Chamber and committees

When you say that there has to be more in the bill, what specifically do you want to see in the framework that would not be part of co-design but which would already be in the statute without having been through the co-design process?

Mary Alexander, does the framework as written at least provide a springboard for the aspirations and recommendations in the Feeley report?

But there was emergency legislation in that regard. My understanding is that, where there is ministerial responsibility, the Scottish Government can step in if, for example, a provider fails or standards fall.

We must round up the meeting. I thank our four witnesses for the time that they have taken to take us through their views on the national care service.

In the committee’s next meeting, we will continue our scrutiny of the bill with two more evidence sessions.

That is a good note to end on. I thank all our panellists for their time and for what they have told us. I suspend the meeting for 10 minutes to allow the panels to change over.

Our second evidence-taking session comprises representatives from trade unions that represent the social care workforce, and I welcome to the committee Mary Alexander, deputy regional secretary, Unite; Tracey Dalling, regional secretary, Unison Scotland; Roz Foyer, general secretary, Scottish Trades Union Congress; and Cara Stevenson, organiser for the women’s campaign unit, GMB Scotland. Thank you for coming to speak to us about the national care service.

I want to take us back to Derek Feeley’s review and its recommendations. Do you see the framework bill as the springboard to realising the recommendations of the so-called Feeley review? I just want to get everyone’s views on that question before I bring in colleagues, and I ask Cara Stevenson to respond first.

That is exactly what we heard yesterday from Granite Care Consortium, which told us that it has a model for how care boards should work, so it can be done. It was interesting to hear you frame things in that way in your response, because those of us who were in Aberdeen yesterday heard about that in action.

I think that Gillian Mackay has a question, before we move on.

Would you like to go to Cara first?

I bring in James Dornan. [Interruption.] Could broadcasting staff unmute his microphone? That would be super.

I will bring in Carol Mochan, who is online.