Chamber and committees

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I want to go back to an answer that you gave to Willie Rennie. I think that you said that primary school teachers could move to teach in secondary schools if they had the qualifications.

Thank you.

I want to come in briefly on the back of George Adam’s question about additional support needs and the support workers who are put in place to help children. How do we ensure that the support follows the child as they move through their educational life?

I ask that because—at this point, I will put on my hat as a former local councillor—I know that schools got additional support workers to help with children’s needs, but, as the child moved up the school system, the support worker did not follow them. Does that make sense? The support worker would stay at the primary school when the child moved on to secondary school. How can we ensure that the additional support follows the child rather than staying in the school? I am keen that we ensure that the additional support that is available is used in the best way.

Section 20 of the 2005 act requires the SFC, in exercising all its functions, to:

“have regard to—

(a) skills needs in Scotland;

(b) issues affecting the economy of Scotland; and

(c) social and cultural issues in Scotland.”

Amendments 51 and 56 in my name seek to expand that requirement so that all the matters must also include consideration of issues

“in different localities within Scotland”

to take account of geographical diversity across the country.

Speaking as an Aberdonian and an MSP for Aberdeen, such provision is particularly important for my locality. Aberdeen has specific skills strengths and needs in relation to the energy industry, which is facing significant transition and change regarding the skills that employers will need in the future. My amendments therefore represent common sense and will strengthen the role and functions of the SFC in this important area. I encourage members to support my amendments 51 and 56.

I move amendment 51.

I welcome the minister’s amendments, which take us as far as we can go on fair work with our devolved powers. I understand the points that Stephen Kerr is making, but his amendment would narrow the functions of the SFC and unhelpfully limit the purpose of post-school training in education. Ensuring that it meets the needs of our economy is hugely important, but education cannot become that transactional. There is a strong need to support the wider societal benefits of post-16 training, education and skills development. I therefore cannot support Stephen Kerr’s amendment 58.

I press amendment 51.

Amendment 51 agreed to.

Amendments 52 to 55 moved—[Ben Macpherson]—and agreed to.

Amendment 56 moved—[Jackie Dunbar]—and agreed to.

Amendment 57 moved—[Ben Macpherson]—and agreed to.

Section 12—Consideration of skills needs and socio-economic issues

Amendment 58 moved—[Stephen Kerr].

As in the stage 1 debate, I thank the committee clerks, the witnesses, the ministers—former and present—and the officials. I also thank my fellow committee members for their work in scrutinising the bill. As members can imagine, there was more work to be done as we moved from the general principles of the bill to the nitty-gritty, so I add a little more thanks to reflect that.

I am disappointed—but not surprised—that some members are not supporting the bill. I am not surprised, because, in the two years that I have been on the committee, I do not think that Labour has yet supported a stage 1 general principles report. It does not matter what the subject of a bill is—Labour will amend it a great deal, but it will not support it.

However, I will repeat what I said at the start of my stage 1 speech on the bill. So often in the chamber, we talk about Scotland’s future and building a better country for the next generation. The bill is not just about building a future for the next generation but about ensuring that they have the skills and knowledge to build their own future.

Of course, the bill is not only about young folk. There are plenty of people who enter or re-enter tertiary education and training later in life for all sorts of reasons. Goodness knows that there are plenty of people in the Aberdeen area who have had to reskill and retrain in recent years, first because of the downturn that was caused by oil prices being too low and then because of the downturn that was caused by the windfall tax because oil prices were briefly too high.

Thankfully, the Scottish Government has stepped up to support training and retraining in our city, not least through its oil and gas transition training fund and by helping to fund North East Scotland College’s energy transition skills hub. That means that, whether the workers in my Aberdeen Donside constituency work in oil and gas or in renewables, they will continue to have the skills that are needed to power our nation and economy.

Let us get back to the bill that is in front of us. The bill will ensure that funding goes where it matters most: to supporting skills, to driving innovation, to ensuring that our economy has the talented workforce that it needs and to giving every learner the opportunity to thrive. Our colleges, universities and other training providers are tasked with equipping people—whether they are young people who are leaving school or those who want to retrain and take a new path—with the skills and qualifications that they can use to find their way in life, whether they use those to find a good-quality, well-paid job, to establish their own business or even to find a voluntary role. Folk want to contribute to our economy and to our society. The bill will help them to get the skills that they need.

Colleges, universities, apprenticeships and other training all help folk to improve their skill set. Therefore, it seems appropriate that I should talk about how the bill has itself been improved since it was first introduced. I will list some of the amendments that have been included in the bill. The bill now allows for a review of the credit-based funding model for colleges. There will now be a requirement for governing body members and senior officers at institutions to declare conflicts of interest.

