 chi'n esaien canoedd yn gyhoeddIG? Felly mwch i chi'n ddylai fy nhw i ddim yn gweithgweithio ac mae bod yn gymryd adults o ddeiligiant ar gyfer y m torlau mewn lliwyr. Maen nhw dwg ni wedi bwrw i ddim yn gweithgweithio swyddan nhw ar yr aelod Dalton M Wyatt Hundert ac hwnnw Three зем兩個. Erniad, rydym ni bod wedi ch� fluffy ym Llyfrmaender i fi'n i chi'n desphaith wrth i draf mai'r swyddan nhw, o'r bwysigiau i datblyg pethau i dweud y gwaith o'r ddweud cyfnodau i'r wlad, a fel hyd o'r fathod o'r ddiolch pethau'r cyfnod. Pmithöffon y dynach yr ysgol ym Mhwzydd yng Nghymhwyllian Ysgolwch ein Feeling. Ettai, mae geslädd erbyn i'r fathod hyn y peth o'n bwysig i ddwyllian yw Ysgolwch, ond mae ydw i ddw i ddweud. Yn gyffredinolwyr hwnnw, ysgolwch ym mhwyllian y ddweud, I ask the sweet buttons and I call on Paul Sweeney to open the debate. Up to seven minutes, please, Mr Sweeney. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I rise to mark Mary Curie's great daffodil appeal, which runs throughout the month of March. It is an opportunity to raise awareness and funds to help Mary Curie to continue to carry out their vital work across Scotland. For Mary Curie, she is Scotland's largest provider of end-of-life care and palliative care for adults. Indeed, last year, the charity supported 8,000 terminally ill people in Scotland to die with dignity, ensuring that they are comfortable, well looked after and able to die in a place of their choosing. Mary Curie operates in 31 out of 32 local authorities in Scotland. However, service levels vary across the country. Miles Glasgow and Edinburgh are served by dedicated Mary Curie hospices. Outside of the central belt, it is largely hospice care at home. Mary Curie services take a significant amount of strain off of the national health service, but commissions from health and social care partnerships only cover 40 per cent of their costs. As the demand for palliative care increases in Scotland, with 10,000 more people requiring palliative care needs by 2040, that is a 20 per cent increase from the number at present. Funding for health and social care partnerships is actually being cut. Nine out of 10 Scots will need palliative care at the end of their lives, so this is something that every citizen has a stake in. Scotland's increasing population of people over 85 years of age is having the biggest bearing on increasing demand for hospice care. Unfortunately, by 2040, it is estimated that dementia as the main cause of death will rise by 185 per cent. Recruiting and retaining staff in Mary Curie hospices is proving to be difficult. Hospices simply cannot match the agenda for change pay rise, which was rightly given to NHS staff, because no additional funding was made available to them. Is therefore critical that, with demand for palliative care rising in the coming years, we have a more sustainable and fairer funding settlement for the hospices so that Mary Curie can continue to be there for people when they need it? It is no good simply having a negative feedback loop where people are stuck in acute hospitals, dying in inappropriate conditions, often without dignity, when they could have a hospice bed but they cannot be staff because the staff are not there. It is a perverse and cruel situation for people to be in. That is why initiatives such as the Great Daffodil appeal are so vital to Mary Curie. When people donate or take part in fundraising efforts, they make a significant contribution to ensuring the comfort and care that is available for those who need it at the most critical moment in their lives. The work of Mary Curie goes beyond palliative and end-of-life care. I want to pay particular tribute to the extraordinary volunteers that give up their time and become Mary Curie companions. They are trained to provide support for people approaching the end of their lives as well as their family. These volunteers are truly inspiring. They are there for people at the most difficult of times, providing practical and emotional support such as help around the house, doing the shopping or talking through how people are feeling faced with such a devastating diagnosis and the end of their lives. The dying and the margins research conducted by Mary Curie and the University of Glasgow found that one in three working-aged people who die do so in poverty. It is clear that deprivation is exacerbated at the end of life. I feel that that is particularly cruel injustice to so many Scots. I've been personally affected by the stories shared in that exhibition that came to Parliament some months ago. They should invigorate and infuriate all of us. It should encourage us and inspire us to be stronger advocates for our constituents so that they have the housing that is fit for purpose and the social and financial support that they need so that they are empowered to make real decisions with real agency about where they choose to end their lives. Last year I had the opportunity to go along to visit the Mary Curie hospice at Stogpill in Glasgow. Indeed, it is a place that I grew up with. It was the local charity that we supported at school in Turnbull High School in Bishop Riggs where I was educated. It was particularly interesting to see the results of the huge fundraising effort, probably the biggest public fundraising effort that has happened in Glasgow in recent years, to raise £16 million to rebuild the hospice 14 years ago, half of which came from evening times readers in Glasgow. It signifies the importance of that hospice to people across the city. I was particularly struck by a patient that I met there from Glasgow's East End that very sadly passed away just a couple of days after I visited. She had a difficult upbringing. She