Chamber and committees

Frank McKillop, as you were the first to mention self-directed support, we will come back to you.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the 36th meeting in 2022 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I am delighted to hold our first external formal meeting of the parliamentary session in Glasgow. We are in the Quarrier centre in Govan.

I have received apologies from David Torrance. James Dornan will substitute for him.

A few of our members—Tess White, Sandesh Gulhane and Carol Mochan—are joining us virtually, as is James Dornan. The rest of us are here in person. It is great to be here.

The first item on our agenda is further consideration of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. We will hear evidence from two panels of witnesses.

I welcome our first panel. Clare Gallagher is a human rights officer for the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations Scotland; Hannah Tweed is senior policy officer for the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland—the ALLIANCE; Don Williamson is chief executive of Shared Care Scotland; and Mhairi Wylie is chief officer for Highland Third Sector Interface and a member of the TSI Scotland Network. Joining us online, we have Karen Sheridan, who is chief operating officer for Community Integrated Care.

I will hand over to my colleague Sandesh Gulhane for the first question. It looks like he might have frozen. [Interruption.] We will try again. While Sandesh gets organised, I will ask the panel a question.

The bill has arisen largely from the “Independent Review of Adult Social Care in Scotland”, which is also known as the Feeley report. We have had Derek Feeley in front of us to talk about his thoughts on the bill. I ask all the witnesses for their views on whether the bill accurately reflects the review’s recommendations. Are any key recommendations from the review missing?

I will go to Mhairi Wylie first. You do not have to operate your microphone, Mhairi; that is done for you.

That is really good feedback for us to hear.

That is very helpful as a starting point.

We must move on to the next theme that we want to discuss, which is data and information sharing. Stephanie Callaghan has questions on that.

I will bring in Emma Harper, who has questions about commissioning and procurement.

Does the change in how Granite Care Consortium works have anything to do with the lower delayed discharge figures in Grampian than there are in the rest of the country?

In that case, Sandesh Gulhane can ask the last question.

We move on to our second evidence session on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. I welcome our second panel of witnesses: Fanchea Kelly is the chief executive of Blackwood Homes and Care; Margaret McCarthy is the chief executive officer for Crossroads Caring Scotland; Peter McCormick is the managing director of Randolph Hill; and joining us online is Nick Price, who is a representative of the Granite Care Consortium. I will hand over to my colleague Gillian Mackay.

That is why we have these sessions.