Chamber and committees

I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for taking another intervention—I do appreciate it, and I am listening very intently to what she is saying.

What role does she think Education Scotland would play if curriculum Scotland was created? Would the new body not just duplicate efforts that are already being made? Can she expand on how she thinks it would work?

I hear what you say, which is that we need to go for different options, but, unless we review the options first, is it not a risk in itself to just choose one out of a hat? I am sorry if that sounds a bit cheeky—I do not mean it to be—but do you understand what I am trying to say? You say that we need a different option, but surely it would be better to review the options that are available before making a decision, so that we are less likely to make the wrong decision.

The committee has received a letter from Universities Scotland that raised serious concerns about the ramifications of the member’s amendments for the entire education and skills system. I ask her to respond to those concerns.

When you talk about giving the accreditation function to the chief inspector, how do you envisage them continuing to fulfil their current role, given that it would give them extra duties? Has what you suggest taken place elsewhere? Is there a precedent?

Will the member take an intervention?

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer—my apologies for confusing you by sitting in a different seat tonight.

I thank all my colleagues across the chamber who signed my motion on global intergenerational week 2025, and I thank in advance those members who will take part in the debate. I also welcome Alison and Kshitija from the Generations Working Together team, who are in the public gallery.

The theme of this year’s global intergenerational week is intergenerational learning. This is not the first debate that I have led on intergenerational working, which has led to someone asking me what personal experience I have had that makes me care so much about the subject—what is my story? To be honest, I do not have any particular personal experience that has led me to this issue, just a general belief that it is important for different generations to engage with and learn from one another.

As for stories, however, there have been so many. Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, before Facebook and Twitter—and, indeed, before Bebo and MySpace; who remembers them?—most communication was spoken rather than written. Some of it was practical, such as skills and language—that is how Doric has made its way down the generations—while another part of it was myths and legends, as well as some good old-fashioned gossip.

That is how so much of our history is passed down to us. Those of us from more humble beginnings know that history books were not written about farmhands and factory workers. Their stories and legacies were passed down and kept alive by word of mouth. That is what makes our uncle or great-uncle—or even our great-great-uncle, depending on how old we are—a person rather than an inscription on the local war memorial for someone whom we have never met. It is how so many of our folk songs, recipes and traditional skills, and the stories that are unique to our families and communities, have made their way down to us today.

I mentioned social media, and I come back to that. Social media—indeed, the internet in general—has changed how we share information, for better and for worse. It has led to there being an online Doric dictionary, which is for the better; it has supported people to share their lives with the world in a way that they never could before; and it has put some of our culture in front of larger audiences in a way that we could never possibly have imagined. However, in amongst the world’s-worth of videos, blogs and web pages that we have at our fingertips, we have moved to a situation in which the majority of the content that people see online has been created in the past 24 hours, and that does not bode well for the stories that have been passed down the generations.

We have also seen a shift in how folk engage with one another. Our communities used to be mostly based on where we lived; we knew our neighbours and their neighbours, and their neighbours’ neighbours. Nowadays, people can find friends on the other side of the planet who share the same interests, or they can find folk with common interests and then form a new kind of community with them. However, with those much wider nets, more folk—and especially older folk—can slip through, and we are seeing increased isolation as a result.

I want to use today’s debate to talk about why there is still a case for intergenerational learning and for different generations to learn from one another. It not only teaches new information and skills, but provides opportunities to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions, with ageism against both young and old being a particular problem.

On the theme of intergenerational learning, Generations Working Together has provided us with a wonderful briefing. As the MSP for Aberdeen Donside, I think that the best bit is where it talks about Aberdeen, particularly the intergenerational choir that is run by ACE Voices in Aberdeen. That project has been credited with reconnecting communities, providing learning and leadership opportunities, helping to reduce isolation and loneliness and reducing ageism. It is a fantastic initiative, and it is just one of numerous such initiatives across Scotland. For example, there is the intergenerational shared site that consists of a nursery inside a care home in Methilhaven in Fife, and there is the junior Up Helly Aa in Shetland. There are older adults mentoring young folk in the Citadel Youth Centre in Leith, and there is the great work of the F’aside women and girls group in East Lothian.

I expect to see more of that in the future—and I say “expect”, because of the work that Generations Working Together has done in, for example, developing lesson plans and resources for primary schools to prepare children for intergenerational learning. I am sure that it will give members a copy of that material to anyone who wants it—I got one from the organisation earlier. It has also worked with Education Scotland and produced two new practice guidance handbooks on intergenerational work.

I will remind members what Generations Working Together is now asking for so that it can build on what it has already done. It is urging everyone to recognise the importance of three things. The first is intergenerational training to enable staff and volunteers to start from a place of good practice. The second is funding for intergenerational projects. If anyone is thinking of funding intergenerational projects, I promise them that it will be money well spent. I know at first hand, as a member of the ABZ propeller fund—which is funded by Aberdeen airport and gives out money to charities and groups in north-east Scotland—the fantastic difference that that can make. In my area, the fund has allocated money to the Bridge of Don men’s shed for a polytunnel that it uses with Forehill primary school, with the not-so-young teaching the young how to grow things. That is just one fantastic example of intergenerational work.

Thirdly, the organisation is asking for at least two members of staff or volunteers in each project or school to be trained and supported over the long term to build their knowledge and confidence in the field of intergenerational practice.

I will finish by urging everyone to do something, too. Go and have a conversation with someone different, from a different generation. Learn or teach something, such as a new phrase, or, for those in Aberdeen, teach the younger generation the Doric. You will be glad that you did.

The warmer homes Scotland programme can help to fund not only small changes but transformative whole-house retrofits if that is what is required to combat fuel poverty. Can the minister say more about how, since it was relaunched in 2023, warmer homes Scotland has gathered pace in its work to ensure that all homes in Scotland have access to green, affordable heating? Will he provide an update on funding in the 2025-26 budget to support warmer homes Scotland or similar schemes?

I want to ask you about the attendance part of it as well.

If I can go to—

As yet, there are no recommendations on how that could be done. You are just asking the Scottish Government to deal with it. Is that correct?