had a chaotic childhood. She had used drugs. She had very difficult circumstances. She finally felt that she had got her life back on track. She was in a good place with her two teenage sons. She got what she thought was tonsillitis or a throat infection. She went along to seek help at her GP. She persisted for over a year with a chronic throat condition. Unfortunately, she was just fobbed off and not taken seriously. When she was finally able to get a diagnosis, it was terminal. She was facing the end of her life just in her late 40s. I believe that had she been from a more affluent part of the city and not the East End, her concerns would have been taken more seriously. She would have been approached with more agency from day one and she would be still alive today. Cases like hers put the dying and the margins research into a stark perspective, certainly for me, that we must do better. That is the essence of social justice for me. Having a conversation with her in those moments of deep frustration and a deep sense of grief of the life that she was robbed of will never leave me. That is why the great Daffodil appeal is an opportunity to promote Marie Curie and all the work that they do to improve people's lives in the most devastating and difficult circumstances. I hope that as many people as possible will support this year's appeal. Thank you. Mr Sweeney, we will now move to the open debate. I remind members that the backbench speeches are up to four minutes. I call Bob Doris to be followed by Alexander Stewart. I thank Paul for securing today's debate, which marks the 1 of the 2024 great Daffodil appeal. I am privileged to have a wonderful Marie Curie hospice in my constituency at Stalpill. As community of the cross-party group in part of Cair, I am well aware of the fantastic work that Marie Curie not only does within hospices, but also the service provided across many local authorities within people's own homes. The dedication, care and compassion of Marie Curie makes a very real difference to those living with terminal conditions often approaching end of life and important, of course, also to their families. We are also very fortunate to have a dedicated team of fundraisers within Marie Curie, many volunteers who raise much-needed resources for many of the services that they offer. Often much of the donations received will be from the family and friends who no longer are with us, but who have benefitted greatly from the services of Marie Curie. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who makes the donation, no matter how large or small. That sits at the heart of the great Daffodil appeal, the warmth and affection with which Marie Curie is held. On the symptoms of me, I will be hosting an event with Marie Curie in the Garden lobby of the Scottish Parliament, which will celebrate the undoubted success of the great Daffodil appeal. I hope that people will hope to see members at that event. Every year the great Daffodil appeal is important in securing much-needed resource. However, this year it will have never been so important. The financial pressures that our network of hospices are under are very significant indeed. It has been challenging for hospices to match the very acompay awards that the Scottish Government has made to Scotland's NHS and agenda for chain workforce. Finding funds to do so has put a particular pressure on reserves and yearly running costs, as has other factors such as wider inflationary pressures and energy costs. The Scottish Government and Scotland's integrated joint boards have been unable to respond to those pressures in a way that has been able to fully alleviate or adequately mitigate those pressures, unfortunately. I acknowledge unprecedented pressures on Scotland's budget and I also anticipate that our hospice network will continue to do a wonderful job in the year ahead despite those challenges. However, the pressures will not go away and there needs to be an agreed and sustainable funding model for Marie Curie and the wider hospice network in the years ahead. I very much hope that the new Scottish palliative care strategy will take account of that need for financial sustainability going forward. Indeed, I also hope that our new national care service will also entrench within it the explicit right to palliative care for the people of Scotland and drive adequate funding to the sector accordingly in a fair, equitable and sustainable way. The minister knows that that is something that I am keen to work with the Government on and we have discussed it previously and I hope that we can continue those discussions. However, I want to return to the great daffodil appeal because the hospice sector has, from its inception, always sought to fundraise for a significant portion of the money that they invest in services. They are up for that challenge, they expect that to be the case and that will not and it should not change but that is different from adequate support from the public sector for financial sustainability. Both those things can live together. The great daffodil appeal is fundamental to those efforts for Marie Curie. Marie Curie is a vital and valuable partner with Scotland's aging population by 2040. There will be an additional 10,000 people each year needing palliative and end-of-life support. That will be 60,000 in total each year at that stage. We need to grow the hospice network and we need to innovate new models of delivering palliative care. Both those things are required. As I said in my member's debate in December, I know that Marie Curie is up for that challenge because they have done it successfully before. So when people support this year's great daffodil appeal, they are not just supporting those approaches at the end of life and their loved ones today, they are investing in the future of palliative and end-of-life services for tomorrow. