Official Report 830KB pdf
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S7M-01166, in the name of Jackie Baillie, on childhood cancer awareness month. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month; understands that around 320 children and young people in Scotland are diagnosed with cancer each year, and that cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for that age group; further understands that children and young people with cancer have unique needs and experiences compared with older adults, including in relation to diagnosis, treatment, mental health, research, and the financial impact of cancer for them and their families; notes that the current strategy, Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care: The Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People in Scotland 2021-2026 reaches the end of its lifecycle in 2026; notes what it sees as the significant financial impact that cancer has on children and young people and their families, including the cost of travelling to treatment, with research from Young Lives vs Cancer showing costs averaging £700 every month, of which £250 is spent on travelling to treatment, and that one in 10 report missing or delaying treatment because of travel costs; commends the work of Young Lives vs Cancer and other third sector organisations supporting young cancer patients across Scotland, and notes the belief that Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity for the Parliament to reflect on the unique, practical, emotional and financial impact of cancer on children and young people in Scotland and their families.
17:56
As all members in the chamber are aware, September is childhood cancer awareness month. I will start by recognising the progress that has been made on childhood cancers over the years. In 1975, when records began, childhood cancer five-year survival rates in the United Kingdom were below 40 per cent. Today, that number is 87 per cent, and, with optimism about what can be achieved in the future and with political will, improvements can still be made. I hope that there will be more than enough political will expressed in the chamber this evening to do just that.
I commend the work of Young Lives vs Cancer, the Teenage Cancer Trust and many other cancer charities and clinicians in their determination to improve services. I also recognise the contribution that the Government’s strategy, “Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care: cancer strategy for children and young people 2021–2026”, has made. The demands of childhood cancers are distinct from those of adult cancers. The strategy recognised the failings at the time and the inequality in care between health boards, leading to an inequality of outcomes. Driving forward a national strategy and national standards meant that everyone in Scotland was able to take advantage of the latest diagnostics and treatments, including specialist treatments offered from London and occasionally further afield in the US. I start, therefore, by congratulating the Government, but I also want to push it on when the next strategy will be published and what it will contain.
The centralisation of service provision has had benefits for outcomes, but it has also had drawbacks. Children and families now need to travel to facilities in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen—that puts unwelcome strain on family finances, and cancer in children does not discriminate. For some families, the average travel costs in the UK are £250 per month. Those costs are too much to bear, leading to the alarming statistic that one in 10 families with children receiving cancer treatment have missed appointments because they could not afford the travel costs. That figure is based on a UK average of 350 miles; in Scotland, it is 400 miles, so the cost is even greater.
Those from the least deprived backgrounds are able to ensure that their child has access to the best healthcare in the world, but for families in our most deprived communities, the means to access timely, high-quality care is not always forthcoming, because money may not be readily available.
We are told that one in three families cut back on food; one in five take on debt; and nearly one third fall behind on household bills. We cannot let money be a barrier to young people accessing cancer care. The young patients family fund is a reimbursement benefit—if people do not have the taxi fare to begin with, there is no help for them. All the cancer charities, including the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, are calling for cash-first options for families to receive young patients family fund support. That would remove barriers to ensure that everyone can access support, regardless of personal circumstances.
In addition, the young patients family fund is currently available only to families of children who are undergoing in-patient care; however, for childhood cancer treatments, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are most often given as out-patient procedures. The fund stops at 16, but the treatments for young people are the same until they are 25. I therefore urge the Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs to expand the fund to cover treatments for out-patients, and to extend the age limit.
Indy McBreen, from Irvine in North Ayrshire, was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in July 2023, when she was aged two. She received treatment at the Royal hospital for children in Glasgow, 40 miles from home. Indy’s dad has recounted their experiences, saying:
“We live around 40 miles from The Glasgow Royal Hospital for Children where Indy’s main treatment centre is and have attended there every week for the past two years, sometimes 3-4 times per week. As for the travel expenses, it’s definitely something that has been a problem, particularly during the early stages of treatment. It was less of an issue when Indy has been an in-patient because we have the Young Patients Family Fund in NHS Scotland which (mostly) covered travel and subsistence expenses while she was in hospital.”
