Claire Stevens, Voluntary Health Scotland, analyses Tuesday's parliamentary debate on health and gives her thoughts on our new MSPs’ interest and perspectives on the subject

Cabinet secretary for health Shona Robison opened the debate by saying that the government has a mandate to ensure health and social care remain at the top of their agenda.

She would not shy away, she said, from the difficult issues of improving population health, tackling health inequalities, ensuring parity between mental and physical health, and shifting the balance of care to people’s homes and communities. Improving the population’s health and addressing health inequalities were economic and education issues as much as a health issue, she added.

She pledged cross-portfolio working, cited the outcomes of her national conversation on health as an influence and the new national clinical strategy as health’s blueprint for the next 15 years. She restated the Government’s 2020 vision of people living longer, healthier lives at home or in homely settings.

The anticipated review of the number, structure and regulation of health boards and their relationship with local councils was announced, along with measures and investment to boost workforce capacity (nurses, midwives and paramedics). The government’s commitment to a living wage for social care workers was repeated.

If you were hoping for the cabinet secretary herself to major on the crucial role that the third sector plays as a partner in creating and sustaining a healthier Scotland, your hopes would have been dashed.

Claire Stevens

What the press subsequently billed as the wholesale dismantling of NHS targets was the cabinet secretary’s pledge to review its approach to targets with a view to publishing a document on the way forward in 2016-17.

Cancer treatment waiting times were a recurring theme for Labour during the debate and Anas Sawar said a review cannot be a way of avoiding failures with missed targets.

For a more intelligent consideration of the targets debate than the one offered up by the tabloids, check out Measuring Success: Principles for a New Approach to Improving Health and Wellbeing in Scotland, launched by the RCN at an event on 8 June, where Scottish director Theresa Fyffe revealed she expects to be closely involved in the review and wants to ensure the expert group goes beyond ‘the usual suspects’.

Announcements in the parliamentary debate that also got the voluntary health sector talking included the creation of 250 community link workers for GP practices, a 10-year child and adolescent health and wellbeing strategy, a 10-year plan to transform mental health care and a new three year dementia strategy.

You might also have clocked the Conservatives’ suggestions that it was time to review universal free prescription charges and time to consider fines for patients who repeatedly miss NHS appointments (Donald Cameron). No doubt these are ideas that our sector will be keen to debate with the new shadow cabinet secretary for health and sport.

If you were hoping for the cabinet secretary herself to major on the crucial role that the third sector plays as a partner in creating and sustaining a healthier Scotland, your hopes would have been dashed.

Reference to our sector fell mainly to opposition MSPs who between them drew attention to a wide range of national and local charities and their work, including VHS’s call for a comprehensive health inequalities strategy (thank you, Labour’s Monica Lennon).

Local voluntary effort was praised by the SNP’s Tom Arthur, spotlighting Recovery Across Mental Health and The Breastfeeding Network in South Renfrewshire, and the SNP’s Ash Denholm highlighted local community organisations in Craigmillar, Edinburgh - Caring in Craigmillar and the Venchie Centre.

Having defected from his previous career in the children’s charity sector, Alex Cole-Hamilton now finds himself Liberal Democrat spokesman on health and he made sure he highlighted Macmillan Cancer Support’s national cancer patient experience survey.

But star prize goes to the Greens’ Alison Johnstone for mentioning SCVO, Inclusion Scotland, the British Psychological Society, Obesity Action Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust in one breath. She said: “Each organisation has specific asks and a particular focus, but they share common asks too, such as mental health treatment having parity with treatment for physical health.”

We can all agree with that!

Claire Stevens is chief officer at Voluntary Health Scotland.