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Doris. I now call Alexander Stewart to be followed by Carol Malkin. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to be able to contribute this afternoon and congratulate Paul Swinney on securing this debate. For many years I have also, as others in the chamber, been a great supporter of Marie Curie. Everyone deserves the right care and support at the end of life. It is tireless compassion that takes place and that happens across all parts of Scotland and very much within my region of Mid-Scotland and Fife. However, the amazing work that they do is fully committed, Presiding Officer. As we have heard today, the great daffodil appeal is a phenomenal success for that charity. We are all wearing the emblems this afternoon to do that. That has complete recognition by so many individuals and organisations. That is to be commended. I also know that Marie Curie is the largest palliative care and end-of-life care here in Scotland and across the United Kingdom. Last March, I, as many others did, supported the Marie Curie funding appeal that was here within the Scottish Parliament and met once again with the staff and the volunteers who give of their time and their talents to support those individuals and provide the care to people living with a terminal illness and also for the families and carers that support them as well. Back then, Presiding Officer, I heard of the number of people that were being supported. We have heard that today already, that in excess of 8,000 terminally ill people across Scotland are being supported in their own homes and within the hospices that are taking place. That is a fundamental process that the charity deals with and how they manage. The figures started to look like they are going to continue to increase. As Paul Sweeney commented earlier, there is a massive increase within the elderly population and those individuals who require it. In my area, when Stirling and Clack manage alone, over 250 visits were made by the charity for community nursing services within support of individuals within their own homes. Back in December 2019, Marie Curie published and released highlights that two thirds of Scots will die either from that or in care homes or in hospices by the time of 2040 if current trends are to be continued. The research that Marie Curie has had through the University of Edinburgh and King's College in London also warned about radical investment in community health and social care being required to ensure that individuals are supported because if not, there will be a continual rise in those who are dying within hospital situations and circumstances. That is something that we want to try to alleviate. I hope that the minister mentions that in her summing up. In conclusion, we need to ensure that Marie Curie nurses will be able to be supportive of everyone in Scotland if they can do that. We have heard today about the difficulties that we have when it comes to the funding of pay awards and the difficulties because of the cost of living and things that are affecting each and every one of us. The charity raises around £250,000 a week to deliver this incredible work and front-line cover. That in itself is a major achievement and needs to be commended. I look forward to hearing from the minister and others who make contributions this afternoon because it is vitally important that Marie Curie is achieving and wants to do as much as it can to ensure that a peaceful, pain-free death and what individuals receive who have that commitment and the support that they give to those people who work for those affected by dying with cancer and the death and bereavement that takes place from those individuals is also vitally important. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Sure. I now call Cara Mocken to be followed by Julian Mackay. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to my colleague Paul Swinney for bringing this very important debate to the chamber. Presiding Officer, I am not surprised that Paul Swinney has chosen this as his member's debate as we've discussed on many occasions the excellent work of Marie Curie and other hospices many times. Paul Swinney has fought with passion and I think today has spoken with compassion to raise the on-going issue of funding and sustainable resourcing of these essential services. As he mentioned, less than 40 per cent of Marie Curie costs are covered by commissioned income. Those events are so important, but can I be clear, Presiding Officer? The Parliament is right to encourage as many people as possible to support the Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal this year as in others, but it is my belief that this should be to promote the good work and offer people the opportunity to make what donations they can, but it should not be to allow us in this place of power to ignore the need to properly resource these essential palliative care services. Of course. I thank the member for giving when I think we've spoken and a few of these debates in the previous months. Karen Watkins said, I pay tribute to the work that you're also doing to highlight this issue. I agree with Karen Watkins about the sustainable funding mod, but does Carol also agree with me that the hospice sector believes that fundraising a large part of the resource that they spend is a vital part of what they do and they're not seeking to dilute that. What they're wanting is that sustainable leverage funding from Government for the future needs that we'll have to plan for. Karen