Chamber and committees

It is only nine months until COP27, when the goals set in Glasgow will be revisited and the baton will be handed to Egypt. The road to COP27 requires leadership, partnership and investment—I will touch on each of them.

Throughout COP26, Scotland led the way in amplifying the voices of our green generation. The Scottish Government was a bridge between the voiceless and decision makers. The powerful might have left Glasgow, but Scotland is still that bridge and we must use the respect that we garnered in Glasgow to ensure that commitments are delivered.

Scotland was praised for its leadership in dedicating £2 million to a loss and damage fund and committing to a world-first £36 million climate justice fund. There are still people who ask why we should send money to the other side of the world when we are dealing with a cost of living crisis at home, but let us not forget the unifying message that we heard in Glasgow: we are all in this together. From Bellshill to Bangladesh, from Uddingston to Uganda, none of us is safe until we are all safe. Climate justice means acknowledging that our fellow humans are just that—they are human like you and me, Presiding Officer—and leadership means setting aside arbitrary borders and acting as one planet.

That brings me on to partnership. Covid has illustrated well the real power of partnership, with scientists around the globe harnessing their astonishing talents to create vaccines to a previously unimaginable timescale. That is the kind of dynamism and urgency that we need ahead of COP27.

Global partnership must be matched by local partnership. The building blocks to Scotland’s climate response exist in our own communities. Local people need to understand the causes and impacts of climate change and how they can work individually and collectively to be part of the solution.

Local businesses also have much to offer. ACS Clothing Ltd is a real climate champion. It is reshaping the fashion industry, which is the second-biggest polluter on earth; it is bringing big brands into the circular economy through resale and reuse. ACS already operates a carbon-neutral business and aims to be net zero by 2025. Its innovation, initiative and ideas convince me that it will succeed at that. Such businesses show us a yellow-brick road to COP27 and we must learn from them, nurture them and widely share their innovation and success.

Partnership is also about listening. Now more than ever, every voice is valid and every innovation is transferable. As we seek to address the climate emergency together, it is critical to include our young people—those who will need to live longest with any decisions that we make. I look forward to joining high school students from my Uddingston and Bellshill constituency next week for our first sustainability forum. I will listen to their views, concerns and ideas, which will shape my actions in the chamber and local government.

On investment, we must learn from history as we transform our economy to protect our planet. Thatcherism devastated coal mining communities such as those in Lanarkshire in the 1980s and 1990s. The underemployment and health inequalities still linger. However, the Scottish Government is not repeating those mistakes and I applaud it for working in concert with businesses and unions to invest in skilled, green jobs.

The task ahead can feel overwhelming, especially with the pandemic, the horrors of war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis at home. Those are all pressing and urgent matters for Government, but they cannot steer us off the path to COP27. The science is clear: 2020 was Europe’s hottest year on record and Australia has recorded its warmest day ever. Only if we accelerate climate action can COP26 be judged a success. We need leadership, partnership and investment.

The “Make it right” campaign, which is led by the young people of North Lanarkshire, is encouraging other local children to better understand their rights. The young people have even created and starred in their own social media video.

What steps is the Scottish Government taking to involve young people in raising awareness of children’s rights ahead of incorporation of the UNCRC in Scots law?

I have a couple of questions. How does the Scottish Government’s proposed approach compare with what is happening elsewhere in the UK and in other countries?

I have a wee question that came from the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament about involving young people. How can we ensure that involvement is not just having an individual young person sitting at the table who gets to put their voice across a couple of times, but means really involving young people and enabling them to influence the decisions that are being made? How does that play into the legislation?

I am also interested in representation for young people with additional support needs who might not find it as easy to express their views. We have looked at the childcare hubs that were set up, which were not about education but were for looking after the children of key workers. Those hubs later incorporated some young people with additional support needs, too. How do we ensure that we are looking out for those young people and prioritising and protecting their needs?

Like Fergus Ewing, I want to highlight the point about saving lives. Although that is something that we need to put front and centre, it was not mentioned that much at last week’s committee meeting. Certainly, the first priority for any Government is to protect its citizens, and the bottom line is that the buck stops with it. After all, the very first human right is the right to life, and we need to be alive to exercise all the other rights that come underneath that.

Just as the actions of a future Scottish Government cannot be predicted, so we are in exactly the same situation with partners. We cannot guarantee that organisations such as those whose representatives we were speaking to last week will act very responsibly in future circumstances.

It was good that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland said that he believed that all the actions that had been taken so far during the coronavirus had been necessary, proportionate, lawful and time limited and that we had met all those things. Mr Rennie and others talk about the Government being in the majority in the Parliament and pushing the bill through, but is it not true that we all have an equal interest here? As we do not know what Scottish Government will be in charge in the future, all of us, from every party, have an equal interest in ensuring that safeguards are in place and that we have a balanced right to offer adequate protections in the future.

I was wondering whether the possibility of a sunset clause was discussed. Was consideration given to refreshing or reviewing the proposed legislation at the start of each parliamentary session?

Alternative pathways that provide early interventions for children and young people’s mental health at an early stage can prevent mental health issues from becoming more serious and reaching crisis point. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to address the difficulties currently faced by children and families wishing to access alternative mental health services and to ensure that mental health care can be stepped up or down between tiers 2 and 3 without the child’s place on any waiting list being lost?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress it is making to reduce waiting times for children’s mental health services. (S6O-00829)

I have a question for Hannah Tweed. Do link workers have formal qualifications or undergo formal training, or is there a huge advantage to drawing in people who have a range of experiences, skills and community connections and who can connect well with patients?

One point that has been made is that service design should be informed by evidence. How can we build a more effective evidence base to improve service design? What lessons do we need to learn to improve the future design of alternative pathways? That question is for Dr Williams, first.

My second question is for Wendy Panton. What specific actions should be prioritised to improve service delivery? Should scaling up successful things to national level be a priority? For example, our papers mention an Audit Scotland case study about Highland Council’s introduction of primary mental health workers. The evaluation of outcomes from that showed that 78 per cent of young people and 95 per cent of parents felt that the support had mostly or completely helped their situation.