Chamber and committees

Does anyone else want to speak?

The police and fire service reforms are fairly recent examples of services that were run at regional level being centralised. Tracey, can you comment on the impact of that centralisation on your members, particularly the civilian support staff who went from the regional services to a national one?

I will go back to a point that the convener led on, which was the scale of potential change to local government staff budgets and the services that they provide. Was there any consideration given to producing an impact assessment on local government when it came to the drafting of this legislation?

Thank you.

Because of the way in which the legislation has been drafted, witnesses at a number of our evidence sessions have said that they have not been able to go into great detail about what the impacts of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will be. I know that the minister has talked a lot about co-design when it comes to secondary legislation, regulation and guidance. What consideration was given to co-design of the bill?

The minister gives the example of the NHS, but we had a framework bill in the previous session that set up a whole new social security system but still included elements of the priorities that the Government and Parliament would want to see in that system. When we think about some of the high-level principles and things such as Anne’s law or independent advocacy, which I know that the Government was committed to for the social security system, I wonder why they were not considered for inclusion on the face of the bill.

I appreciate that clarity. As you say, the witnesses we have been hearing from have had concerns about the impact, so it is helpful for you to confirm that any transfer of staff or assets is only essentially an act of last resort for a failure in service

Eddie Follan, are you able to touch on child protection?

I want to ask about the impact on the council services that would be left behind after a national care service was set up. There are synergies in place in local government and services that work well together by having everyone under one roof. What will be the impact on the services that will be left with local government if this goes ahead? I am thinking specifically of housing and education.

Perhaps Eddie Fraser can respond first, to be followed by Eddie Follan.

Audit Scotland’s response to the call for views says:

“There is a risk of fragmentation of local services”.

Can Carol Calder expand on that and say in which areas the risk is greatest?