Watkins. Of course. I recognise that fundraising is part of the way in which they promote the cause and the way in which they make sure people are aware of the sensitive issues around us. Of course I do that, but I just think that we need to not allow these things to detract from the fact that we should discuss how we make this sustainable and how we make sure the funding is there, particularly as a point you raised along with my colleague, as the need for these resources increases. We have to, in this place of power, take our responsibility in that. I have said this before, but it's the only way I know how to say this in order that I can express my feelings. Everyone deserves as pain-free and peaceful a death as possible surrounded by those that love them and a place that comforts them and that the choice is theirs. I think that we can all agree that at some point we will be touched by the death of a loved one. Should that loved one need end-of-life care over a period of time, palliative care, we would all wish that to be provided in the best way possible. With trained and sensitive care staff who have the knowledge, time and training needed to support both the physical deterioration but also the emotional needs to our loved one and our wider family. If the chamber would bear with me, I want to take this opportunity to mention a meeting that I had today with Paul Sweeney with Breen Tumor Research. They raised, among other issues with us, the impact of families and their wider friend network on this, which is a diagnosis often given to young people, young women, who have families and their life ahead of them. I want to thank Theo and Thomas for coming to the Parliament and for talking to us about these important issues, both about how we support people emotionally but also about the wider way in which we support research into those often very serious and conditions that can cause end-of-life. It is heartening, of course, that Mary Curie is there. We do, as we have said many times in this chamber, support the hospice care at home teams and the two hospices that they have. I recognise that I am running out of time. I want to mention about the inequalities, but they have been done. I will just end on. I simply cannot accept that someone dying cannot get the care and comfort that they deserve. In a time of need like the end of life, surely we must all be looking to find solutions to providing all the care and comfort necessary. I know that the Daffodil appeal helps to get towards that aim, and I close it at that point. I thank Paul Sweeney for securing this time for this important annual debate. The great Daffodil appeal is the most prominent awareness-raising appeal for Mary Curie and runs throughout March. I also want to take those opportunities, as others have, to thank the staff and volunteers of Mary Curie. I also want to take those opportunities, as others have, to thank the staff and volunteers of Mary Curie, who deliver services in 31 of 32 local authorities, including their two hospices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and they at home services for those who choose to die at home. Volunteers provide support through their companion service, tackling isolation and loneliness. Companions also support families after someone has died. That is an invaluable offering, the friendly, familiar support after the death of a loved one. It is valued by many families around the country. They also provide support for planning for end-of-life. I have previously raised in the chamber in other debates that we need, as a country, to do more to support and encourage conversations about what a good death looks like for individuals. As is noted in the motion, this for many is a desire to die at home. The way that palliative care is delivered is already having to adapt to that demand to die at home, as well as our ageing population. The motion notes, however, that the demand is going to increase significantly by 2040, with 60,000 people dying with palliative care needs, which is 10,000 more per year than now. A further pressure will undoubtedly come from the more complex nature of the health conditions that patients have as a result of people living longer. That will, at the current point, be difficult to predict for the future, but the motion suggests that that will be around an 82 per cent increase, but that will vary undoubtedly by local authority and by socio-economic factors. That needs to be kept under review and services supported to adapt to deliver support to those in the greatest need. The diversity of palliative care services and the conditions that they can support are vast, but I do not know if the public, especially those who have never had contact with those services, have an understanding of that diversity. Conditions such as heart failure, for example, which can be managed for a long period of time, could receive palliative care when it is needed, and amplifying the diversity of the sector is something that I believe we should all do wherever we can. As the co-community of the cross-party group on carers, it would also be remiss of me to fail to mention the support that carers need when a loved one is receiving palliative care. The financial, emotional and physical burden is one that many carers take on without a second thought to support the person they love. Marie Curie, as many others do, provides really valuable support to families, but we need to ensure that those families are meaningfully involved in the end-of-life planning, that they understand what will happen, what support is there, and, crucially, being allowed to express how they want to be supported along with their loved one. More will need to be done in the coming