With half of the MSPs being sworn in at Holyrood this week having been elected to the parliament for the first time, a wealth of new experience and perspectives will inform policymaking for the next five years. Some of these new arrivals have a background in the NHS and the care and third sectors.

Equally, the election means the voices of several of those most active in health and social care will no longer be heard in the chamber and committee rooms. healthandcare.scot has been looking at the CVs of incoming MSPs and marking the departure of some of the people they will be replacing.

In their campaign materials, future MSPs often give very little – in some cases no – information about their past lives.

This article is written on the basis of what candidates, now MSPs, chose to share with the electorate. We can expect more detail to emerge in the coming weeks.

One of those who gave few details about their past was new Highlands and Islands Reform UK MSP, Vic Currie. After training as a Merlin helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy, he graduated with a degree in medicine in the summer of last year and is licensed to practice as a Foundation Years trainee doctor.  

Others have been more forthcoming.

The new MSP for Renfrewshire North and Cardonald, Michelle Campbell, is a registered mental health nurse who has worked for over 20 years in the NHS.

Her SNP colleague, newly elected to serve Edinburgh South Western, Sumita Kumar, is a qualified psychologist who worked for Public Health Scotland as a health improvement programme manager for screening and immunisation. Her projects have covered type 2 diabetes, haematology and oncology.

Also entering the Scottish parliament is Martyn Day, MSP for Falkirk East and Linlithgow, who was health spokesperson for the SNP at Westminster before losing his seat in the 2024 UK election.

Understanding social care

Joining the parliament for the Liberal Democrats, Duncan Dunlop is a former chief executive of Who Cares? Scotland from 2011 to 2020, who has over 25 years’ experience of ‘working with and for vulnerable young people’ in the UK in several countries abroad.

Two new SNP MSPs will bring their voices personal experience to the parliament. Katie Hagmann, who held the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley seat, lives with dyslexia and has long campaigned for better understanding and support for neurodivergent people; while Glasgow Cathcart and Pollock MSP Zen Ghani is care experienced.

David Smith, newly elected for Reform UK, says in his campaign literature that his experience as a kinship carer for his disabled son led him to serve as the unpaid carers’ representative on the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care integration joint board. He says he is "passionate about improving support for carers and addressing the high levels of industrial illness in our area, which is one of the most affected in Scotland".

Edinburgh and Lothians East region Scottish Green MSP Kayleigh Kinross-O'Neil, a wheelchair user, has worked for Inclusion Scotland and been a contributor to Euan’s Guide, the respected ‘TripAdvisor’ for disabled people.

Voices from the third sector

The winner of the Strathkelvin and Bearsden seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Adam Harley, after training as an actor, worked as senior communications officer for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust during the period where the charity was a leading voice campaigning for access to new cystic fibrosis medicines.

Joe Long, joining Holyrood for Scottish Labour, is described in newspaper article in his local paper as being a ‘charity director’.

Leaving parliament

Ahead of the vote, 40 MSPs had already chosen to stand down and not seek re-election.

They included four former health secretaries: Nicola Sturgeon, Shona Robison, Michael Matheson and Humza Yousaf. Alongside them, a handful of past health, social care and life sciences ministers and several others who had served on Holyrood's health committee.

Amongst the casualties of the electorate who didn’t manage to be re-elected is the only doctor in the last parliament, Sandesh Gulhane, who looks set to return to general practice on a more full-time basis.

Others who did not manage to be re-elected include health committee and cross-party group stalwart Emma Harper, and women's health campaigners Monica Lennon and Annie Wells. Alongside them, active health and disability advocates and campaigners: Brian Whittle, Jeremy Balfour, Alexander Stewart and Sue Webber.

 

We will update this article as the new MSPs set up their own websites and share more biographical information, and tell you about any updates in our weekly bulletins.

Sign up to receive our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox.