Meeting of the Parliament 05 February 2020
I am quite short of time and I wish to make a number of points.
That approach has had an impact on lifeline services and, in turn, on the most vulnerable people in our communities. Many councils are reduced to providing statutory services instead of being able to bring on front-line services that protect our communities. Since 2007, councils have lost 40,000 jobs—a level of job losses that would have been unacceptable in any other sector. In the budget, they will be expected to deliver additional services to the tune of £497 million, and they must therefore receive a fair settlement to allow them to deliver those additional services and invest in our communities.
Councils must be enabled to deliver care in the community. The failure to tackle the social care crisis and the critical underfunding of local authorities continue to put pressure on the wider healthcare system. People who are fit to go back to the comfort of their own homes to recover are instead stuck in hospitals. It is soul destroying for them to know that they could be at home, where they would be more comfortable, but instead they are stuck in hospital, where visiting hours are restricted and there is a higher risk of infections, so people feel vulnerable.
The Scottish Government set up integration joint boards to deal with that situation. Sadly, all that it appears to have achieved is the creation of an additional layer of bureaucracy without the checks and balances that are faced by health boards and local government. Many of the IJBs are already in deficit, and the situation is not getting better. The latest figures from the Information Services Division show that, in December 2019, 45,404 bed days were spent in hospital by patients who were medically fit to leave, which is a 6 per cent increase on the same month in 2018. Since Jeane Freeman assumed office as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, the cost to health boards of delayed discharge has reached a shocking total of £197.8 million.
However, local government and social care are not alone in bearing the brunt of cuts. Tuition fee income, which universities can generate from international students and those living in the rest of the UK, has replaced Scottish funding council grants as the single biggest source of income for Scottish universities. Our colleges have also faced a sustained lack of investment although they are the institutions that provide in-work learning. Our economy is in danger if we do not train people in robotics and digital technologies, which will impact on every aspect of industry.