years to support palliative care, to ensure that everyone receives the fantastic level of care that many people around the chamber have articulated this afternoon. I want to end, Presiding Officer, by once again thanking staff, volunteers and all those who will donate to the Great Daft I'll Appeal this year. I call Liam McArthur to be followed by David Torrance. I, like others, start by paying tribute to all the Marie Curie nurses, staff and volunteers for the Herculean efforts. They put in on behalf of dying people, but, importantly, always of their families as well. I acknowledge a number of them in the public gallery. They are very welcome to this debate. I thank too Paul Sweeney for allowing Parliament to have this debate and acknowledge his strong personal commitment to the issues that we are discussing. I think anybody reading the Marie Curie briefing for this debate cannot escape the stark warning about projected demand for these services going forward. This is, I think, a product, obviously, of an ageing population, but I think Paul Sweeney was right to suggest it. Therefore, we are all investing in this. We all have a stake in this issue. I think another point that came out to me very clearly was that it's not just about the demand and the numbers, it's about the complexity as well, that many people are living longer but with comorbidities that make that treatment more complex. I think that Gillian Mackay was right to talk to you about the diversity that is required in this sector. It covers a broad sweep, it covers in patient hospice, hospice at home, but also I think that Paul Sweeney was right to draw attention to the companion service, which I think does so much to address the needs not just of individuals themselves but their families and addresses that problem of isolation. Therefore, we are seeing a recognition of the increasing funding strain that is going to be placed on Marie Curie going forward. I think that Bob Doris was absolutely right to say that this will continue to be a mixed model where that fundraising effort is an integral part, an important part, of the work that Marie Curie does and they do not want to roll back from that, but I think that the funding requirements to provide that security, given the demands that we are likely to see on the services, is absolutely essential. I noted earlier this morning that the House of Commons Health Committee produced a report on end-of-life choices and, indeed, assisted dying. It drew rightly attention to many of the same issues that Marie Curie does in terms of the patchiness of funding in terms of some of the patchiness of access to services as well. I drew encouragement, too, from the fact that the committee found that there was no evidence that in jurisdictions where there was assisted dying laws that there was a diversion away from palliative care services. Indeed, in many instances, what you saw was a reinforcement of the funding, allowing for greater access and improvement of those services. I would want to take a moment to acknowledge the engagement from Marie Curie with me in the context of my member's bill on assisted dying that I hope to introduce to Parliament very shortly. I really have not got time, Mr Doris, I am afraid. I look forward to continuing to engage with him once the bill is introduced. For now, I want to again pay tribute to the work that all those staff, volunteers and nurses do. The contribution that is made by the wider public through the Great Daffodil appeal, which I am sure will enjoy overwhelming public support, again this year, is to provide the caring comfort that dying people need and, frankly, deserve. Thank you very much indeed. I call David Torrance to be followed by Rosie Grant. Mr Torrance. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank Paul Sweeney for bringing his motion to the chamber today. It is also a pleasure and a great privilege to speak about Marie Curie and the invaluable services of Pride. Today is no exception. Marie Curie's Great Daffodil Appeal is an issue that embodies compassion, resilience and community spirit. The appeal runs throughout March each year, championing the cause of providing care and emotional support to those at the end of lives across Scotland. The Great Daffodil Appeal is not just a fundraising campaign, it is a symbol of unity and support by simply donating to where a daft open thousands of people across Scotland demonstrate their solidarity with ways affected by terminal illness. The body and the spirit of community supported that Scotland is renowned for, volunteers for their invaluable contributions ensure that Marie Curie can continue to offer its crucial services to those in need. In my constituency of Gercordia across Fife, Marie Curie has been saving grace to hundreds of families over the past years. In 2022-23, in Fife, Marie Curie made thousands of visits to support terminal ill patients. Marie Curie visited over 500 patients, and NHS Fife is incredible lucky that 33 Marie Curie volunteers helped me to deliver such essential services to my constituents. I hear first hand from constituents about the impact that Marie Curie has made in Gercordia. Marie Curie nurses and volunteers have been comforting presence during difficult times for many families across Fife. We have heard not just medical care but emotional support, understanding and listening ear to woes in their most vulnerable moments. I am constantly in awe of my community on the impressive fundraising efforts that are held annually across the area and our community group's rare awareness every year to support those living with terminal illness. I would like to pay tribute to them and recognise the crucial role we play in