Chamber and committees

You talked about local variation and said that, in some areas, things are working really well and, in others, not so well. What might help to ensure that students right across the board get the impact of that support and the encouragement that they need?

I have a wee supplementary question, which goes back to what we were talking about in the first place. It seems that wraparound support for wellbeing is a key priority for students—that seems to be what they are looking for. Going back to the point about the parity of students’ views, do students have the power to insist that boards and principals make that a priority for their colleges?

I will turn first to Amy Monks. We heard in previous evidence that students need that support to make sure they are getting involved in the key decision making and that, when they come to boards or the college student association, they are not just reporting back on what it is that they have done. I am interested in any examples of how students have influenced some of the key decisions that have been made there.

Yes, convener. As a follow-up question, perhaps for Al Wilson, how important are the officer roles in supporting students and making sure that they are part of making these key decisions?

I apologise, convener. When I said Amy Monks, I actually meant Heather Innes, who made the comment.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate, as the health and wellbeing of our young people are central to our nation’s future.

In reflecting on the inquiry into the health and wellbeing of young people this year, it is important to ask what it really means to be a healthy young person. “Healthy” can mean different things to different people but, generally, it means a state of positive physical, mental and social wellbeing. Simply put, it means that someone is happy, thriving and flourishing. That chimes with the Scottish Government’s getting it right for every child, or GIRFEC, policy approach, which seeks to ensure that all our young people are safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.

The committee looked at the barriers to achieving positive health and wellbeing. Time and again, we heard how poverty harms our children and young people. So far, much of the debate has focused on poverty, and it will be my focus, too—I make absolutely no apology for that. In the oral evidence sessions, Heather Connolly of the British Psychological Society, among others, concluded that the biggest issue affecting the health and wellbeing of children is poverty, and that message was echoed again and again.

Aberlour has highlighted the impact of poverty on the family as a whole and reminded us that children spend only around 15 per cent of their time in school. That is why so much of the third sector’s work to support children’s learning focuses on family wellbeing by, for example, helping with challenges around family relationships, struggles with debt and domestic abuse.

The committee heard worrying evidence about how poverty damages health and wellbeing and that the pandemic has hit the poorest the hardest. However, despite all the evidence, the UK Government ploughed ahead with a deadly £20 cut to universal credit, which pushed a further 20,000 children into poverty. That was a really callous and disturbing decision. As the cost of living crisis pushes even more families into poverty, our children will again pay the price through the impact on their health and wellbeing.

Child poverty is a scourge that means growing up without access to good, decent and nutritious food. It means missing out on sport and other healthy activities, saying no to fun with friends and home living conditions that strain family relationships and make it really difficult to study and to learn. Hungry children from cold and damp homes, with parents who are battling poverty every day, will struggle to learn, grow and thrive in our classrooms and in our society more generally.

Poverty has a clear and undeniable negative impact on the mental health of whole families and, as we have heard, it often leaves children feeling stigmatised and isolated. In many struggling families, children are in the heartbreaking situation of looking out for their parents and, in effect, shouldering the responsibilities of poverty. We cannot ignore the stories of kids hiding their school trip leaflets or avoiding social get-togethers with their friends. Too often, having fun costs money, and those kids do not want their parents to feel as though they are letting down their children. Those stories are a clear manifestation of the impact of poverty on our young people’s wellbeing.

Of the committee’s 99 recommendations, I will highlight two that I believe are the absolute cornerstones of enhancing children’s health and wellbeing. The first is recommendation 32, which calls on the Scottish Government

“to further prioritise spending to mitigate the adverse impact of poverty on the health and wellbeing of children and young people.”

The second is recommendation 42, which states:

“Tackling poverty has to be at the heart of an effective strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people.”

In evidence to the committee, Heather Connolly, from the British Psychological Society, told the committee:

“If we do not target poverty and child poverty, all the other money that we are spending on services and early interventions will not work as well. People will not be able to engage with those services, because they will still be too worried about getting food on the table or getting clothes for their kids in order that they can go to school. They will not feel safe and secure or a sense of hope that things will get better; therefore, they will be unlikely to engage with services or professionals.”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 11 January 2022; c 26-7.]

That is why the Scottish Government continues to invest in actions to tackle the blight of poverty in 2022, as we have heard. I again highlight that more than 100,000 children have already been supported with the Scottish child payment, and I welcome the further roll-out of the payment to 400,000 children by the end of this year. It is also worth mentioning that, this week, encouraging figures were published on positive destinations for school leavers. The gap is narrowing.

In the absence of fiscal autonomy, we, as a devolved Government, are confined to balancing public finances without being able to borrow. However, as Audit Scotland’s recent report acknowledges, the Scottish Government has successfully delivered existing social security benefits and has introduced complex new ones—including the Scottish child payment, the child disability payment and the adult disability payment—in challenging circumstances, amid a pandemic. Audit Scotland highlights that as a significant achievement, and we must continue to step up to such challenges, because our young people are counting on us to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up in.

Yesterday, the First Minister fired the starting gun on a new campaign for Scottish independence, and she will set out a vision over the coming weeks and months. That vision will have tackling poverty and inequality at its centre, and it could dramatically improve the life chances of our young children. I can think of no better case for independence than finally being fiscally free to invest in strategies that will lift all children out of poverty, thereby enhancing their health and wellbeing.

My first question is for Dr Wright, who spoke earlier about lobbying Westminster for an increase in universal credit rates. I would certainly not disagree with that, but what about the fundamental design flaws in that system such as conditionality—I think that I have said that properly—for employed and unemployed people, the initial long waiting periods of at least five weeks during which people go without money and the length and severity of the sanctions, which, compared with the rest of the world, are incredibly severe?

I have a different question that is a bit wider. How do we put wellbeing at the centre of approaches to all the issues that we are hearing about around the table? Is there a place for wellbeing plans for individuals that they have power and control over, so that they are looking at their needs, prioritising them and using that as their access to different services across the board?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app is not working. I would have voted no.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I, too, would have voted no. My vote was not recorded, either.