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On the GDP deflator, what assessment has the Government made of the impact of the rate on the delivery of personal care? Can you guarantee that people will still be able to access the care that they need and that it will remain free at the point of use?

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, convener. It is a pleasure to return to the committee to discuss such an important issue.

I am really pleased to be here to support the petition, and I was pleased to work with community link workers and the GMB trade union over the summer period in opposition to proposals from the Glasgow city health and social care partnership to cut the number of community link workers in Glasgow from 70 positions to 42. With the Scottish Government stepping in and awarding the partnership the money to maintain the level of community link worker posts in the city, it might on the face of it seem that the petitioner’s ask has been met. However, the intervention was made only after some months of uncertainty and significant distress among the workforce and associated GP practices.

Indeed, the petition’s latter ask, which is to secure the long-term future of these roles, is the fundamental issue for the committee’s consideration today. It is clear, certainly to me, that the current model of yearly funding awards for community link worker posts across the country does not provide sufficient job security or forward planning capacity for the workers, or sufficient consistency for the deep-end GP practice teams, for whom the community link worker posts are crucial as part of wider team efforts to support vulnerable patients.

Link workers play an invaluable role in communities, particularly those with high levels of deprivation. They work with patients on personal, social and financial issues that are not necessarily clinical, such as housing benefits, loneliness, isolation and debt, which not only improves outcomes for the patients but helps to free up valuable GP time. As we all know, GPs are already hard pressed to support other patients with clinical needs.

Evidence of the value of the link worker role is not merely anecdotal. Indeed, as the petitioner has highlighted to the committee in his submission, there is a proven social return on such investment. Under the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland community link worker programme in Glasgow, 7,800 people were supported in 2022, at a cost of £2.1 million, which generated around £3 million in gross value added, £800,000 in cost savings, £500,000 in tax revenues and, crucially, £18.2 million in wellbeing benefits for communities in Glasgow and the west of Scotland. That equates to a benefit of £8.79 for every £1 of public money invested, which is an impressive ratio.

The positive impact that community link workers have on patients, GP surgeries and the local area in which the service is provided has been clearly demonstrated. Long-term funding is therefore necessary to ensure that that positive impact is sustainable and given best effect, to allow GP surgeries to plan ahead and to give the workforce the basic job security that I think we all agree is reasonable.

Therefore, I encourage the committee to keep the petition open and to invite the Scottish Government to review its current model for funding link workers through health and social care partnerships, with a view to looking at a longer-term funding model. Perhaps the committee would consider taking submissions from the Glasgow city health and social care partnership, the trade union that represents the workers concerned—the GMB—and deep-end GP practices, representatives of which could perhaps describe in detail the benefits that the posts provide to their practices. That is a starter for 10. Thank you for listening to me.

The Glasgow city health and social care partnership.

That is a fair point, but would you, as a stakeholder, given the clear impacts on the healthcare system, make representations to your colleague to find a way through this?

To confirm, that is not something that would necessarily be escalated to your directorate or your department directly—if potentially dangerous staffing levels were flagged up, that matter would be contained at board level. I am just curious as to how the matter would be escalated up the chain.

I appreciate your comments. Thank you.

In that case, am I correct in saying that, if I were to search for an individual, I could search only one doctor’s register? Would I then have to go to a separate webpage to search for physician associates and anaesthesia associates?

Cabinet secretary, you highlighted the longer-term increase in mental health expenditure. The 10 per cent target was set by the Government and progress towards it has stalled. It is certainly stalling this year and we are going backwards in real terms. Is there a high risk of not achieving the target? Is there a red flag against the target to say that we will be challenged to achieve it by the end of the parliamentary session?

That is very kind. I have a quick question on the issue that has been raised by NHS staff in Glasgow about safe staffing levels. Do you monitor where there are potentially dangerous levels of understaffing and target resource expenditure to ensure that there is a minimum safe staffing level across the healthcare system, particularly in acute hospitals?