Chamber and committees

I will widen it even further, cabinet secretary, just to make your job more complicated. Our poor health record is one of the biggest drags on our economy; indeed, it is the predominant cause of economic inactivity. How are you working with the health secretary on that matter? You have mentioned tech many times, but I have heard from our health boards that the tech that they have is old school and needs to be modernised.

What I am trying to say is that there is a connection between all those things. My philosophy is that poor health is the biggest drag on our economy and education is one of the solutions, so how do we square that circle?

Thank you for that.

The other thing that we very much agree on is employability and child poverty. One of our big levers lies in developing opportunities for our youngsters as they come through, but what we are hearing is that the imparting of information on potential careers is still not happening in schools, and that young people are still not aware of the fantastic real careers that are available.

On top of that, you will be aware of XLCC coming into Scotland, with the potential creation of 900 jobs, and we have just heard about half a billion pounds’-worth of potential green hydrogen plants. Quite rightly, one of the things that you are looking at is skills, but we are cutting apprenticeships in further education establishments to the point where, in my region, the Ayrshire colleges are suggesting that they will not be able to deliver on the requirements for companies such as those that I have mentioned that are coming into Scotland. Surely, cutting apprenticeships is a backward step, is it not? We need more apprenticeships, not fewer.

Good morning to the cabinet secretary and the panel.

I could probably talk about Prestwick airport for the whole time, given that it is in my area. The cabinet secretary is right that it is a real strategic element and hugely important to local economy, although some aspects of its profitability worry me.

However, I want to ask about the aspect that worries me most. At least two interested parties have indicated the desire to purchase the airport. Do you have any concern about the fact that the former chairman Forsyth Black is fronting a bid, and, indeed, put the bid forward while he was still the chair? I asked cabinet secretary Màiri McAllan the same question when I found out. I worry that there is a conflict of interests in that respect, given that the former chair would have been aware of all the other bids that had come forward. Indeed, I know that there were a lot of ambitious bids to develop the airport. Given that two interested parties are already involved, is there is a conflict of interests there?

You have kind of thrown him under the bus again there. He put forward a bid while he was still the chair, and that worries me. I just wanted to raise the issue so that you are aware of it, cabinet secretary.

Moving on from Prestwick airport and our visit there, I want to discuss the development of the labour market. We very much agree, cabinet secretary, that there is a huge amount of potential in the green economy in Scotland. In its thinking about how to develop a consistent labour market, how is the Scottish Government viewing our educational environment—from school right through into colleges and universities, together with upskilling and reskilling? How is the Scottish Government putting in place that piece of the jigsaw to ensure that we have the labour force required to fulfil our potential?

I appreciate that, cabinet secretary, but as others have indicated, we are talking about outcomes here. Health outcomes in Scotland are stubbornly poor, and my concern is that our educational environment is not producing the outcomes that we want it to, either. I will leave it there, though, convener.

Good morning. I will follow up on my colleague’s questioning. A theme that I have pursued throughout the inquiry is that of employers being informed about the support that is available. We have talked about how to get young people into employment, but I want to look at the issue from the other side. How do we ensure that our employers are well informed about the support that is there to enable them to accept disabled workers into the workforce? I will come to Tracey Francis first.

We have heard that there is an underlying willingness and desire on the part of employers to have a diverse workforce, but there is also fear and a lack of knowledge. I understand what you are saying. The messaging has to be consistent across the country.

It is not a supplementary to your question, but a different question, so you might want to finish.

Anne-Marie, you used the words “early intervention”, which are my favourite two words to use in Parliament—I can hear everybody groaning.

I want to understand whether we have a sufficient understanding of the journey of those young people who are experiencing the transition into adulthood with the added factor of disability. Do we understand that well enough? You also talked about the long-term outcomes from early intervention. We need more resource, but has any work been done on what the impact would be as regards the requirement for resources further down the line if we were to focus resources on early intervention?

I completely understand your point that early intervention is not an option for those who are later in their journey. I recognise the need to support those people, but if we get early intervention right, in time, there will be fewer people who are in that position. That is what I am getting at with my question about whether we need to engage in early intervention and to resource early intervention more than we currently do.