organising fundraising events and activities and helping to raise awareness. As many will be aware, NHS Fife launched a fully integrated hospice at home service run by Marie Curie and NHS Fife, which has reduced the hospital costs of end-of-care life. With Fife's larger, older population and some very rural areas, hospital admissions, whenever possible, is always an important name. Response to hospital at home in Fife has been incredible. People supported by service experience 40 per cent fewer hospital admissions and 68 per cent fewer visits to A&E and were two and a half times more likely to die in the comfort of their home. However, the cost of delivering this crucial and invaluable work is increasing year on year. Prepared by our Asian population, Marie Curie research projects at 2040 and 10,000 more people will be dying with pallidive care needs. That represents a 20 per cent increase in the demand and 90 per cent of all deaths in Scotland. The complexities of multimorbidities and significant rise in dimension-rated deaths and the shift towards community settings for end-of-life care underscores the urgent need for support and innovative solutions. Our part of care services must be fully supported to respond to rising demand, stemming from these changing demographics. That is one of the main reasons why a great daffodil appeal presents such a crucial opportunity to support one of Scotland's greatest community assets. Support garnered from the great daffodil appeal goes towards several of Marie Curie's important programmes. Hospice care at home, information and support services, in-person hospice and companion and home support are just a few extraordinary initiatives that Marie Curie provides across Scotland. In closing, I urge all of us to support the great daffodil appeal in any way we can, be it through volunteering, fundraising or simply wearing a daffodil pin. Let us unite in our efforts to provide hope, care and support to all wars in their final moments and their families. Together we can make a difference in their lives of many demonstrating the true spirit of companionship and community that defines Scotland. Thank you Mr Torrance. I call Rhoda Grant to be followed by Emma Harper and Ms Grant. I want to thank Paul Sweeney for securing this debate and also commend the work of Marie Curie and wish them well with the daffodil appeal. As well as their care services and they made 1,532 visits to areas across the NHS Highland area last year, I also want to commend their work in raising awareness of end-of-life care. Because palliative care is not help to die, it's actually help to live. When days are few, they are precious and we need to savor each and every one of them. And that shouldn't depend on a person's wealth or where they live. Marie Curie and Glasgow University's report Dying at the Margins shines a light on health inequalities that occur right through to end-of-life care. There's a 24-year difference between healthy life expectancy between those who live in our most and least deprived communities. That's why I'm proposing a right to food bill because diet is so important to health and to life expectancy and I hope that that would make a difference. Because not only are the less wealthy more likely to die younger, they're also less likely to have the facilities they need to make them comfortable. Even heat is unattainable. 94 per cent of people are concerned about terminally ill family and friends being able to pay for energy and that's simply not right at the end of life. Those living in rural areas are also far less likely to be able to access palliative care because there are very few health professionals and people live a distance from services and is often down to the dedication and goodwill of very few health professionals that allow people the ability to be cared for at the end of life and indeed choose to die at home and I pay tribute to them. Paul Sweeney highlighted the difficulties Marie Curie faced with increasing demand increasing costs and decreasing funding. They ask for funding to be put on a formal footing to cut down the time spent on negotiations for funding of care. People ask that the Scottish child payment is extended to the term liel with dependent children and this would be targeted to those in most need given the lower life expectancy of those who live in the most deprived areas. For too long the need for palliative care has been largely ignored even though most of us will need it. People need to be able to choose where to die and indeed have a right to die at home. It is important for a person whose life is drawing to a close to have good quality palliative care but it is also really important for their loved ones to have that support. So presiding officer good quality palliative care in a place of our choosing should be available at the end of life as should support for family and friends and we all need the right to palliative care. I now call Emma Harper who will be the last speaker in the open debate. I welcome this debate and thank Paul Swinney on securing it this afternoon. The great Daffodil appeal is one of the most iconic and recognised funders and drives of the year and people all over the country wear their yellow Daffodil badges as we are today with a sense of pride they are supporting Maricuri to deliver their world class palliative care services in our communities and their hospices. I thank all the nurses and staff and volunteers that are part of Maricuri. One of the areas of interest in this 2024 appeal is around end of life poverty and improving the financial package available for palliative care and Rhoda Grant has just laid out end of life specific heating and nutrition challenges faced