However, when Indy had out-patient appointments on consecutive days, the family had to be supported by Young Lives vs Cancer to stay in Marion’s house, the charity’s accommodation in Glasgow. Most of the time, they were not eligible for support from the fund. The last thing that a parent wants going through their head when they are supporting their child who has cancer is whether or not they can afford a taxi. Parents should not have to ask themselves whether they will need to choose between eating today or getting their child to an appointment, and yet that is the reality for far too many.
The 2021 national strategy for cancer treatment for children did make improvements in cancer care, because it rightly started from a place where it openly and honestly accepted that there were problems. We are told that a new childhood cancer strategy is in the works from the Government. When it appears, it must again recognise existing problems openly and honestly, without pointing to what already exists but is not actually working. It must recognise that inequality of access to high-quality care by postcode is now also inequality by income, and that the existing young patients family fund model does not work for the most deprived households. That is the barrier to delivering world-class cancer diagnostics and treatment to the children who need it.
Of course, the clinical treatment of cancers in children is just one aspect of their care. Where the physical toll of battling cancer takes a front seat, the mental load can often be ignored. A new cancer strategy for children and young people should ensure that there is provision that is flexible enough to meet the complex and varied needs of children who are going through cancer treatment. An advantage of centralised cancer care is that auxiliary care and support can also be co-located. There is no excuse for that not to be delivered effectively, but that is something that families and third sector organisations say is still lacking. I therefore call on the Scottish Government to see that that will also be addressed in the new strategy.
In closing, I look forward to the publication of the new cancer strategy for children and young people—whenever it comes; I would appreciate comment from the minister on that—but it must include removing barriers to access to treatment for families and changing the criteria for accessing the young patients family fund.
18:04
I am grateful to have the chance to speak in the debate and I thank Jackie Baillie for securing it. I want to speak because of a courageous and inspiring boy from Clydebank, Caleb Stirrat. At only three years old, Caleb was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was given a less than 50 per cent chance of survival. Shortly after completing treatment at the age of four, Caleb relapsed and was placed in palliative care.
Faced with unimaginable distress and the worst news that a parent could ever hear, his parents, Karen and Andy, fought incredibly hard for Caleb to receive a trial drug. Caleb is now 10 years old and, despite setbacks and living with long-term side effects, he is still fighting and living his life to the fullest, each and every day, with the love and support of his parents and triplet sisters.
Having gone through that experience, his parents noticed at first hand the gaps in services and the need for better support for families. As a result, the family set up Caleb’s Trio of Hope in 2022. The charity provides a wide range of support to families who are living with a palliative care childhood cancer diagnosis. That includes bereavement support to families, and food shop and fuel vouchers for families on treatment, given how costly it can be for family members, who often have to give up work to care for the child. It also provides grants for family days out and special treats on the ward.
All that work is undertaken by volunteers, with no Government funding whatsoever. The family do all that while still supporting Caleb through his journey and raising their two girls.
With the cost of living crisis still ever present, and with the energy price cap rising on 1 October, their services remain in demand to this day. I am grateful for the work that Caleb’s Trio of Hope has done to support parents and families who are going through the hardest time of their lives, but none of that would be possible without the immense strength and bravery of Caleb, his dedicated parents, Karen and Andy, and the support of his sisters, Poppy and Alyssia. Caleb is an inspiration to us all, and I know that the family would appreciate it, as would I, if the minister would acknowledge their work in closing the debate.
The motion mentions that
“320 children and young people in Scotland are diagnosed with cancer each year”,
and that they
“have unique needs and experiences compared with older adults”.
Over the summer recess, I met with Young Lives vs Cancer to discuss various challenges that young people face when receiving a diagnosis of cancer. Beyond the diagnosis itself, we discussed the unique travel challenges that they face, as they have to travel to a small number of principal treatment centres to get the dedicated age-appropriate care that they need. As has been mentioned, on average they travel twice as far and spend twice as much as older adults. That is a UK-wide issue, but, on average, patients in Scotland travel further.