More will be done to ensure that further and higher education institutions operate with transparency and accountability as a condition of funding. More will be done to protect whistleblowers and to ensure that there is better engagement with trade unions and students. New powers will also be introduced for the SFC to limit fees for apprenticeship managing agents.

Let us get on with it. Let us get the bill passed. Let us modernise how money gets to colleges, universities and training providers. Let us ensure that folk can get the skills and training that they need. Let us support our learners to better themselves so that they can go on to build a better Scotland.

I am pleased to have lodged two amendments that will ensure that regional and local needs can be considered and built into SFC activity in relation to skills planning and delivery. [Interruption.] Does Evelyn Tweed want to intervene?

I welcome the Scottish Government’s investment in additional support for learning and teacher numbers, which was announced this week in the 2026-27 Scottish budget. Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is essential that that funding makes its way into classrooms, where it can make the biggest difference?

I am pleased to speak in the stage 1 debate on the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill, which, to the outside world, is also known as the Promise. I thank everyone who has engaged with the committee, whether in writing or by giving oral evidence. Their evidence has been vital to the process.

I also thank our excellent clerking team for their first-class support, and my MSP colleagues for their collegiate working to get the bill to stage 1.

I was asked recently why I got involved in politics. As cheesy as it might sound, I first joined a political party after my daughter was born, because I wanted to make the world a better place for her. It was not until she grew up and I thought that I was getting away from some parental responsibilities that I let people talk me into standing for council.

One of the first things that I was told after my election in 2007 was that, as a councillor, I was now a corporate parent to every child that Aberdeen City Council was looking after. That was another 15 years of parental responsibilities until I stopped being a councillor in 2022, although we never really stop being parents, and I like to think that that is the case for corporate parents, too.

Just as I still want to make the world a better place for my daughter, I still want to make it a better place for children in the care system. That is why I was pleased to see the Promise to transform the care system by 2030 and to see it get unanimous support. It is also why I am pleased that we have the bill in front of us today, as we take another step towards meeting the Promise.

Right now, I especially thank the young folk who gave evidence to the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Some of them have been through a lot, but every one of them wants to make things better for those who will come after them through Scotland’s care system.

Those young folk all said that private care should not be there just to make a profit from them. They understood that, when the place providing the care was in public or charity hands, the money that it received would be invested back into future care. Overall, they were happy or, at least, content with that.

They also told us how important it was to have someone supporting them throughout their journey. I put on record just how impressed I was with every young person that spoke with the members of our committee. Each and every one was a credit to themselves in how they told us about their experiences and how things can and must be better. They had the courage to put themselves in that position and they all spoke well. They were thoughtful in what they said, and I cannot praise them enough for their contributions.

I like to think that the bill that we have in front of us at stage 1 reflects what we have been told by those who have experienced Scotland’s care system. It extends aftercare provision; it creates a legal right of access to advocacy; it requires guidance in relation to care experience to be published, in order to help reduce stigma; it will establish a national register of foster carers; it puts young people before profit; and it will ensure that we keep the Promise.

This bill would not be in front of us today if it were not for care-experienced people making their voices heard. So I asked Who Cares? Scotland whether they had some young folk who wanted to share their own words. The first point that came back was that the advocacy provided for care-experienced children and young people in Aberdeen is no longer independent. That will change if this bill passes, because it will give care-experienced people the option to access advocacy that is independent from service provision.

One care-experienced young person said:

“I like that I can choose if I have family time with mum or not—it makes me feel safer knowing I don’t have to see her if I don’t want to.”

Another shared:

“My advocacy worker goes to the hearing for me because it makes me anxious”.

I also want to share these words from Emma Marshall:

“A lot of young people don’t understand their rights. And even when they do, speaking up in a room full of adults who hold power over your life? That takes confidence that many of us simply didn’t have. That’s where independent advocacy becomes transformational. An advocate isn’t your social worker. They’re not your carer. They’re not part of the system making the decisions. Their only job is to make sure you’re heard—clearly, accurately, and without fear. When young people have advocacy, they don’t just attend meetings—they participate. They start understanding their options, and being present in decisions.”

I accept that this bill will not be exactly what everyone who fed into it wants. For a lot of folk, it probably is not perfect, even if it were to be amended and improved. However, it is progress. It is a step forward in keeping our promise—the Promise. It will make a world of difference to those who will spend some of their childhood in the care system.

It is welcome that the SNP Scottish Government’s progressive approach to taxation means that there is more funding available to support our vital public services, by asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay a little bit more, while protecting low-income households in Scotland. However, many powers over taxation remain reserved to the UK Government. Will the cabinet secretary give any indication as to how the budget will start to explore the use of wealth taxation within the limited powers of the Scottish Parliament?