by some people especially in rural areas. As a registered nurse in Parliament's Health, Social Care and Sport Committee I have an interest in our social care sector and feel passionately about ensuring we equip the sector and indeed our population for years to come. Across Scotland and internationally we are seeing people ageing better and living longer lives and whilst this is welcome it does present challenges as with age comes a greater risk of health complications and a greater need for social care support and services. At health committee we have carried out several inquiries relating to social care in Scotland and the conclusions have always had similar themes. One of the main themes is that as a society we must be smarter and better prepared to deal with our ageing population as Maricuri suggests in their briefing. The evidence shows that there must be an onus on healthcare professionals to have realistic conversations with people about their retirement. People's wishes and future care must best support them staying at home and having care that is suited to their needs. That is absolutely paramount. That is why the national care service bill is so important. Maricuri is at the forefront of pioneering research in Scotland and indeed one of Maricuri's most recent publications carried out jointly with the University of Edinburgh suggests that two thirds of Scots 66 per cent of the population will die at home, in a care home or in a hospice by 2040 and allowing more people to have the opportunity to die in a place where they choose is essential if we are to meet future care needs and reduce the demands on our acute services. However, as pointed out by Maricuri to achieve this, pallid of care must have a fair funding settlement. One of the ways that Maricuri suggests that this can be achieved is through the Scottish Government working to target of ensuring a minimal 50 per cent statutory funding for independent hospice care providers including hospice care at home. Given that across Dumfries and Galloway there were 4,359 visits made to 542 people and patients by the region's 31 dedicated Maricuri nurses I'd welcome the minister's comments on this Maricuri ask. The support from these dedicated nurses allowed 72.5 per cent of those with pallid of care and end of life needs to die in a place of their choosing. Funding is crucial to enable the support to grow to meet the future demand. It is welcome that across south Scotland Maricuri have seven shops raising funds as well as over 896 volunteers. There are shops in Stranraer, Newton Stuart, Dumfries and a supporters group in Lockerby. I'm visiting the Dumfries shop with Maricuri leadership a week on Monday and I look forward to continuing to support their work. Presiding Officer, in closing I would again like to welcome this debate and congratulate and thank Maricuri for the fantastic work that they do day in, day out to support those requiring end of life and pallid of care and of course their friends and families. Thank you. Thank you Ms Harper. I now call on Minister Jenny Minto to respond to the debate. I too would like to thank Paul Sweeney for bringing this motion for this debate and also to everyone in the chamber for their contributions. I'd also like to welcome the Maricuri team that have joined us in the gallery and I'm sure you will when you go back catch the beginning of the debate on the Scottish Parliament website. The First Minister sat beside me to listen to Paul's opening speech and he said to me that this is a matter close to his heart and I think it's probably fair to say that the work that Maricuri do is close to everyone in this chamber's heart and I think Emma Harper is absolutely correct when she talks about the iconic daffodil. When I was home on Islay last weekend I had some daffodils out at the back of my house and the first thing I thought of was Maricuri so I think you get into the public consciousness very well. I'm sure members will remember in December we stood together in this chamber and celebrated Maricuri's 75th anniversary and it has been an amazing 75 years. Maricuri staff and volunteers have pioneered palliative and end-of-life care to become a significant health and social care partner providing invaluable support to people and their families at the most challenging points in their life as well as supporting other health and social care services and teams delivering palliative and end-of-life care. It is that friendly, familiar support that Gillian Mackay noted. Many colleagues across the chamber have also reflected how much Maricuri means to them personally. There is broad scope and reach of Maricuri's work and why it is so important. Both Alexander Stewart and David Torrance talked about the companionship and community which is reflected in their communities and their constant work that they do to raise funds. I think that I'd be remiss if I didn't recognise the work of the local Maricuri fundraising teams from my own constituency across Argyll and Butte. I would like to give them my personal thanks for their tireless fundraising work. The work that Maricuri and volunteers do day in and day out is often in extremely trying circumstances and it is as others have reflected are really important and in some respects a no mean feat. That's why I'd like to thank all Maricuri staff and volunteers in Scotland for their unending hard work and also for taking the time to be here today. Thank you. As Liam McArthur said, we all have a stake in this. In preparing for this debate I was drawn back to the Maricuri quote I shared during the 75th anniversary debate in December. