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I disagree profoundly with Dr Gulhane that Covid has not had an impact: it most definitely has. He should spend some time talking to folks with lived experience and the folk who work in front-line services about the impact that it has had.

His point about digital services is important. During the past period we have adapted quickly, and digital services are among the things in which we have invested. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been provided, which has worked well for many folk. We will continue to invest in digital services.

There is no doubt that digital services work well for many people, but there will still be a need for group therapies and individual face-to-face consultations, as we move forward. We can learn a lot from what we have gone through, so we are considering how to embed that in services in order to create hybrid provision where it is required. However, as always, we need to take a person-centred approach and to see what is best for the individual. Much of that is down to what clinicians think is best for the individual.

Without a doubt, lessons have been learned from the pandemic: we will take full advantage of the technological changes that we have made to get treatment right for people.

I know that folk canna wait, and that is why we have already made additional investment. I will just run through some of that, if you do not mind, convener.

We invested an extra £1.1 million in the short breaks fund through Shared Care Scotland last year, and £300,000 in our Young Scot young carers package to support carers of all ages to enjoy some time away. As we know, however, some folk will not do that, so we need to encourage it. This year, we have already committed an extra £570,000 for the short breaks fund.

We also recently launched the £1.4 million ScotSpirit holiday voucher scheme for tourism businesses to sign up to help low-income families, unpaid carers and disadvantaged young folk to take a break from caring.

The other thing that I want to do in the short term will require co-operation from partners including the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and it is to get rid of eligibility criteria, particularly some of the local eligibility criteria that have cropped up. That is of major importance to delivery.

As Ms Callaghan rightly points out, unpaid carers have seen a decline in their mental health during this time. The national wellbeing hub that I talked about earlier is also open to carers. Yesterday we talked with managers from carer centres and, although a lot of work is being done to signpost folk to the hub, we still need to do more on that front. The national wellbeing hub also has a dedicated section for unpaid carers, and we are developing a dedicated page for young carers.

Those are some of the short-term things that we have done, are doing and will do.

Convener, you are right to point out that we are talking about remobilisation here, but folks have put in a hard shift over the course of all of this. Some services were disbanded during Covid, but the vast bulk of folk who were in those services moved and worked elsewhere. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who have kept our most vulnerable folk cared for during these very tricky 20 months.

I am sorry to repeat myself, but we are in a precarious time. In fact, it is the most precarious time. It would be fair to say that, in many areas, there are staff shortages. Some of that is down to illness and some of it is down to the fact of Brexit. One service that I spoke to had lost 40 per cent of its staff, who returned to their home countries after Brexit. That is inevitably going to have an impact.

We also know, because we have heard the stories, that other folks have left social care for the moment because they are tired and they have gone into what they see as easier jobs in hospitality. I hope—I think that we all hope—that those folks come back, and the national care service proposal gives us an opportunity to consider national pay bargaining for them, with a real hard look at pay and conditions and, beyond that, at opportunities for career progression.

We all have a duty to recognise that care is a profession. We have a wee bit of education to do with some folk around that, but we should continue—and I hope that the committee will continue—to refer to it as a profession as we move forward.

I turn to Ms Bell to talk about the folk who are involved in the remobilisation plan because I cannot remember off the top of my head.

Some solutions have to be found locally. That is why we are having conversations with partners across the country to mobilise everything and to ensure that we do the right thing.

We do not have the luxury of not involving everyone. There must be collaboration and co-operation between Government, local authorities, health and social care partnerships, NHS boards and the third sector so that we can do our level best for everyone in these precarious times.

The cabinet secretary, Humza Yousaf, recently announced additional resources for hospital at home. It is a great way forward. I recently had the pleasure of meeting teams in Edinburgh and Lanarkshire. The deputy chief medical officer, Graham Ellis, is from Lanarkshire and has been a great advocate for hospital at home. That is why we are investing to expand the programme further, which is a good thing.

I cannot give the retention numbers off the top of my head, but we will furnish the committee with that information.

I have spoken to a lot of social workers. Last week, I spoke to criminal justice social workers, and I have spoken to social workers in children and families services and adult services over the past few weeks and months. It would be fair to say that there is a lot of pressure on them, as there is on everyone else, and things have been very difficult for them at points, particularly during the lockdown periods, because of the way that they work. However, folks have behaved admirably, and they have done amazing things over the piece.

In conversations with social workers, one of the key messages from them is that front-line staff should be more empowered. We must do that. Social workers sometimes feel that they are the poor relation of other professions, and we have to change that. Part of the conversation in the consultation is about whether we should move to a social work agency, which was Derek Feeley’s suggestion. There is that issue to consider, and we will look at the analysis on that issue.

One big bugbear of social workers is that they feel bound by the eligibility criteria, which are often set locally. As I said, we must work with COSLA in the short term to eradicate some of that, because we are not doing good by the professionals and front-line staff, or by the individuals and families whom they serve.

There is much that we need to do there. I touched on that earlier with regard to our ambition and vision for this parliamentary term to put mental health link workers into GP surgeries. I know—as others around the table will know—that, where that has happened already in pilot schemes, it has made a huge difference in relation to linkages. There is absolutely no doubt about that. That will make a big difference as we move forward, and we will talk more about that in the very near future.

Sure. Each local authority has done things slightly differently. There will be a lot of learning from that, because we will be able to see where performance is better, and to export and share best practice.

We have also provided local authorities with moneys for prevention work with young people. I have been keeping a close eye on that. Some local authorities have moved quickly to support services and to establish new services where they are required, while others are lagging behind; I am afraid to say that a few local authorities have not done very much at all. We are keeping a close eye on that, because I want to ensure that investment reaches the community groups that were—and still are—at the front line during lockdown. They have done great work in preventing young folk from entering acute services.

We need to look at a number of things. I have already mentioned that we will be doubling the budget over the course of this parliamentary session, and we have to ensure that every penny is well spent. At the moment, we have pilots going on in Ayrshire and Highland to support folks with experience of suicide. I think that the findings from those pilots will be very important and that they might well lead to a national roll-out.

I am also really keen to explore how much more we can do in communities. I have already mentioned the St Mirren event, but I have recently come into contact with a lot of small groups that are doing sterling work. The question is how we can build on that work.

Yesterday morning, I met the family of Chris Mitchell, who are trustees of the Chris Mitchell Foundation. Chris was a footballer whose professional career ended because of injury and who then carried out suicide. Some of the work that the foundation has been doing with football clubs could be expanded. Indeed, the Scottish Professional Football League has been carrying out other work that we should be building on. The fact is that we need to reach certain areas of the population that our normal health messaging sometimes does not get to, and we have to continue to adapt and think outside the box with regard to what is required in order to get this right.

There is work to do, but we should also recognise the immense partnership involving the Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the national suicide prevention leadership group.