By Bill Heaney
What’s the point of turning out fancy limos and politicians’ bag carriers and flunkeys – and even the police – for expensive visitations to government hospitals and other institutions when this is the reality?
All that rolling up their sleeves for hospital visits and wearing hard hats on building sites and goggles in factories and everyone standing to attention on visits to schools is just for show.
Someone should tell them they are not celebrities, even though some of them are paid as if they are.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today nailed the truth about the squandermania and simpering that attaches itself to “official visits”.
He said that visits to Skye House, Scotland’s biggest children’s psychiatric hospital, appear to have ‘skimmed the surface’.
His comments come as a series of parliamentary questions revealed that the Scottish Government’s Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Maree Todd, visited the hospital just months before allegations of cruelty came to light.
Mr Cole-Hamilton asked the Scottish Government whether any official ministerial visit to Skye House had ever taken place. In response, the Minister for Mental Wellbeing indicated that she last visited Skye House on 4th September 2024. This was just five months before allegations of a culture of cruelty at the facility came to light.
The Mental Welfare Commission visited the facility on seven occasions, but failed to raise issues of abuse, neglect and cruelty which were subsequently revealed in a BBC Disclosure documentary. Who says we don’t need journalists anymore?
Mr Cole-Hamilton, left, said: “I understand that no one ever wants to see mistreatment happen at these facilities, but the Scottish Government’s response to the Skye House allegations has been exceptionally poor.
“We now know that the minister visited Skye House just months before the allegations came to light. This was not an inspection, but it contributes to the sense that visits and reports all skimmed the surface.
“Liberal Democrats secured a parliamentary statement on Skye House, but at no point during that statement did the Scottish Government explain whether the Mental Welfare Commission is properly empowered to act in cases like these.
“They completely failed to explain why original allegations were missed. These should be basic questions for the government to answer.
“Patients and families need to have faith in the system. They deserve to know what safeguards are in place and what steps are being taken to prevent this horrific situation from ever happening again.”
Meanwhile, Alex Cole-Hamilton has today criticised the Scottish Government for failing to complete a promised review of safeguarding in relation to elected representatives and their access to vulnerable groups. It committed to the review more than four years ago.
During parliamentary scrutiny of the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill in 2020, Mr Cole-Hamilton lodged amendments, which were intended to bring MSPs within the scope of the legislation. These included requiring them to comply with Disclosure Scotland’s Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme which helps to ensure people who are unsuitable to work with children and protected adults cannot do regulated work with these vulnerable groups.
Mr Cole-Hamilton’s amendments were rejected by the Scottish Government. However, during Stage 3 of the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill, Maree Todd, on behalf of the Scottish Government, proposed to commission and fund an independent review, to be chaired by ministerial appointment, that “would consider the issue of safeguarding in relation to elected representatives”.
Now, a new request on behalf of Mr Cole-Hamilton to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, answered by the Scottish Government, has confirmed that this review never took place.
Top of page picture: Skye House, Scotland’s biggest children’s psychiatric hospital.