Chamber and committees

Okay—that is fine. I will take us back to current financial year performance. Colin Beattie will talk about the deficit issue, which is a major feature of the report, but I will look at the current year.

You mention in the report that there has been

“An overspend of £3.2 ... million in acute services”,

but

“An underspend of £1.3 ... million in corporate functions”

and

“An underspend of £2.245 million in ringfenced and contingent budgets.”

Could you explain a little bit more the detail that lies behind those figures, please?

Rebbecca McConnachie, did you say that NHS Forth Valley would be required to make savings of the order of 28 per cent?

Thank you. I invite Willie Coffey to put some questions to you.

Okay—thank you.

My second quick question is one that we have addressed in relation to a number of other reports: the question of induction training for members of the health board. Do they get such training in NHS Forth Valley?

So that is not an issue that you have identified or that was identified by the John Brown inquiry.

Okay. On that note, I draw the evidence session to a close. I thank you, Auditor General, for the evidence that you have given us, and I thank Pat Kenny and Rebbecca McConnachie from Deloitte and Leigh Johnston from Audit Scotland for the evidence that they have shared with us.

I now draw the public session to a close and move the committee into private session.

Did you say 8 per cent?

Picking up on some of the themes that were developing there, Graham Simpson has some questions on the assurance board, leadership and culture.

We are drawing towards a close, but I have just a couple of quick questions. Auditor General, you mentioned the importance of staff being listened to, and you referred, for example, to whistleblowing. However, is it not the case that staff being listened to is not just about individual whistleblowers using public interest disclosure, but that it is also about routine collective listening—for example, listening to trade unions and their health and safety forums—as well as partnership working?

I wonder about that, though, based on your experience. I was quite taken aback when the assurance board said to me and other elected representatives who were taking part in that discussion that it could be years before de-escalation takes place. Is that the sense that you get? Is it the experience that we have had with other health boards that have been escalated to level 4?