Committee
Health and Sport Committee 02 February 2016 [Draft]
02 Feb 2016 · S4 · Health and Sport Committee
Item of business
Petition
Respite Services (Young Disabled Adults) (PE1499)
We agreed that we would deal with this petition as we took evidence on palliative and end-of-life care, Rhoda, but you seem to be suggesting something different at this point. Although the focus has been on palliative care, Marie Curie and CHAS are directly involved. That was the process that we were following. The issue is what a committee is expected to do with a petition. As a committee, we agreed that we would deal with this petition in our general evidence on palliative care. We suggested that to the petitioner and let him know that we would do that. The issues that were raised in the petition were raised directly with the cabinet secretary. CHAS is directly involved; Marie Curie is directly involved. I am not objecting to Rhoda Grant’s proposal, but I would not want to give the petitioner a false expectation that we are going to take another route. Our approach has been as consistent as possible. We informed the petitioner of what we were going to do and that our work would focus on palliative care. The people who are directly involved are able to deal through the pilot with the issues that are being raised now. Other than departing from the parameters that we have been following, I do not know what we can do. Rhoda Grant is suggesting that the issue is not just palliative care but lifelong conditions, but that has not been our approach. We could ask for the indulgence perhaps to leave the petition lying for a couple of weeks, but we need to know what we will discuss in the next couple of weeks and how the petitioner will respond to what we do with the petition. I just do not know where we are going.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
The fourth item on the agenda today is consideration of PE1499 by Robert Watson on creating suitable respite facilities to support younger disabled adults wi...
Rhoda Grant
Lab
Can we ask for the petitioner’s opinion on what has been suggested and on the on-going work? We are obviously coming to the end of the parliamentary session,...
The Convener
Lab
Are you suggesting that we get the petitioner’s views now about the pilot programme?
Rhoda Grant
Lab
Yes—and about what he thinks might need to be added to it. I know that respite for young people—rather than for children, I think—is a real issue not only in...
The Convener
Lab
We can do that. We have written to the petitioner to outline our position. What response did we get?
Jane Williams (Clerk)
The committee has just told the petitioner that the committee’s work is under way.
Rhoda Grant
Lab
It would be good to get the petitioner’s views, feed them in and then close the petition, or close the petition, get his views and feed them in, if that is a...
The Convener
Lab
If the committee feels that we should, we can tell the petitioner what we are likely to do and ask whether he has any views on the pilot. We can then bring t...
Dennis Robertson (Aberdeenshire West) (SNP)
SNP
The work that is under way now should be given time to bed in and to resolve the situation. If the petitioner wishes to monitor the progress of that work, he...
Fiona McLeod (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP)
SNP
If I recall correctly what was said, last week when I asked the cabinet secretary and her officials about the on-going work that the Government is doing with...
Malcolm Chisholm
Lab
I am interested in the petitioner’s comment that “The danger may be that ‘respite care’ is lost in this focus—and that is the primary objective of my petiti...
Fiona McLeod
SNP
My recollection of the evidence that we heard from the cabinet secretary and officials last week is that it was also about respite care, and they gave us tim...
Rhoda Grant
Lab
I want to make the point that children’s hospice care is very different from adult hospice care. Children’s hospice care is about respite, and the fact is th...
The Convener
Lab
We agreed that we would deal with this petition as we took evidence on palliative and end-of-life care, Rhoda, but you seem to be suggesting something differ...
Rhoda Grant
Lab
The issue is not lifelong conditions; it is life-limiting conditions. We have, because of advances in medicine, children with conditions that would not, in t...
Nanette Milne
Con
I agree with Rhoda Grant. I first heard about the on-going situation with CHAS at the cross-party group on muscular dystrophy, which was attended by people f...
The Convener
Lab
The petition has come to us and we have progressed it. We have communicated with the petitioner and let them know what we are doing. I am focusing on how we ...
Mike MacKenzie
SNP
I agree absolutely with what you are saying, convener, and I was greatly reassured by what the cabinet secretary said. I wonder whether it would help, given ...
The Convener
Lab
The committee has done a good job on this.
Nanette Milne
Con
We should close the petition. There is no point in keeping it open, because we have done everything that was asked of us. I quite like Mike MacKenzie’s sugge...
Richard Lyle (Central Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
Agreed.
The Convener
Lab
Does that help?
Rhoda Grant
Lab
Yes. If the petitioner wants to submit comments to the Scottish Government, they can do so.
The Convener
Lab
Or to the committee. As was agreed at our previous meeting, we now move into private session. 10:23 Meeting continued in private until 11:23.