Hansard

2. Alex Rowley (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Lab

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on tackling the reported critical shortage of social care workers. (S6O-05588)

The Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing (Tom Arthur) SNP

The Scottish Government is taking forward a range of actions to address the social care workforce shortage, including investing more than £1.1 billion annual...

Alex Rowley Lab

I hope that the minister agrees that we need to create a proper career structure for care workers across Scotland to make it attractive for people in Scotlan...

Tom Arthur SNP

I thank Mr Rowley for his question and his tone. As always, he approaches these matters in a thoughtful, considered and constructive way.We recognise that ne...

Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP) SNP

There is a chronic shortage of care staff in many rural and island communities. For example, Montrose house on Arran has 15 staff—that is around 30 per cent ...

Tom Arthur SNP

I recognise that Mr Gibson holds a particular constituency interest in the impact of the UK Government’s decisions. As I touched on in my previous responses,...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con

Colleges report that they have had to turn away qualified applicants from social care courses due to a lack of Scottish Government funding. At Ayrshire Colle...

Tom Arthur SNP

It is important that we have a coherent and joined-up approach. I hope that the member recognises that the budget that the Parliament has agreed to—without t...

Willie Rennie (North East Fife) (LD) LD

The problem is that the crisis has been coming for a long time. For too long, the Government took it for granted that social care workers would work for a lo...

Tom Arthur SNP

I recognise the constructive approach that the Liberal Democrats took to engagement with the Scottish Government during the budget process with regard to soc...

Foysol Choudhury (Lothian) (Ind) Ind

What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the impact that social care package reductions will have on unpaid carers, in light of concerns from Care...

Tom Arthur SNP

I recognise the significant contribution that unpaid carers make. There are an estimated 800,000 unpaid carers in Scotland. If we sought to quantify their co...