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The point has been made about accountability. We have had structural change already in social care with the introduction of integration joint boards and seven years, I think, of work on the integration of health and social care that has not yet been well analysed.

Local authorities are concerned about the changes that are proposed to accountability, because it will move to ministers rather than being with them. It would be helpful for the committee to understand what discussion is going on with local authorities about their role. COSLA has been critical of the proposal, so it would be useful if the minister could explain what discussions he is having before we get to the publication of a bill.

I appreciate that the minister touched on suicide prevention in his earlier answers, which were very informative. Currently, Scotland has an increasing suicide rate. When we take that as a comparator across the UK, we see that our rate is higher than those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Are we engaging with other parts of the United Kingdom to understand their experience and what has been done in them? How can we share best practice? Notwithstanding the work that is already being done, I think that we can learn from other people.

All of us on the committee would want to associate ourselves with your comment that one suicide is one too many and to welcome any decrease in the figures.

On “Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan: Every Life Matters”, the outcome of the review in March was that progress was perhaps slower than expected in some areas. Indeed, I think that you alluded to the need for us to go further and do more. Notwithstanding the challenges that we have all experienced through the pandemic and lockdown and the fact that they have exacerbated the situation with services and people’s lived experience, I am keen to understand how we will drive towards the plan’s very ambitious target of reducing the rate of suicide by 20 per cent by 2022. How achievable is that target? What further actions need to be taken to reach it?

I will be brief, convener. I just want to welcome the minister’s comments about grass-roots organisations in communities, which I think all of us will have experience of. Does the minister feel that there is space to fund some of those organisations at a more localised level and move that sort of thing forward where required?

I declare an interest as a councillor for East Renfrewshire.

I think that this is the first time that the minister has had the opportunity to talk about the national care service with the committee and I am sure that it will not be the last as the proposal progresses in legislation.

We are coming to the end of the consultation phase and I want to start my questions by asking about scope. The scope of the Government’s consultation goes further than Feeley did. There has been a degree of commentary about that. For example, Fiona Duncan, chair of the Promise Scotland, said that she was puzzled as to why children’s services were in the consultation and she expressed some concerns about how we deliver the Promise if it becomes part of the national care service.

I was at the cross-party group on learning disability and lots of folk were concerned about the consultation’s scope and the particular needs of adult social care getting lost in that. What was the rationale for arriving at the scope in the consultation and why does it go beyond Feeley? How do you envisage the bill in comparison to the consultation, once we have processed the responses? I appreciate that there is a lot in those questions.

I thank the minister for that response. I am sure that he will be keen to come to the cross-party group on learning disability as well, so I will book him in for that.

The minister said that people want change. My experience from talking to people is that there is a desire for change but it is perhaps about cultural change rather than being solely focused on structural change.

My next question is—

Thank you, minister. I will follow on from that point. We are meeting during COP26, and the climate change aspect of clean air is linked to the public health duty. The “Clear the air” report from Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation highlighted the specific impact that poor air quality has on low income communities. I am keen to get a sense of what we are doing within the strategy to target those low income communities and areas of multiple deprivation, with regard to issues such as active travel and active transport.

I wonder if I might pivot on to a point that Colin Poolman raised. Everyone has spoken this morning about the challenges in retention. It is evidently a huge challenge to keep people in the system and to support people to remain in it. I am keen to understand from Colin Poolman whether he feels that the Scottish Government’s seasonal planning—the winter plan—has done much to support retention, particularly in nursing.

Thank you very much, convener. I appreciate that we are tight for time.

We are still living through the pandemic, and last winter was unprecedented. I am keen to understand how you feel about the lessons learned from last winter. Has the Government learned what worked and what did not work so well, and have those lessons been factored into the winter preparedness plan?

My question is also for Annie Gunner Logan. I have heard a lot about unpaid carers being in crisis because they feel that they cannot access the packages that they need or because they have been told by their local authority that their package will have to be scaled or cut back. In relation to care at home, that is the case not only for older people, but particularly for people who have learning disabilities. From the work that you do with providers and your survey work, do you have the sense that there is something of a crisis for unpaid carers, too?