Dave Thompson MSP

More great news. The additional £40 million per year identified by Lord Sutherland in his report as vital for the delivery of Free Personal and Nursing Care (FPNC) across Scotland will be met by the Scottish Government.

Following concerns about the affordability of FPNC, Lord Sutherland was asked to look at the total resources available to implement the policy; the distribution of the total resources amongst local authorities; the impact of the withdrawal of Attendance Allowance to pensioners in receipt of FPNC; and the long-term sustainability of the policy.

His report confirmed that the FPNC policy has both widespread support and is delivering real benefits to tens of thousands of older people. He also shared the concerns that both the SNP Government, and local government, have raised about the clarity and funding of the policy.

The black hole in the budget was caused by the UK Government withdrawing Attendance Allowance when free personal care was introduced and the Sutherland Report concluded that they were wrong to stop those payments for residents in Scotland, while continuing to make it available for those living in the rest of the UK.

It is clearly wrong that the Scottish Budget should bear these costs so the Scottish Government will seek the reinstatement of the funding and have asked for this issue to be included on the agenda of the next Joint Ministerial Committee meeting with Ministers from around the UK.

This is another example of the SNP Government standing up for Scotland where others meekly gave up and at stake are funds lost to Scotland which are currently valued at £30 million pounds per year which will go a long way to balance the additional £40 million just announced.

One of the pleasures of being an MSP is that you get to see behind the scenes of many of our local organisations and last week my wife and I visited Children 1st at their Killen Family Resource Centre on the Black Isle. It is a fantastic resource and we learned a lot as we were taken round by Les who introduced us to the small but dedicated staff.

At Killen children and young people are helped to overcome the effects of abuse - physical, emotional, sexual - and are helped to create a future that they can look forward to. The children are helped to understand that they are not to blame for what has happened and are given skills to protect themselves in the future.

These are issues which are too often swept under the carpet with many people just not wanting to believe that they happen, but they do. The staff at Children 1st do an amazing job and deserve as much support as we can give them, so next time you see an appeal for Children 1st please give as much as you can for a very worthwhile cause.

Finally, and I will resist the temptation to mention Wendy, a very important and radical report on crofting has been published this week which I welcome.

As part of its radical approach the Shucksmith committee has called for the Crofters Commission to be abolished and to be replaced by a Federation of Crofting Boards, which would consist of seven to ten elected Local Crofting Boards.

The report also calls for development of crofting to be the responsibility of a new crofting and community development body, probably part of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and for an enhanced grant and loan scheme for crofters to be introduced, to allow crofters to build houses or improve their properties.

Professor Shucksmith has set the ball rolling and I hope we can all now work together in Parliament to secure a bright future for crofting.