every other rural area in Scotland.

We have specific work going on in rural Scotland. As I said, during my recent visit, I was very impressed by the way in which Samaritans Scotland is conducting that project. I am keen to get on the record that the project recognises the importance of employers and work-based interventions. We look to learn from suicide and there is evidence that it is often the case that people have sought help from primary care or they have sought non-specialist medical help. Sometimes, people have sought specialist help. However, employers are a very common theme across the board, and ensuring that employers are equipped to have sensitive conversations, recognising the role that they play in the community and the role that a supportive employment environment can have in preventing suicide, is a new thing. We are pleased to be working alongside a group of employers in the delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy but in the suicide prevention work in particular.

We can certainly look at the work that we do alongside charities that work with prisoners. From previous roles in the Government, I know about the work that families do to support those connections and to maintain relationships between prisoners and their families on the outside. Although that work is not particularly focused on suicide prevention, it clearly has a role to play in that regard.