Earlier this week, I attended a protest against East Dunbartonshire Council’s plans to close the Milan day care centre. Milan provides a fantastic tailored service to elderly and vulnerable ethnic minority clients. Its service users all say that Milan should be a model for the rest of Scotland to follow, rather than something to be closed down. Does the First Minister agree that local services should cater to all communities, including the needs of ethnic minorities? What can the Scottish Government do to save Milan and other centres like it?

I thank Pam Gosal for raising the issue of the Milan centre. Yesterday, I met the Scottish Hindu Foundation, which is a recently established organisation speaking on behalf of the Hindu community. The foundation raised the issue of the Milan centre with me, and I said that we would engage with the local authority—in this case, East Dunbartonshire Council—to see what more we could do to assist.

However, these are decisions that are being made by local authorities. That is why, when the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced our budget, she announced an uplift for local government. I agree that community services are incredibly important and should cater to the needs of all our diverse communities. What does not help is that we continue to receive a £500 million cut in our block grant since 2022-23. Despite such swingeing cuts, we have decided to prioritise local government by giving it an uplift in 2024-25.