Meeting of the Parliament 07 May 2025
Of course I welcome investment in things such as relational mentoring, which are extremely important, but the point that the Wise Group is trying to make is that, after 18 years of this Government, there are still serious challenges in how public services are delivered, in how we know who is in need of support and in how that support is pushed down into communities more widely.
The First Minister concluded his statement yesterday by saying that the Government would be centred on delivery and providing hope. We really have to ask ourselves what the Government has been doing for 18 years if only now, one year from an election, it is centred on delivery and focusing on hope.
One might forgive people for thinking that the hope and optimism that many felt in 2007 might now be realised and that, after all the reports, independent inquiries, working groups, pilots and consultations that the Government has put forward over that 18-year period, the type of radical reform that is required might finally be round the corner. However, I do not think that anyone will be holding their breath waiting for that reform to delivered. We know—because we have heard as much today, and in yesterday’s debate—about the litany of broken promises from the Government over the past 18 years when it comes to tackling the challenges that exist in our NHS and in education, and delivering a social security system that works.
This programme for government—the last one before an election—is devoid of change and policies that would make a tangible difference on the issues that have been raised by the Wise Group and many others. There are no new promises, and no clear actions to end what has become a managed decline. If the SNP had the ideas to fix the crisis in our NHS and the housing emergency, and to raise attainment and stop violence in schools, it would have delivered those policies by now.
It is clear that the SNP Government has lost its way, and its own incompetence has cost the people of Scotland dearly. We are faced with that reality, as the people of Scotland will be in 12 months’ time. It is clear that we can no longer have sticking-plaster solutions—we need a new direction for Scotland.
I move amendment S6M-17437.2, to leave out from first “recognises” to end and insert:
“believes that, after 18 years, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has taken Scotland in the wrong direction and made every institution in Scotland weaker, with almost one in six people in Scotland on an NHS waiting list, falling attainment, and thousands stuck in poverty or living in inadequate housing or on the streets; regrets that the SNP administration’s failure to use the levers that it has to meet statutory child poverty targets, tackle the housing crisis, reduce violence in schools, provide child and adolescent mental health services when young people need them, and prioritise skills development is denying young people a more prosperous and stable future; recognises that the SNP administration has had no industrial strategy or plan for skills, building a low-growth economy and delivering the lowest wage growth of any region or nation in the UK over the last two years; believes that this economic underperformance has had negative implications for public services and the living standards of families and working people, and that the Programme for Government lacks the scale of action needed to make Scotland’s economy work for people across Scotland, and calls on the Scottish Government to prioritise skills and regional economic development, reform Scotland’s enterprise agencies and cut waste, harness the power of technology to help business grow, and ensure that people get the support that they need to find secure work.”
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