It was welcome, therefore, when the Scottish Government introduced the young patients family fund in 2021 to provide reimbursement for travel, food and accommodation costs for families of in-patients under 18. That has made a real difference for those who can access it, but I see a strong case for the criteria to be expanded to consider young adults aged up to 25 and those receiving day-patient care.
Too many courageous children are battling cancer and, as we know from Caleb’s story, their journey is not straightforward and can leave a lasting impact. Childhood cancer awareness month provides us with a unique chance to look at how we support those children and raise awareness, but, most importantly, we must look at how we can do more and get help to families at their time of greatest need.
18:08
I thank Jackie Baillie for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am not at all surprised that my colleague has asked for chamber time for this important debate. She understands how crucial it is that we mark childhood cancer awareness month this September, and that we continue to raise issues that affect this group of young people. Her opening remarks focused on the progress and what has been delivered successfully to this point, but it is important that we continue to push in the way that we have.
As we heard, around 320 children and young people—that is, those under the age of 25—in Scotland are diagnosed with cancer every year. In addition, around 130 of those children are under 15. Those figures tell us that we have significant numbers of children and families living with cancer, and I know that, as parliamentarians, we all want to work together, across parties, to do what we can to ensure that those families get the best treatment and the best services. That is why debates such as this one are so important.
I highlight two issues in particular, which have already been raised this evening. One is the need for a continuation of the strategy for childhood cancer, and the other is the financial strain on families who are supporting a child with cancer. We can all see that childhood cancer comes at a unique time during a developmental stage of life. It disrupts the life of the whole family—parents, siblings and grandparents—and a child’s interaction with friends. It may disrupt a child’s life way into the future because their interactions with friends have been interrupted at that early stage.
Having cancer is a highly emotional time for any person. I ask members to remember when they were young—they might have been worrying about what they were going to wear or what friends they were taking to a party. We can only imagine the mental health impacts and significant long-term effects on health and on emotional health that living with childhood cancer can have. That is why we must get the strategy right.
It is welcome that Scotland has a dedicated strategy for children and young people, but there is still no public commitment to a successor strategy when the current one ends this year. Without that, there is a risk that young people’s distinct needs will be overlooked within a general, all-age approach that is built around the cancers of older adults. Like other members, I hope that the minister will give us some good news in that regard.
I also indicated my concern about financial hardship. In this place, we are very aware of the cost of cancer. We know that, for anybody who has cancer, their costs increase, such as treatment, travelling and energy costs. Children and young people with cancer and their families face extra costs, which, as we have heard, average about £700 every month.
As we have heard, the largest single cost is travel, which is, on average, £250 every month. In Scotland, young cancer patients and their families travel on average 400 miles every month for treatment, which is higher than the UK average. Around one in 10 report missing or delaying treatment because of travel costs. That really speaks to the existence of inequalities, and we in this place cannot have that. We have to understand those inequalities: the fact that people from the most deprived backgrounds in Scotland may be delaying cancer treatment for their children because of the costs.
The young patients family fund is there, and we appreciate that, but its criteria are restrictive. I echo Marie McNair’s words—there is a case to develop that aspect further, and we really need to have a look at it. We know that there has been some change in other areas, across the UK in general and in Wales, and I would find it helpful if this Parliament could work together to get that over the line.
In closing, I thank Jackie Baillie once again for bringing this important debate to the chamber. I hope that, based on what we hear tonight, we can all work together to improve these services and in particular to mitigate any financial hardship that is felt by those young people and their families.
18:13
I thank Jackie Baillie for bringing the debate to the chamber, and I thank Young Lives vs Cancer and other charities that have provided information on this important topic.
Like Jackie Baillie, I welcome the dramatic rise in survival rates since the 1960s and 1970s. Now, eight in 10 children with cancer are cured, which is fantastic, considering that the survival rate was two in 10 back in those days. However, since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in children’s and young people’s cancer in the UK of 8 per cent, which is not a small figure. It is important that we look at that and consider what we can do about it.
