Chamber and committees

Absolute rubbish—I was not doing that. I hear the tone of language that is coming from the other side of the chamber, and I have not once in the debate heard from them about the children who want to learn.

The more that you tell young folk that they are bullies or violent, the more they will begin to think that they are and the more they will act as though they are. We should be talking up our children, not talking them down.

Listening to the language of some members in the chamber today, I am disheartened that some appear to want headlines rather than solutions. Scotland’s focus on progressive preventative action remains paramount, and the Scottish Government is taking specific action to engage with young folk to prevent further violence and harm. The Tory motion fails to mention that a range of different factors can impact on children’s behaviour in school, and those factors are often external to the school community.

Teachers are professionals who are skilled in defusing challenging scenarios on a daily basis. Although it is clear that those teachers need support to respond to challenging behaviour, it is also clear that the examples of extreme events that have been reported in the press must be treated very carefully, given that we are talking about children. It is also well known that many of those stories are sensationalised through attention-grabbing headlines. As leaders, we must be cognisant of that.

Headteachers, teachers and all other school staff and local authorities are best placed to decide how to address bullying in our schools.

I begin by thanking my friend and colleague David Torrance for securing this members’ debate. I also take this opportunity to thank Cancer Research UK for all the hard work that it has done and continues to do on a daily basis.

When David Torrance spoke about pink wigs in his opening speech, I kind of laughed—I apologise, because I know that it is a serious subject. However, it brought to mind the day that Kevin Stewart MSP and I, when we were both councillors, decided to don pink curly wigs and walk the floors of Marischal college rattling our tins—I say to Douglas Lumsden that that was before his time, so he is okay—to get money for Cancer Research UK. I still have the photographs, so if anybody wants to make a donation to Cancer Research UK, I will gladly show them those.

No—I do not have time.

Our local authorities have a statutory responsibility for the provision of education across our school estate, a fact that we in the chamber should know well, given that many of us come from a local authority background. The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities to tackle violence and bullying in schools. That work is supported by a wider investment of more than £2 million on violence prevention. The Scottish Government also supports Scotland’s national anti-bullying service, respectme, which provides advice and resources to schools, parents, carers and young folk. That commitment is important.

We must not forget that, whether we like it or not, social media and online platforms are a big part of our young folk’s lives. Those platforms have a responsibility to ensure that they do everything in their power to help tackle bullying. We must not treat online bullying differently from face-to-face bullying. We address online bullying effectively when we address it as part of our anti-bullying approach, not as a separate area of work or policy.

The Scottish Government rightly takes online safety incredibly seriously and continues to liaise with law enforcement agencies to ensure that they have the powers and resources to tackle any incidents of criminality. However, regulatory responsibility for social media lies with the UK Government, and the Scottish Government has limited means of intervention. The UK Government must call on social media companies to improve their standards and sanctions when it comes to removing material that promotes violence, and we must back it on that call.

Yet again, the Scottish Government is constrained when it comes to taking real action on bullying—this time on the online safety of children. Despite that, in 2022-23 the Scottish Government is providing more than £2 million to support the delivery of prevention activity across Scotland. Supported projects include mentors in violence prevention, which is delivered in schools and supported by Education Scotland; Medics Against Violence, which runs several violence prevention programmes targeting the impacts and consequences of violence; and the No Knives, Better Lives engagement programme through YouthLink Scotland, which focuses on preventing the incidence of violence and knife-carrying.

Diversity and equality are at the heart of the policies that underpin education in Scotland, and I ask the cabinet secretary that that will remain our approach. Bullying must be addressed, but that must be done through prevention and understanding the root causes of behaviour, not through the demonisation of all young people.

Will I get the time back, Presiding Officer?

I heard Mr Kerr, not Ms Gallacher; I do not mind.

Do I have time to take an intervention?

Ooh! I have already done it but, yes, absolutely, I will. I will come on to talk about the Aberdeen race, too.

Cancer affects us all in some shape or form, and it touches all of us at some time or another. It is a cruel disease that we would all like to banish to the history books. One day at a time, one step at a time, we will beat cancer—we just have to.

Race for life is celebrating its 30th year, and it has been a huge success. It started as a women-only event in Battersea in 1994, where 750 participants raised £48,000. Since then, it has grown into a series of hundreds of events and, as we have heard, more than 10 million folk have taken part in that time, raising more than £940 million, which helps to fund research into more than 200 types of cancer.

In 2019, for the first time, race for life opened its doors for men to participate so, if Douglas Lumsden wants to join me, he is more than welcome. That made it a truly inclusive event that gives folk the chance to come together with their families and friends and join the movement to help to beat cancer.

Many moons ago, I became one of the 10 million folk who have taken part. I took part in the Aberdeen race for life when it was held at Hazlehead park, which shows just how long ago that was, because it is now held down at the beach in Aberdeen. My daughter, Dawn, and I took part for a number of reasons. Dawn was keen to take part to celebrate her auntie, Frances Walker, who was a warrior at kicking breast cancer, and I am delighted to say that Frances is still a cancer-free warrior, living life to the full and enjoying spending time with her grandchildren. While I wanted to celebrate Frances, I also wanted to do the race in memory of my mam, whom Dawn never got to meet. My mam died at the very young age of 34 with ovarian cancer, and I still wish to this day that Dawn had been able to meet her grandma Barr, but cancer just did not allow it.

This year’s Aberdeen event will take place on 2 July, meeting at 10 am at the Kings Links on the beach esplanade, and I have just found out that I am doing it. Even if folk cannot manage to take part themselves, they can still go down and support those who can, although I will say that it is never too late to register and take part.

For everyone who takes part, sponsors, raises money or whatever it is that they do to help to beat this vile and awful disease, I sincerely say thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I was a local councillor until May last year.

I know that that is a difficult one.

I believe that the scheme has been paused to allow expanded help to be provided and, perhaps, different rules to be introduced. I am keen to find out about that so, if you could get back to me, that would be great.