The Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference has today backed fresh proposals for the future of adult social care.

The proposals endorsed by the conference include:

• The setting of national care service standards with funding put in place to meet those standards;
• Scrapping charges for care services delivered at home;
• National standards and local commissioning to involve disabled people and other care users, and be informed by local experience of unmet needs
• Changes to value the social care workforce better, including a requirement that any care service by any provider must comply with fair work requirements which are set nationally, and all staff should have nationally agreed pay, terms of employment, and career progression;
• Recognising unpaid carers with better support for respite.

Speaking after the Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference today backed a new package of proposals designed to end homelessness in Scotland, housing spokesperson Paul McGarry, who was himself made homeless at 16, commented:

"The work that was done at the outset of the crisis to house people was striking. But it also showed what can be done and how problems can be solved if the political will is there.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference has today backed a package of proposals to "fix overwhelmed mental health services for good".

As part of the party's call to put recovery first, the seven-point plan will:

• Increase the number of training places for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, especially those specialising in CAMHS;
• Add counsellors to NHS workforce planning so their skills can help more people;
• Expand the trained counselling workforce through new bursaries and training routes to widen access;
• Fully resource mental health services through a target for them to receive 15% of future health spend increases;
• Make every health service contact count through enhanced signposting to existing counsellors and third sector resources;
• Provide new community services that young people can access with their families;
• Restart and ramp up mental health first aid training with a new aspiration that every workplace should benefit.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference has today discussed a new report entitled Federalism: Still the best future for Scotland, outlining a series of radical proposals for reforming the United Kingdom and how the party will work with others to fix the union.

The report outlines five steps to a federal union:

Campaigning steps up...

I've just been in touch with one of the Liberal Democrat councillors for the ward up the road from me to line up a Focus delivery round on Monday, 8 March. That's the date from which the latest change in guidelines in England comes in. It gives the go-ahead to a much wider range of leafleting and also to doorstep canvassing.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has today used an address to the party's virtual spring conference to criticise the Conservatives and SNP and warn that independence would be Brexit 2.0

Ed Davey said:

"Brexit is already the disaster we said it would be - with huge costs for business.

"From the record increase in red tape hitting our exporters to the loss of the Erasmus scheme, Boris Johnson's Conservative Government's response to the worst economic downturn in 300 years is - to make it more difficult to trade. More difficult to do business. More difficult to keep your job. The Tories seem determined to make us smaller, poorer and more isolated...

Responding to Douglas Ross' speech this morning declaring that he is in charge of the Scottish Conservative election campaign, not the PM, Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign chair Alistair Carmichael MP said:

"The idea that the Douglas Ross tail is going to way the Boris Johnson dog is laughable. He nominated Johnson to be party leader. He got his own job because Boris Johnson wanted him in post. He even switched sides on Brexit to match Boris Johnson.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference has today adopted a package of proposals designed to boost the economy and help Scotland to put the recovery from the pandemic first, with a focus on skills and long-term career advice, new graduate placements with small businesses, new retraining grants for people who need them, and enabling more employee and community ownership of businesses.

Responding to comments from Ian Blackford saying another independence referendum could take place in 2021, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Another independence referendum will do nothing for the hundreds of thousands of people whose operations have been cancelled, or the children whose education has been disrupted.

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has welcomed news that the United States will end retaliatory tariffs imposed on Scottish whisky, which have cost the industry as much as £500m and lowered US exports by 35% since they were first imposed in 2019. The Biden administration has agreed to lower the 25% tariffs for four months ahead of wider negotiations with the EU. The drop in tariffs also applies to other products including cheese, pork and cashmere.