The rate was increasing in the decades before that, so it is a concerning trend. It leads us to the fact that one in 370 children and young people will have had cancer by the age of 20. I think that many of us who have not looked at the issue in detail and have not been affected by it would probably have been surprised to learn that it is the leading cause of death by disease for children and young people, with about 250 deaths a year.
We must get a significant increase in research for those particular cancers. Some cancers are more predominant, and we must get research into children’s cancers specifically, as they are not the same as adult cancers. Genetic predisposition and environmental factors are also to be considered, and I hope that the minister will consider looking at that. Better diagnosis cannot entirely explain the rise, which is acknowledged by the cancer charities.
Like Jackie Baillie and others, I ask that the family fund is reworked to give funding up front to families and children who are currently going through that experience, and to fund regular day attendance.
Families need to have confidence in the hospitals where children are treated. The environment must be of the best quality. Families that I have spoken to are fulsome in what they say about the best nursing and medical care that they receive. I commend the staff for the care that they give, and for dealing with the emotional toll that they have as a result of their job and also, sometimes, as a result of working in a difficult environment.
We must look at all of those factors to improve the lives of those children while they are being treated, and to ensure that fewer children go through that in the future. I ask the minister to consider research as well as the environment that the children are in.
18:16
I thank Jackie Baillie for bringing this debate to the chamber to mark childhood cancer awareness month.
The impact of cancer in young lives is more than medical. I agree with a lot of what has already been said. We know that the impact goes beyond the individual and the physical. As we have heard, it is the biggest killer, by disease, of children and young people in Scotland. It is generational, and it is a community and a personal tragedy. That cannot be understated. I echo the thanks to everyone affected and I dearly appreciate those who have shared their experiences to better public policy, raise awareness of specific issues, and support others going through similar struggles.
We have heard a bit about the issue already. However, in my contribution I will expand on the silent cost of cancer and illness. I thank Young Lives vs Cancer for their research and work. In a cost of living crisis, disabled and ill children are often the forgotten group. A lot of people assume that there is a myriad of financial support out there for families, carers and organisations; that, once you get that diagnosis, everything falls into place, and the only thing that you have to worry about is your kid’s health. Unfortunately, however, that is not true.
Research from Young Lives vs Cancer showed that 83 per cent of households in Scotland see their income decrease as a result of having to travel for cancer treatment. If you are self-employed, for example, you can lose all of your income. As Jackie Baillie mentioned, one in three families cut back on food, a third fall behind on household bills, and who knows what other families are giving up for their sick child.
I have not had cancer, but I spent years of my life in hospital as a child. I remember some of the quirks of the situation and what my parents had to give up. My dad, for example, would have to take days off work and drive me to Yorkhill from Motherwell. Back at home, my mum had to take my brother around in taxis.
I was also a very easily bored child, which meant that they had to bring in a new book at least twice a week. In the hospitals, however—especially in the region of Edinburgh and East Lothian that I represent—the only shops are often M&S, which are not cheap in the long term. You might also see parents have to keep their mobile data switched on in the wards in order to communicate with others outside.
As has been stated, there is the young patients family fund or, for brevity, the YPFF. That fund is great, but it is not going far enough. As we have heard, previous budgets have not been used and one possible reason is that the eligibility criteria are simply too tight. At the moment, the fund is only for in-patients, which means that any patient getting day treatment cannot access the fund. That means that, for example, a family travelling from Inverness to Edinburgh for one appointment would not be able to access it, including if they needed to stay over the night before in order to attend a very early appointment. Modelling shows that expanding the fund will not cost the Government any additional resource. It would effectively use the funds and support patients and families who would otherwise have to fight for other public resources anyway. I want us to go further together.
The barrier of finance relates to the up-front costs of travel, accommodation and amenities, as has been mentioned. Yes, the fund helps, but the money is not able to be handed over; it must be claimed back. In an emergency, if a family from Inverness were to be helicoptered into Edinburgh and expected to stay there in the middle of August, during the festival, how would they find appropriate accommodation that cost under, say, £500 a night? It would be difficult for them to be out of pocket, even if they were later reimbursed.
The Scottish Government can change that. The funding is there, and the organisations want the system to work in the way that has been set out—they just need the okay for that to happen.
