Chamber and committees

Not all training is done away from any place. As a former clinical educator, I used to go right into the intensive care unit, operating theatre or ward and do direct education. Education can be delivered on the ground in the area where care is provided as well.

A lot of this has been covered already, so I will be really brief.

One of the issues that is coming out is to do with how local government wants to be part of delivering care now that we are going to create the national care boards. For example, how do we manage that shift to make sure that we can show local authorities that this is about local delivery, with national guidance? It is not about taking control into ministerial offices; it is about the delivery of care at the local level, with national guidance that underpins what the care quality needs to look like.

We are talking about how to measure success; I have a question for Nick Price on that. You said that, due to the pandemic, the chief of the IJB has developed a way of working, with the Granite Care Consortium, that has actually been successful—we heard that feedback. What the GCC has been delivering has been called a care board model. Do you recognise that, and should we consider harnessing that model as we take forward the national care service bill?

I am interested in the language in the bill around training and the recruitment and retention of the workforce. We are starting to move away from the time-and-task model and are looking at real ways of helping to support retention and recruitment and valuing people by engaging in training. What do you think about the provision in the bill that

“The Scottish Ministers and care boards may ... provide training”

and about how training helps in relation to valuing our staff and maybe retaining them even longer and supporting the continuing recognition of the professionalism of care? A lot of the care that is provided is really complex, so I am interested to hear your thoughts about what is in the bill as far as the language around training goes.

It is interesting to talk about the release and sharing of information and the whole minutiae of regulations that allow freedom of information requests and monitoring and evaluation to be out there and shared to allow us to compare how one board is doing versus another.

We talk a lot about self-directed support, which works really well in some places but does not work well in others, so we need to be able to monitor that. Do you think that there should be something more detailed about data monitoring and evaluation of the system, such as on unmet need, in the bill?

Should Anne’s law be extended to other facilities, such as hospitals? I understand that infection control and prevention guidance is important in specific areas, especially if there are outbreaks in other places. Have you considered whether we should extend Anne’s law to hospitals?

It is for either Beth Lawton or Ken Macdonald.

We have talked a lot about personal data, but now we have a couple of questions on the monitoring and evaluation of the national care service.

I am interested in whether the bill as introduced has suitable information on the monitoring and evaluation of care as it is delivered. Should anything be added, or will the framework legislation allow the service to be monitored and evaluated in the way that we intend?

Good morning, everybody. Our papers contain information about the establishment of a new national social work agency. I would be interested to hear the panel’s thoughts on the proposed creation of a centralised quality improvement body in the form of a national social work agency. Do you welcome that, or would you prefer an alternative approach to be taken? If so, what would that be? Let us go to Suzanne McGuinness first.

We have talked about advocacy and complaints. Is the bill adequate to be able to deal with that kind of support if there are any issues and we need to look at who is responsible and who is accountable? One of the issues that came up during the lockdown was to do with legal liability insurance. That was a real challenge, because care homes, rather than protecting one resident, were protecting all residents. Does that need further consideration?