Chamber and committees

Good morning. I will follow up on Debbi’s example. The level of need in our communities is vast and it would be great to be able to give cash to everybody in that situation. What level of demand is there for that kind of support in the communities that you work in? Are you turning people away who you would like to support in the way that you were able to support that family?

Is that a two-way relationship now? When you have families coming to you who need additional support, you will try to engage with the council, whether it is with the social work department or another part of the council. Is the opposite also happening? Are you getting social work, education or whatever other department of the council it might be coming to you about a young person or a family and saying, “We think that you would be able to support them. Do you have the capacity to do that?” Are you getting that proactive outreach from them?

I hope that that will contribute.

In response to Willie Rennie’s interest, you mentioned that there has been a shift in attitude from the council. Is it fair to say that, in the past, it perhaps felt as though there was a really strong network of third sector and private sector organisations doing a lot of that community solidarity work and then, separate from that, there was the council, with artificial barriers in between, but that is maybe easing now?

I am particularly interested in how easy you find it to engage with the likes of social work, for example, because I imagine that a lot of the families that you are engaging with will have social workers. Do you find that interface to be a collaborative one, or is that the kind of space in which these barriers are created? It may not be exactly the same, but is it roughly equivalent to the example that Mark Williams gave of funding conditions that make it impossible to then work with them?

Thanks very much. I am conscious of the time, so I will come to you, Mark. I want to ask about the example that you gave at the start, about Torry and the impact that your work has had there. I am interested in how such work comes about. Did the trust take a unilateral decision? Did the council approach you? Do you have a direct relationship with the emergency services—the fire service and the police—or did the council facilitate a relationship between you and the emergency services? Who instigates that kind of work and what partnerships come about as a result of it?

Did the council originally facilitate the relationship between you and the emergency services—particularly the police, I imagine, on a more on-going basis—or do you have a direct relationship with community officers?

It sounds as if you are doing a huge amount of work at your own direction. You know your communities, what they need and how to facilitate that. Alongside that, are you getting approaches from the council about particular parts of the city in which it wants you to work, and does it refer particular families or individual young people on to you? Is it trusting enough and quite happy to know that you know what you are doing and who you need to work with, and that you will do so to the extent that capacity allows?

Parliament has just passed a bill on community wealth building.

I will follow up on the point about mandatory reporting. I do not disagree with anything that Craig Naylor or Professor Jay were saying about that, but there is an element of trade-off, as some people would not come forward to a person from who they would seek pastoral or other support if they felt that that was going to be referred and reported. What mitigations can be put into place with a mandatory reporting system so that we do not have a situation in which people will not simply not come forward for support that they may otherwise have received?

:What would happen if, for example, as you mentioned, we were to apply mandatory reporting obligations for religious organisations? What would happen if church ministers were covered by mandatory reporting requirements and a young person who comes to them to disclose that they have been abused said, “I do not want you to take this to the police. I am coming to you only because I need pastoral support”?

There is a risk that, if we introduce mandatory reporting, some people would not approach anyone to receive support. I do not disagree with your point about mandatory reporting, but how do we militate against such circumstances?

Lorraine, if I picked you up right, you said that your expectation is that, in the next financial year, or the next school year, the policy will cost more than it saves or generates. What is the working behind that? I take on board your point to John Mason about the UK Government’s figure of £1.7 billion or £1.8 billion being the projection for 2029-30, but the expectation for 2026-27, which is the imminent financial year, is that the policy would raise £1.5 billion across the UK. How have you worked out that there would actually be a net loss in Scotland?