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This might seem counterintuitive, but would a four-day week benefit your organisation? After all, in the majority of cases in which such an approach has been implemented, productivity has improved. You might well think that you are at a point at which productivity cannot increase any more, but if you are talking about staff wanting to reutilise their skills and move more flexibly around the organisation, I think that there would be some opportunities in that respect. Has that been looked at in the context of your organisation?

Thank you.

Alan and Stephen, both of you have mentioned the importance of wellbeing among staff. Stephen, I think that you said that empathy and resilience are strong values. I am trying to contrast that with quite a stark figure for the level of staff turnover, which I think has gone up from 5.1 to 9.4 per cent over the past year.

Is that a bit of a red light for you? What is the story underneath that turnover? What themes are coming out of the exit interviews with staff? Are there issues underlying the decimation of people in the industry or where they want to go next? I am trying to second-guess what those issues are. Is it a natural consequence of Covid that people are now thinking about the next position in their careers? I do not know. It is tempting to look at a figure like that and hear alarm bells. What is the story behind that? On the face of it, you are losing people.

Okay. It was useful to unpack that. I am much more reassured now.

You mentioned the staff surveys—the pulse surveys and the wider annual surveys. One thing that has come out of that is a series of graphs comparing Audit Scotland with appointed firms.

Whether it is easy to make an exact equivalence in that respect is, I suppose, debatable, but on the face of it, staff in all those firms—and, indeed, your organisation—say that they all feel relatively well encouraged and supported in doing their work. However, there seems to be a bit of a gap between Audit Scotland and the appointed firms with regard to the resources that you have, and a noticeable gap between what Audit Scotland staff and staff at the appointed firms are saying about training and development, with the latter seeming to be more satisfied in both areas. What is your response to that issue, given that it seems to be flashing amber, if not red?

Thank you for sharing those thoughts.

I want to reflect on something that you said about transport. You said that there are some people who are living in the Highlands who feel a bit isolated and that there are people who need to travel to get advice and support. You also spoke about families who need to access schools that are not close by. You will be aware that, in Scotland, we have concessionary bus travel for over-60s and under-22s. Have Ukrainian people who are living here been able to access those schemes? What do you think about the idea of extending concessionary travel—free travel—on buses to all people who have been displaced and are living here temporarily?

Mr Mankovskyi was clear that the vast majority of Ukrainians want to return home, but I also hear from the advice centres that some may have been displaced several times by war and may wish to remain here and look for longer-term employment in the UK. How are you factoring that in? There is some complexity about visas and UK Government policy. How are you supporting people who want to remain in the UK and in Scotland?

Thank you for joining us this morning. We know that you are exceptionally busy dealing with casework and supporting people.

The previous time that you came to the committee, we talked about the Ukrainian seasonal workers who are here. At the time, the details of the Ukraine extension scheme were just coming out. I want to get your thoughts on how the scheme has worked. Have people been able to apply for it, have they got their visa extensions and are there any particular forms of advice and support that people still need?

My final question is about transport. Earlier, we heard from Mr Mankovskyi about the challenges that people face, and the minister has spoken about the need for independence and dignity for those who are living here. Some people are living in quite isolated situations, particularly in rural areas, where they need to travel to access advice and support. They often need to travel to access school and other facilities as well. Although some will be eligible for national entitlement cards or free bus travel, there is a big gap in the middle.

Minister, you have spoken about how councils are trying to fill that gap by, for example, buying tickets and having those available at hubs. Would it not just be a lot simpler for us to extend the national entitlement card scheme to displaced people in Scotland? The current entitlement scheme extends to up to 2.6 million people. We are talking about around 4,500 Ukrainian people, which is a number that is akin to a rounding error in terms of the budget that is available for concessionary travel in Scotland. Clearly, extending the scheme would be transformational for people who are here and do not have access to cars or other transport advantages that we have. They are probably the most needy in terms of access to transport, for independence, dignity and everything else.

Are you in contact with employers of seasonal workers? Are there any issues with accommodation, particularly in terms of bringing families over and accommodation being suitable? Have there been issues with finding suitable accommodation for extended families?

When might you be able to get that over the line? Some of the complexity around the national entitlement card has been about providing documentary evidence to the Improvement Service in order to get the card. I presume that displaced people are some of the most highly documented people in our society so, in technical terms, it should be relatively simple, although I understand that, to extend the franchise further, a committee might need to agree to an updated statutory instrument.

Can you give us a horizon for when the Government might come to a decision? We are now entering the summer, and people need that entitlement. As you said, the number of people is less than 4,500 and probably only 2,500, given that both ends of the age spectrum already have the entitlement. As Mr Mankovskyi said, it is the families in the middle—the mums with kids—who are really struggling at the moment. It is a small gap, so when can we fill it?