Hansard

The First Minister and I dedicate considerable time in seeking to address the delayed discharge issues and to improve social care services. I have engaged with Donald Macaskill since he made that statement, and I think that there is an understanding of the investments that we are making to ensure that we expand capacity and support greater resilience.

The greatest threat and challenge that our social care sector faces right now is Labour’s national insurance contributions increase, which is putting at risk the very viability of the businesses and independent social care providers. That must be reversed at source to ensure the continued viability of our social care sector.

Importantly, with the record investment in health and social care, we will focus on improving the performance of our services and continue to take forward decisive action to support delivery against the reform vision, which I outlined to the Scottish Parliament last June.

Key to the focus on improvement and renewal is co-operation and collaboration across the system. The First Minister and I have regularly consulted health boards, health and social care partnerships, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Public Health Scotland, NHS 24 and others—and we will continue to do so. Indeed, just last week, we met a range of key stakeholders in Bute house to discuss the challenges that are ahead of us, and more meetings are planned.

It is that type of collaborative approach, and that focus on systemic change, that has led to an NHS renewal plan, which the First Minister outlined on Monday. It provides a route to address the immediate issues that impact the NHS, as well as the long-term change that is needed to ensure its sustainable future. We will set out more details of how that will be delivered in an operational improvement plan that will be published in March.

The draft budget that is progressing through Parliament gives us the means to turn those plans into action. Those dynamic and demanding plans seek to dramatically reduce waiting times so that no one is waiting longer than a year for their treatment.

The renewal plan sets out how our health services can provide the highest quality care in the right place. We will shift the balance of care from acute settings to the community. We will be taking measures to ensure that people receive the right care in the right place, and it will be made easier for people to see their first point of contact in the NHS—the general practice team, their dentist, optometrist or pharmacist.

The plan also commits to expanding the number of hospital at home and virtual beds to at least 2,000 by December 2026, or sooner if possible, and deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams from every emergency department by this summer. It also embraces digital innovation to increase access and speed up access to care, and has a strong emphasis on prevention, so that we improve our population’s overall health and ease the pressure on a service that we all value and treasure.

Last June, I outlined the reform vision for our health and social care services, which is to

“enable and empower people in Scotland to live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives.”

That vision remains. This budget works towards that vision, by supporting plans that improve population health, focus on prevention and early intervention, provide quality services and maximise access.

I will now consider the wider critical public services that will benefit from the budget. Local government is of critical importance to delivering our high-quality public services in Scotland. The 2025-26 budget is allocating record funding of more than £15 billion to local government, which is a real-terms increase of 4.7 per cent compared with 2024-25. The funding will protect and build on the investments that this Government has already delivered for local communities across Scotland. The additional funding will allow councils to continue to provide high-quality services and invest in local priorities, including maintaining or restoring teacher numbers to 2023 levels, enhancing interisland connectivity, tackling the climate emergency through new capital funding and addressing issues in social care.

The social security budget demonstrates the strength of our commitment to building a future-proofed Scottish social security system that has dignity, fairness and respect at its heart. We are investing around £6.9 billion in benefits and payments for 2025-26. The investment will support around two million people, which is about one in three people in Scotland. That will support our national mission to end child poverty, help low-income families with their living costs, support older people, support carers, who devote their time to others, and enable disabled people to live full and independent lives.

We remain committed to supporting a high-quality post-school education, research and skills system, with a more than £2 billion investment in further education, higher education and skills, keeping the protection of free tuition at the heart of our education system.

For early years, we continue to invest in high-quality funded early learning and childcare, with wider family support.