To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to East Dunbartonshire Council to help meet any additional costs of providing social care services for an ageing population. (S6O-04879)

East Dunbartonshire Council will receive revenue funding of £280.6 million in 2025-26 as a result of the Scottish budget. It is for the council, as a democratically elected body, to determine how to allocate that funding, including funding for social care services, on the basis of local needs and priorities.

We appreciate the pressures that are faced by the health and social care sector and by local government. That is why we provided record funding for both during 2025-26, including almost £2.2 billion of investment for social care and integration.

With nearly 18,000 people in Strathkelvin and Bearsden—my Constituency—now over the state pension age and with estimates showing that 15 per cent of local pensioners are living in poverty, with more than £1.4 million in pension credit going unclaimed every year, does the Minister agree that raising awareness of poverty-reducing benefits is crucial, as is high-quality, sustainable social care?

I agree with the member. That is why we have a benefit take-up strategy, to which there is no United Kingdom Government equivalent. We are taking steps to tackle barriers to take up and we are putting money in the pockets of those who need it most. In 2025-26, we allocated £16.9 million to fund advice services, including Citizens Advice Scotland’s money talk team, which supported more than 12,000 older people last year. Similarly, it is likely that we will all use social care at some point in our lives, and improving the quality, standards and consistency of care for people is absolutely necessary.

The East Dunbartonshire health and social care partnership has highlighted in its 2025 to 2030 strategic plan that there is a need to move away from traditional service models to a whole person and community approach due to financial challenges and increasing demand. In April, council tax for East Dunbartonshire residents rose by 13 per cent. This summer, the people I spoke to at their doors said that they are not receiving value for money. What is the Minister’s response to all those who are paying more but risk receiving less when it comes to social care?

First, those decisions are made locally and, as I have indicated, record funding is going into the system across local government and social care.

The member made an important point in the first part of her question about how to deliver those services most effectively, which gets to the heart of the work that we are taking forward in the public service reform strategy. The work builds on the Christie principles to focus on prevention and ensure that the money is most effectively directed to the front line to better integrate public services so that her constituents and others across the country receive the best possible service from local government.