Chamber and committees

It is good to hear that you are willing to look at that. Our evidence pointed towards the need for some sort of formalised role. I sat on another committee where we heard that one of the lessons was that not including the third sector in the work of integration joint boards had prevented some progress. I am interested to see what will happen.

As the minister said, by not including the third sector, we are missing an opportunity. A formalised role would be helpful. Community engagement and expertise is key. I know from our evidence that local authorities do not necessarily have leadership skills around collaboration. I think that Councillor Heddle pointed us towards that. Do the witnesses believe that community engagement is a professional skill set? What work will be done to help to develop those skills, given that, in many councils, there are maybe not the resources to deliver individuals with those skills to work or training?

Councillor Heddle, I pointed towards what you said last time, so I will bring you in.

I have a couple of questions regarding the scrutiny of the new deal, specifically the refreshed role and remit of the Scottish Government place directors. The committee has had no previous engagement with place directors—they seem to have been misplaced, for some reason. Can you outline their role and how you envisage that working in practice? What opportunities will there be for the Parliament to scrutinise the additional role that they will play?

Thank you. The committee might want to follow up on how that is taken forward.

The new deal states:

“The Strategic Review Group ... will provide assurance that Scottish and Local Government are maintaining all commitments set out in this agreement.”

What opportunities will there be for scrutiny of that group’s work? For example, will it be required to publish progress updates at regular intervals?

We agree with you, but it is important for the committee to consider the place directors’ scrutiny role.

Minister, can you say a bit more about your plans to conclude the review by the end of this parliamentary year? Is it still expected to result in the local democracy bill being introduced in the current session?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. It was interesting that David Wallace acknowledged from the outset the concerns around processing times. Our constituents are certainly talking about that. I looked at your social media feed last night and, clearly, that is where a lot of traffic and anger are. What parts of the process are contributing to that long process time? Is there a difference between adult disability payment and child disability payment, and how they are being managed and processed?

So it is not necessarily an issue about capacity in the organisation and processing time?

Have you reviewed the information that you provide to clients during that period? A lot of people have said that they have been asked to provide information seven times. Have you reviewed how people are kept informed of where they are on that journey, including how long it may actually take, so that expectations can be managed?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I will start with a question about the challenges for businesses, because we have been hearing about flexibility and potential flexibility in business. I want to find out what you believe the current challenges are for employers and how they might impact on efforts to provide a more fair, flexible and family-friendly working environment. I do not know who wants to kick off. Maybe we could start at one end of the panel, with Rachel Hunter.

Thank you for that. We heard previously about how having flexibility can benefit businesses’ staff retention.

My next question is for Karen Hedge. We have discussed over many years the issue of people sometimes not seeing the skill set that they have. They may have had a career break, for example, to bring up a family or to care for a loved one. I think that it was Fife Council that did work with people over the age of 50 who had been in that position and then got them to fast-track into social care. Where does flexibility exist for that? One of the things that we know from workforce challenges is that a lot of councils do not necessarily want people to work part-time, because they want them to be full-time, given the problems that we currently face. Do you have any examples of where that is starting to change, in both the private and public sectors?

Is there anything that Lynn Houmdi or Jack Evans wants to add?