Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2023
Let me just say this next bit.
It is a bit odd that today’s debate is broadly about rhetoric rather than a plan. I like the rhetoric; I could talk about rhetoric all day. However, we need a plan if we are going to have a meaningful discussion about what is next.
We have got into some of the detail today. I think that the Government’s proposals for family nurse partnerships and breastfeeding are equally good. The steps on minimum unit pricing for alcohol—which deal with some of the points that Roz McCall was talking about in relation to alcohol and drugs—are helpful.
However, there are big midwife shortages and huge CAMHS waits. We have real problems around the issues that Oliver Mundell was raising about speech and language therapists. It would be good to have a plan about how will tackle those issues so that we can examine what is going forward.
I want to get some clarity from the minister on a really important point—that she will not be surprised to hear me make—about the private, voluntary and independent sector. We have had promises for a long time, including from the First Minister during the leadership hustings for his party, that he was going to solve the problem. I welcome the £12 an hour living wage increase—that is a good thing. However, the minister knows that that is not going to solve the problem on its own. The problem is that experienced staff are leaving the PVI sector because they can earn more elsewhere. That is threatening the quality of the education and care that those facilities provide. In future years, we might face some really negative Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate reports. We need to deal with the problem now so that we can avoid that in the future.
I will give an example. I received a report from Cambusbarron village nursery near Stirling, which has been recruiting for a new member of staff. It found that the starting salary for early years practitioners in the local council was £16.02 an hour. The Government promised to fund £12 per hour starting salaries for the PVI sector. That leaves that nursery to fill a gap of £4 if it has a hope of getting anybody to work in that post—it is expected to cover a third extra. God knows where it will get the money from, because the sector is not rolling in money. The Government has somehow built in a discrimination that means that the nursery worker in Cambusbarron village nursery will be expected to provide exactly the same quality service as the worker in the council nursery for £4 an hour less. Who is going to do that job? The Government has, by design, built that discrimination into its funding of the PVI sector. That has got to change. If we are going to have a hope of getting good quality, flexible private nursery provision, which is a major part of the Government’s offer, the Government really needs to solve that problem—ideally very soon and in the next budget.
15:54