The latest issue of Holyrood magazine, out on Monday, is an SNP conference special featuring exclusive interviews with First Minister Alex Salmond, who tells Editor Mandy Rhodes that the SNP would have to be “forced” into a coalition government if re-elected next year, and Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, who explains why she believes that the financial crisis is not an enemy of quality.

Additionally the SNP’s Westminster Campaign Co-ordinator Stewart Hosie MP writes that voters are coming to this General Election more disenfranchised and disappointed with the politics of London than ever before, while Politics lecturer Dr Paul Cairney from Aberdeen University asks if the honeymoon is well and truly over for the SNP.

We also have a round-up of this year’s CoSLA conference, Former First Minister Henry McLeish calls on the Liberal Democrats to lead the way towards a federal United Kingdom, and Professor John Curtice explains why the pre-election polls are unexpectedly looking up for Labour.

First Minister Alex Salmond has ruled out entering into a coalition government should the SNP Government be re-elected next year.

In an exclusive interview with Holyrood magazine Salmond says that despite the bruising experience of minority government a coalition would have to be “forced” upon him.

He said:

“I haven’t had the experience of a coalition and I shouldn’t knock it when I’ve never tried it but I suppose you have to make a judgement on these things and could I really have been in a coalition with Tavish Scott or indeed when I take a glance across the Chamber to Mike Rumbles and wonder if that would work…no, I think I would stick with what I know.”

Salmond also lashed out at the tribal nature of politics in Scotland at present, arguing that opposition parties have “lost the ability to differentiate from what they like and dislike.”

There are some issues, even in this Parliament, that he says should be about “what is right rather than who is right” and he criticised the opposition parties’ “desperate” attempts to knock the SNP off its perch.

“I have to confess that my own view is that politics conducted at that level would better not being conducted at all.  Do I think that people, who conduct at that level, are held in respect by the wider community?  No, I don’t.  I think they will pay a heavy price for the sub-heading but I would really like to get into a position where certain issues were regarded as underlying difficulties and problems of Scottish society and if any of the opposition parties could find themselves in a position to respond to, let’s say, the issue of alcohol in Scotland the way that the SNP responded to Jack McConnell’s initiative on smoking, then I think the Scottish Parliament would be held in higher esteem.”

One of Scotland’s leading public health figures has made the case for greater use of early adoption and residential care, warning of a “bleak” future for Scotland’s vulnerable young people.  

Dr Laurence Gruer OBE, Director of Public Health Science in the national health improvement agency NHS Health Scotland said that in light of recent cases of child neglect there is a greater case for early adoption and residential care.    

Speaking at Holyrood’s More Choices, More Chances conference in Edinburgh this week, he said:

“There’s no doubt that young people who are not in employment, education or training are at the highest risk of health problems.

“It’s a tragic loss of potential. Many end up being trapped in addictions of various sorts, in damaging relationships - both those they’ve been brought up in and those they develop themselves - lots of chronic health problems and compared with people who are in more fortunate positions, much less likelihood of reaching old age.

“Things start right at the very beginning of life. Indeed even before conception. I think one can look at many cases and see young people who are starting off as parents and think ‘well, this isn’t the best start for this child to have; it’s almost a disaster waiting to happen’.

“Things really become increasingly problematic in the kid’s early years.”

Outlining the problems in a child’s early life that lead to such poor outcomes, including bad parenting, physical and emotional abuse and poor accommodation, Gruer said there is now a greater argument for early adoption and a new type of residential care.

“I think many people would feel given a lot of the cases we’ve seen in the last few years that there is a greater case for early adoption.  There have obviously been many bad experiences of residential care but I think there’s a case perhaps for a new type of residential care looking at some of the Scandinavian models.  That’s obviously an expensive solution,” he said. 

The public health chief’s comments follow a number of high profile cases of child protection failures including that of Baby P and Brandon Muir.

With less public funding available in the years ahead, Gruer warned the outlook for this group of young people in Scotland is “bleak”.

“This conference is clearly bringing together people who are doing a huge amount to help young people in the later stages of their teens and in their 20s. It clearly does help some but we shouldn’t kid ourselves.  There are also many young people who aren’t getting the help they need.  Often it’s too late and we do have to bear in mind the growing tightening on resources that the recession is inevitably going to bring over the next few years and how we can cope with that and minimise the damage,” he told delegates.

“I think that in terms of the future prospects this is Scotland’s greatest health and also greatest social challenge, affecting the fabric of our society.  Despite what we would like to think, unfortunately my experience is, seeing people going through this over many years, that the future prospect for them is bleak, although we can do a lot to reduce that bleakness. 

“It may not go away entirely but we can certainly mitigate it to some extent.  Undoubtedly early intervention is preferable where we can but we must not give up even when things are difficult in the teens and later life because we have plenty of examples where a very unpromising situation has been turned around by inspiring work of people like you yourselves.”

The financial crisis is not an enemy of quality, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Asked how you maintain quality in the health service with public sector cuts looming, Sturgeon said:

“I think it becomes more important at times when money is tight to have a focus on quality, in my opinion.

“It is not a luxury. Every time the NHS does something inefficiently or badly or not as well as it should, that is not a good use of money. So having a system that delivers quality consistent care to people on every occasion is actually a better way of using public money effectively.”

There will be all sorts of pressures on budgets over the next few years and that will lead to all sorts of stresses and strains, she owned, in an interview with Holyrood.

“But I am determined that the health service notwithstanding keeps that absolute focus on quality, because I think that we should see quality as one of the ways that will help us get through the financial crisis,” she said, adding:

 “So we shouldn’t see the financial crisis as an enemy of quality.”

Commenting on the Scottish Government’s new blueprint for improving the quality of care that patients receive from the NHS, Sturgeon said:

“We call it a strategy but it is more than that.”

“It is actually about this core ethos and philosophy that we want to run through everything that the NHS does.”