Chamber and committees

Good morning. Cabinet secretary, you have already touched on how health inequalities flow from socioeconomic inequalities and the added pressure that that puts on NHS services. You are welcome to say a wee bit more if you wish. I am interested in what work can be done to tackle inequality and reduce poverty, with a clear focus on preventing ill-health and reducing the pressure on services.

We heard a lot of really positive stuff about Taith in our evidence. Youth work representatives said that it hits all their key asks. Are you looking at it as a possible blueprint, or what do you see as the key lessons from it?

I have a quick follow-up question. To what extent is that influencing the pilot work that you are looking at just now?

The focus will remain with YouthLink Scotland.

At this point, are you able to say any more about who you intend to engage with on youth work, and how?

I am okay, convener.

I am sure that you will not be surprised, minister, that I am interested in the Lanarkshire colleges. The current governance arrangements are not ideal and distract the Lanarkshire colleges from their main focus on students and economic recovery. The efforts by the board and executive to make the governance work with the regional strategic bodies are time consuming and unlikely to change outcomes for students and communities. Are you able to provide firmer timescales on governance options for Lanarkshire and Glasgow?

Is the next step in that process, for example, asking them to attend A and E if the situation is quite serious?

We have heard about a lot of fantastic work that is going on locally and nationally. For example, there is the introduction of the hospital ambulance liaison officers—HALO is a very apt acronym. Consultant Connect is really interesting. Direct contact between the Scottish Ambulance Service and senior clinicians allows remote decisions to be made in minutes and saves going through accident and emergency, which prevents waits.

I heard recently in relation to the Lanarkshire local police plan—about 10 per cent of the demand for police forces in Scotland is in that area—that mental health is becoming a really significant issue and that the approach is not sustainable. What work is going on with Police Scotland to create direct links to give it support and reduce the amount of time that the police spend in A and E departments? For example, one evening, Police Scotland had all five cars there at A and E. I am interested in any pilots or any work that is going on to improve things and the impact that that is having.

Thank you for allowing me to come back in, convener.

I go back to something that Emma Harper said. I cannot really remember all the specifics around this; I am not sure whether you will be able to answer. I know from conversations that I have had that the Lanarkshire drug deaths prevention group has raised issues around information sharing, which you touched on before. It said that there was real fear around the general data protection regulation. One of its big concerns was about its inability to get non-fatal overdose information, given that those who die from an overdose will usually have tried before. Are you able to comment on that? Are there issues around that? Is that situation being tackled?