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. I feel that that is particularly poignant today given the subjects being raised and the ones that we have discussed from Paul Sweeney's motion. During the debate in December I spoke about the round table that I convened earlier that month with health and social care partnership chief officers and independent hospices and noted that those who had participated had welcomed the frank and open dialogue. Since then I have visited St Andrew's hospice in North Lanarkshire to hear about the care they provide and the challenges they are facing around inequalities. I know that my officials are continuing to meet hospices and chief officers to discuss the draft guidance framework to support more consistent local planning and commissioning of independent hospice care and I hope that we can resolve some of the challenges through working in partnership as Maricuri has called for. Paul Sweeney's motion highlights the increased need and complexity of palliative care projected by Maricuri research up to 2040 as well as the financial challenges faced by those nearing the end of life. Like many colleagues in this chamber last year I visited the cost of dying photographic exhibition which illustrates the impact of socioeconomic circumstances of end of life experiences and like Paul Sweeney very much touched by the poignant images displayed alongside the participants harrowing stories. I was inspired by the courage and strength of the individuals in sharing their stories during such a difficult time in their lives. We recognise that too many people are living in poverty which is why we are committed to breaking the cycle of poverty in Scotland. We are providing more support for social justice than ever before and we are putting on social security benefits forecasts to increase by nearly £1 billion in 2024-25. Further to this. Paul Sweeney. I thank the minister for giving way and for making such a constructive response to the debate. I wonder if she might consider the opportunity to improve the obligations on landlords in forthcoming housing legislation to perhaps ensure that they assist more readily people in terms of their own illness in adapting their home so that they can stay there in otherwise situations where they might end up in hospital. Minister. I thank Paul Sweeney for that intervention and recognise exactly the story from the cost of dying exhibition that he infers to there. I will continue to have discussions with the housing minister with regards to this so happy to raise exactly that. Further, we continue to support free welfare, debt and income maximisation advice services with funding over £12.3 million. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness is undoubtedly one of the most challenging things that a person can go through. No terminally ill person or their family should have to worry about their finances at such a difficult time and that's why this Government ensures that adult disability benefit applications from people with a terminal illness are fast tracked to provide them with the support they are entitled to as quickly as possible. We also I'd like to continue. We and I'll take it once I've finished this section if that's okay Mr MacArthur. We also ensure that those who are terminally ill automatically receive the highest rates of assistance they are entitled to with no award reviews. They are eligible for this support right away with no qualifying period. I welcomed the debate on dying in the margins and had a really helpful follow-up meeting with Mary Curie and the University of Glasgow in which I committed to bringing the issues raised to a future ministerial oversight group on poverty. This is another area where we need to work in partnership to understand the impact of poverty at such a difficult time in people's lives. Liam McArthur. Can I thank the minister and echo Paul Suni's comments on the constructive response to the debate? A lot of the issues she's touched on will undoubtedly be in the updated action plan on palliative care and end-of-life care. I wonder whether there was an update on when that revised plan, updated plan, might be ready. Minister. Through the new palliative care strategy which we are currently developing, perfect timing, we are prioritising work on future care planning looking at what information is available, the systems that are in place and what can be done to promote the use of the planning across Scotland. The Scottish Government is proud to be working with Mary Curie and the hospice sector across Scotland to build a new palliative end-of-life care strategy that we anticipate will be published for consultation in spring this year. I was thinking what might be helpful given the collaborative nature across the chamber and I will try to arrange a briefing for MSPs prior to that launch as well. We have all agreed a shared aim that everyone in Scotland receives well-coordinated, timely and high quality palliative care around death and bereavement support based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers. We also have a shared principle that we are committed to equitable and timely access to general palliative care and specialist palliative care services as needed by each person of any age living with any illness in all places. As Carol Mocken said, working together to find solutions. Let me close by once again thanking Mary Curie staff and volunteers for their tireless work and I look forward to working with them closely on our shared aims over the months ahead. Thank you Minister and I would like to take this opportunity to thank members for their co-operation in recognising in their contributions the time constraints operating under this lunchtime. With that I conclude the debate. I suspend this meeting until 2pm. Thank you.