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The final item on today's agenda is the committee's work programme. The clerk's paper was drawn up following the discussions that we had at our away day on proposals for the committee's work programme for the foreseeable future. A substantial amount of legislation is likely to come the way of the committee over the coming months. We expect a Scottish schools parental involvement bill to come fairly soon, followed by an adoption bill and a children's hearings bill. Following the First Minister's statement, we now expect the health promotion, nutrition and schools bill to come our way. We should also bear in mind the fact that a member's bill on school meals may come to us at some point, subject to the consultation on that proposal.
The paper is excellent. However, I would like to flag up the possibility of our holding—perhaps in over a year's time—a quick one-day inquiry into whether the provision of access to FE for schoolchildren is meeting all the aspirations of Scotland's young people. I mention that as no more than a possibility at this stage.
We might want to take that up with the minister at some point, once the process has had a chance to bed in. Things are still in the early stages at the moment, so such an inquiry would be a bit premature just now, but the issue is certainly one that the committee would want to keep an eye on.
I am also on the Finance Committee and I am sure that members will be aware from the press this morning that there will be a fairly fundamental budget review. That was discussed in the Finance Committee yesterday, and the suggestion was made that the subject committees should have a role to play in investigating where resources could be moved between priorities and projects. Although the clerk's paper suggests that this year might be slightly less complex, that might not actually be the case, as there might be some more difficult discussions to have.
This will be a relatively light year for the budget process, but as we move towards the next spending review period, the committee may have further work to do on next year's budget. We are not talking about the budget process being light right through to 2007, although the current budget year, which is a continuation of the existing spending review period, will not be too demanding.
I think that we agreed to keep a watching brief on the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Scotland Act 2004, and we should perhaps include that in the paper.
That is correct. We agreed to do that. We shall add that to the list of other work and the things that we shall continue to look at.
It will be a challenging year, particularly given the amount of legislation that is ahead of us, but I am quite keen for our work programme to identify some key issues, including on-going policy issues, that affect Scotland. Do you have any further information as to whether we will be the lead committee on the health promotion, nutrition and schools bill? If we are not, we may want to express the opinion that we think that that bill should come to us, if not as lead committee then certainly as one of the secondary committees.
I would be surprised if a bill that includes the word "schools" did not come to the committee.
I am just unclear as to which minister will be responsible for the bill.
That is not clear to me, either, but at this stage I assume that the bill will come to the committee. If we hear otherwise, we shall obviously let members know, but we do not anticipate its introduction until about this time next year at the earliest, so I do not think that we need to panic about it yet.
The way in which paragraph 20, which is on Dungavel—an issue that I have raised previously—is set out makes sense. We should ask the minister to find out from the Westminster Government its response to the views and opinions expressed during the Parliament's debate on the education and support of young people. Obviously, many of us were distressed to hear the news about the removal of young asylum-seeking children last night. We should reflect on the provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and who has responsibility under Scottish legislation for all aspects of children's welfare. Members will also wish to note the comments made by Kathleen Marshall, Scotland's commissioner for children and young people. This is a key issue for her, and there may be others. Do we plan to have a session with her as part of the on-going relationship between the committee and the commissioner? We identified the need to have sessions with organisations such as Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care—we have been having such sessions as we go along—but I am not aware that we have timetabled a meeting with the commissioner for children and young people. I suspect that the response from the minister on the plight of children at Dungavel is something that we could usefully discuss with her, if we have an opportunity to invite her to the committee. If we have not identified such a meeting in the timetable, I think that we should.
A seminar with the children's commissioner will be held in the Parliament on 26 October at 6 o'clock. That will be our initial opportunity to meet her; obviously, the committee can invite her back if members feel that a session would be useful.
I think that a committee session would be useful.
We shall keep that under review. If we feel that it is necessary and if we have time in the timetable, we shall try to fit it in.
The clerks will draft a paper on the handling of that inquiry in the near future.
I know that Elaine Murray and Lord James Douglas-Hamilton attended a session with young people from West Lothian who were looked-after children. They came to a meeting in the Parliament and gave a very good presentation on what it is like to live as a looked-after child, particularly with regard to concerns about education. If it is at all possible, I think that we should ask those young people to come and give evidence to us. It would be appropriate to start an inquiry into looked-after children by listening to the children themselves to hear their views and concerns.
Bristow Muldoon, who helped to organise that meeting, told me that he was interested in making representations to the Education Committee. If the clerk were willing to contact Bristow Muldoon and tell him about our proposed plans, he would find that helpful.
A paper by the clerks will be written in due course and I am sure that that point will be included.
As Fiona Hyslop said, I also attended that meeting. I understand from Mary Mulligan, who is also one of the constituency MSPs for the area, that the children had already made the presentation to the council. Therefore, the presentation that they made to us was their second, so they are getting quite experienced in giving presentations to people. After the meeting, I took the liberty of forwarding their publication to the clerk, just to provide some background on what they were saying.
There is no meeting next week, as the committee is going on two visits in connection with our early years inquiry. The following week, we shall start taking oral evidence for that inquiry. I thank you all for your attendance today.
Meeting closed at 11:01.
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