I join Young Lives vs Cancer and members from across the parties in calling on the Scottish Government to expand the fund’s eligibility criteria to include day patients and young people up to 25 and to provide support with bespoke travel costs. Following campaigning by Young Lives vs Cancer, a dedicated travel fund is being introduced in England and work has begun on a travel and accommodation fund in Wales. This is not new.
I reiterate my ask that the Government expand the fund, consider providing equitable support with the cost of travelling for treatment and change to a cash-first approach. In a time of tight budgets when there is the need for future proofing, that is a clear way of reducing appointments, reducing claims for other support, such as social security benefits, and getting the national health service ready to support more people with complex requirements to access the healthcare that they need.
18:21
I thank Jackie Baillie for lodging what is an incredibly important motion. When I saw it, I thought, “I need to come to the debate and talk about this.”
I do not have any specific casework on the subject. I am glad of that, because I want to know that, if a child gets cancer anywhere in the Highlands and Islands, they will be treated with the dignity, respect, care and compassion that they need. I commend everybody involved in that process, from the doctors and nurses to the various charities on the ground.
I am acutely aware that rurality often brings its own challenges. All that I am doing is repeating what other people have said, but I am conscious that, in various parts of the Highlands and Islands, the travel demand is huge and the cost pressure is massive for families. That is not always easy, given the difficulties with travel connections at times and with providing the money in advance.
I repeat exactly what is said in the motion. I know that there are issues in urban areas, too, but I ask the Government to consider the issues in rural areas. We should make sure that, when people need to access transport, the transport is provided and they can afford to use it, because we want the very best for our children.
18:22
Some dates are forever etched in your memory. On 4 June 2018, my husband phoned me from the sick kids hospital and said the words, “You have to come in; they have found a tumour’’—words that no parent wants to hear. I quickly bundled me and my younger child, who was just three at the time, into a taxi. My body was suddenly icy cold, and I had a sense of deep dread in my stomach.
I will never forget the moment when I saw my six-year-old sitting up on a hospital bed in the accident and emergency department. She looked the same from the outside, which was weird to me, because, in the intervening half hour, nothing was the same. Everything had changed after hearing those few words—“they have found a tumour’’.
While your mind races to adjust to this new reality—you are now the parent of a child who is seriously ill—a tonne of stuff comes at you. You have to make decisions that you never thought that you would have to make, such as the kind of port to install for administering chemo. You have to get to grips with treatment schedules, arrange extra childcare for a sibling and learn about blood transfusions, sickness medication, calorie monitoring, temperature spikes and hair loss.
It felt like standing at the foot of a mountain, looking up at this daunting rock face. You know that you have to climb it, but you do not know what the path looks like, whether you are equipped for the journey or when, or even if, there is a view at the top—but climb you must.
Suddenly, there are risks everywhere. Everyday things such as riding a bus can land your child in hospital for days with a chest infection. A fall at the wrong time in the chemo cycle can cause a serious internal bleed.
The constant vigilance that you feel, as a parent of a child with cancer, during treatment and in the years after, is something from which I took a long time to recover. In some ways, I am still recovering from it. Our now annual oncology appointment, which is tomorrow, still causes me anxiety. My experience has taught me that mental health support for families could be much improved and I would dearly like to see that being part of a new dedicated cancer strategy for children and young people.
Such a strategy, as others have said, should also cover the cost of travelling to treatment. We live in Edinburgh and were fortunate that our trips to hospital were relatively straightforward but, even for us, the taxi bill added up. That was nothing compared to the experience of others, such as the family from Orkney that I met when, earlier this month, I visited Ciaran’s house, the home from home that is provided by the charity Young Lives vs Cancer, which also supported us. The cost of childhood cancer is significant, not only because of the potential loss of family income but because of the practical cost, with travel to treatment being a big part of that.
Having a proper cancer strategy for children and young people that is not part of a general approach for patients of all ages is important. Childhood cancer affects the whole family, not only the child, and the strategy should reflect that. It should be developed together with the third sector and, more importantly, with children and their families. I know that I, and other parents, would be keen to take part in that process.
