Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2025
I welcome this debate, which is very timely in the light of the speech that was given by the First Minister on Monday on protecting and renewing our health and social care system—a plan of substance, and that is to deliver. In his remarks, the First Minster acknowledged the central role that those most cherished of public services play in all our lives, which is why we, as a Government, attach so much importance to supporting our health and social care system and the people who work in it.
I agree with Jackie Baillie that staff are the backbone of our health and social care system. Without their skills, expertise and endeavours the system simply could not operate. I have been privileged to witness at first hand their dedication and professionalism in my role as health secretary.
We also know that services are struggling. People are waiting too long for treatment and there have been periods of real crisis in recent weeks linked to the unusually high flu prevalence that we have seen. I want to record my thanks to staff and my admiration for their resilience in the face of those extreme pressures. We are all grateful to them for their efforts. We must also acknowledge that the sustained and significant pressure that the system has faced, and continues to face, places real pressure on staff. Change is clearly needed.
Although a shift in demographics and changes in the burden of disease mean that reform of our health and social care services would always have been necessary, the pandemic has undoubtedly impacted on the scale of change and pace of change that are required.
Our efforts to recover have certainly not been helped by decisions that have been taken at Westminster. A decade and a half of austerity, coupled with the shock of inflation, has meant that our already stretched resources have been able to deliver less.
Furthermore, Brexit continues to impact on staffing in our social care sector and will, coupled with the UK Labour Government’s decision to continue the Tories’ cruel policy of preventing care workers from bringing dependants to the UK, have deep and lasting consequences. Home Office statistics show a staggering 82 per cent drop in health and care worker visa applications between April and December 2024, compared with the same nine-month period in 2023.