Over the course of a year my child collected many beads of courage, one for every medical event or milestone. Today, I am wearing the purple heart that signifies the end of their cancer treatment. I wish that every family could receive that purple heart at the end of their journey but, sadly, not all journeys lead there and not all families get to see the top of that mountain.
The Government cannot stop all childhood cancers from happening, but it can help to make the journey for families a little lighter.[Applause].
I call the minister to respond to the debate.
18:26
Gosh, how do I follow that? I thank Sanne Dijkstra-Downie for her powerful and personal reminder that the issues we discuss here in the chamber are serious and that they impact immensely on families right across Scotland.[Applause]
I thank my colleague Jackie Baillie for bringing the motion to the chamber and thank members for their thoughtful contributions. It is my honour to stand with them here today to support childhood cancer awareness month.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis is devastating at any age, but it is unimaginable what that must feel like for a child or young person and for their family. Before I say more, I acknowledge the contributions of many colleagues today and, before I forget, say that I am very grateful that Sanne and her family are at the purple heart stage of their journey.
It was an absolute pleasure to hear from Marie McNair about Caleb, his care and the work that he and his family are doing to improve the situation for those who come after him. I will pick up on the other issues raised as I carry on.
Although, thankfully, the number of children and young people diagnosed with cancer in Scotland each year is low and the survival rate is high, the impact on those who are affected is absolutely profound. If we are to continue supporting positive outcomes, it is vital to ensure that children and young people have access to the best age-appropriate treatment and care to maximise their outcomes and quality of life.
I am unbelievably proud that Scotland is the only UK nation to have a dedicated cancer strategy for children and young people. I am delighted that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care has confirmed that the current strategy will be renewed as the Scottish Government continues prioritising children and young people who have cancer and I can confirm that work is already under way. I understand that there has already been engagement with the Teenage Cancer Trust and Young Lives vs Cancer. There will be more such engagement and I reassure Jackie Baillie that we welcome members’ input. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm a precise date for its publication, but we hope to have a renewed strategy early next year.
The children and young people strategy sets out a national framework for the delivery of equitable access to specialist age-appropriate cancer treatment and care right across Scotland and has delivered many successes, including the launch of the national paediatric radiotherapy service at the Beatson cancer centre in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The creation of that dedicated service was made possible by Scottish Government investment of more than £460,000 of recurring funding to support it. The service ensures that all children, up to age 16, who require photon beam therapy radiation as part of their cancer treatment have access to a dedicated and age-appropriate setting, in line with gold standard international guidance.
The Scottish Government established the managed clinical network for children and young people with cancer. The network supports NHS boards to deliver co-ordinated high-quality cancer services for children and young people, working with the third sector, patients and their families. It will continue to deliver for children and young people, and the Government looks forward to working with the network and others to develop the next strategy.
We know that research into diagnosis or new treatment is important for the kinds of cancers that children and young people are more likely to be diagnosed with, as is access to clinical trials. The chief scientist office directly funds research projects and fellowships, and it welcomes applications for research into cancers that impact children and young people. Through the NHS Research Scotland infrastructure, we provide support for clinical studies taking place in NHS Scotland. We will continue to jointly support early-phase clinical trial work of the adult and paediatric experimental cancer medicine centres.
Developments in genomic medicine have changed the landscape for diagnosis, management and treatment. We recognise that there are opportunities to enhance patient outcomes, support access to clinical trials and accelerate research by expanding and co-ordinating access to genomic testing for children.
I move now to the thorny issue of transport. As a member who represents the Highlands and Islands, I well understand the burden of travel that many of the people I represent have to cope with in order to access high-quality treatment. Supporting children and young people through cancer treatment can undoubtedly place a financial burden on families, who are often adjusting to reduced employment and incomes to support their families.
A number of members have mentioned that NHS England has made a commitment of £10 million in its national cancer plan. I understand, however, that it has not rolled that out yet. I am grateful that we have the young patient family fund in Scotland. It is not exclusive to individuals with cancer. Although that is what tonight’s debate is about—they are undoubtedly vitally important and they experience a real burden of costs associated with their treatment, as Ms Kinross-O’Neill highlighted in relation to her experience—that situation does not solely affect individuals with cancer. In 2025-26, the YPFF provided more than £3.1 million in support to the families of more than 5,430 young in-patients, and nearly 10,000 claims were submitted for eligible hospital visit expenses across all in-patient care. We keep the operation and eligibility of the YPFF under regular review, alongside the wider financial support that is available to patients and families through the patient travel expenses reimbursement scheme. Any decisions on potential changes to the YPFF will be considered in that context, recognising that accessibility is an important factor.
I remind members that we have a Highlands and Islands travel scheme, which reimburses the travel costs of everyone in the Highlands and Islands who is required to travel. We have to travel more often and further for accessing care.
The minister will of course remember that, when that fund first started, it had a balance, if you like, of £5 million available for people. That has dropped by £1.8 million, because of the tightness of the eligibility criteria. Surely restoring the fund to the level that it was once at was would enable many more people to benefit from it, with no additional cost to the Scottish Government. Surely that is something that the minister would agree with.
The YPFF is not a fixed pot of money. It is demand-led funding. The Scottish Government has ensured full funding against demand in every year since the fund’s launch on 26 July 2021.
We have other financial support schemes for transport to support. NHS boards are responsible for ensuring that arrangements are suitable to enable necessary treatment and can be provided in a patient-centred way. We are committed to reviewing the patient travel expenses scheme to ensure that it works well as we bring transport and health planning closer together. That will include bringing local bodies together at a regional level to consider our options for improving transport to health.
Further, we have ensured that entitlement to child and adult disability benefits is based on an individual’s range of needs rather than on a specific diagnosis of a condition. That means that people can apply at any time, as needs happen.
When it comes to improved psychological support, I recognise that children and young people with cancer have unique psychological support needs. They are looking at life through a different lens from that of their peers and are adjusting to physical changes that are caused by cancer and by treatment, and they must have access to age-appropriate psychological support to help them to navigate that critically important period of their lives. Through our mental health and wellbeing strategy and continued investment in health and mental health services, we are providing the strategic framework and support for NHS boards to deliver care that meets local needs. The 2026-27 budget includes almost £22.5 billion for health and social care services, helping to ensure that boards have the resources that are needed to meet growing demand and improve access to support. We expect boards to prioritise psychological support for children and young people who are affected by cancer, working in partnership with the third sector and other services where appropriate.
I am grateful for Sanne Dijkstra-Downie’s reminder about how cancer affects the psychological health of the entire family, and I would be more than happy to meet her to discuss how we can rise to meet that need. It is an important point, which was well highlighted. I know from my own family experience that when a family is experiencing stress—which, undoubtedly, a child’s cancer diagnosis produces—that affects everyone in that family.
I am very grateful for what we have heard so far in the minister’s reply. The contributions have been very evocative.
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests as a mental health nurse in the NHS. My intervention is about mental health investment. As a clinician, I have seen that progress and investment and how that has developed. However, there may be additional needs for staff to pick up on and understand. Will the minister describe further how the Government is supporting that training need?
We continue to deliver recurring funding for specialist clinical psychologist posts for supporting teenagers and young adults, to provide expert tailored support for their specific needs and experiences. If more training is required among the wider multidisciplinary team, I will be more than happy to pick up with Michelle Campbell what type of training might be suitable and to ensure that that can happen.
Although it did not really come up in the debate, there is a clear focus on timely and accurate cancer diagnosis for children and young people. Primary care clinicians might see just once or twice in their career a child or young person who is presenting with symptoms of cancer—thankfully, that is how rare the situation is. We therefore have in place a number of programmes to try to speed up that aspect of treatment.
I extend my thanks to all members for their contributions to the debate, as well as to everyone who is involved in improving outcomes for children and young people who are living with cancer. I thank again in particular Sanne Dijkstra-Downie for her powerful and personal contribution, and I say on behalf of all members in the chamber that we wish her and her family well. [Applause.]
Meeting closed at 18:38.
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