Chamber and committees

That would be helpful. Thank you very much.

In all of this, we are making mention of specific areas and demographics. Do you think that the policies reflect the intersectional nature of inequalities, and the fact that an individual could be affected by multiple inequalities, which will mean that they are further away from engaging in what is on offer?

Gregor Muir, you spoke about how increasing the participation rates of women in activities and sports might trickle down to increased participation on the part of their daughters. Should there be targeted interventions in some of the activities in local areas that would look to bring whole families in to participate in an activity together? I used to participate in local activities with my kids—it was an inexpensive night and there were a huge amount of different activities on offer for the family to participate in. Should we be looking at doing more of that?

Gregor Muir, you just answered quite a lot of the questions that I was going to ask.

That is all right. My questions are about inequalities in participation, so I will pursue that a little bit further. When we think about participation and access to sport, we usually think about universalism, but some clubs have moved towards policies that involve the targeting of resource to unlock participation, and I am interested in understanding how that works. We are just coming to the end of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month, and those communities are sometimes the furthest away from activities that are on offer. Is there a way that targeting those communities would help them to participate, and how could that be done?

I have a quick question on access to facilities. As we have been hearing, the school estate is one of the untapped resources that we have, but I wonder whether the legacy private finance initiative contracts have become a barrier to accessing that estate. I know that, when we tried that locally, having to get the facilities management company to come and open the schools made it completely cost prohibitive. Is that still an issue? Do we know that yet?

Thank you, convener. I am very grateful to be able to speak today in support of PE2156, lodged by my constituent Terence Lloyd, and which seeks improved and equitable access to ADHD diagnosis and treatment in Scotland.

Failure to diagnose and support ADHD early in life is not a neutral act. It causes lasting harm. When children and young people with ADHD are not recognised and supported, they are often labelled as disruptive, difficult, defiant or clumsy daydreamers. Without understanding the internalised shame and difference as they grow into adulthood, the consequences of that early neglect are compounded. We see individuals who are undiagnosed and unsupported fall through the cracks into systems that were never built to care for them: into substance use as a way of self-regulating; into the criminal justice system due to impulsivity or misunderstood behaviour; into cycles of poverty, debt, unstable housing and often homelessness. I have worked directly with people who have lived this reality. I know what it means to come to a diagnosis in your 30s, 40s or even 50s, after years of feeling broken, when in fact the system has failed you.

I personally know what it is like to be 50 and come to the realisation that I have lived my whole life with a neurodevelopmental difference, most likely ADHD, and I can look back on so much and understand it so much better.

This is a public health issue, this is a mental health issue, but above all, it is a social justice issue. ADHD is recognised as a neurodevelopmental condition that affects people from all walks of life, yet access to assessment and support remains deeply unequal. I have heard from far too many individuals who are left struggling for years without recognition, without treatment and without understanding.

In my area, there is no adult pathway to an ADHD diagnosis without a co-occurring severe and enduring mental health issue, and it is wholly unacceptable that people must become acutely unwell to have their ADHD recognised and treated. We must ask ourselves what kind of system allows someone to wait years for a diagnosis whilst their education, career, mental health and relationships suffer.

That is not a system built on fairness; it is not a system that reflects our shared commitment to health equity. Mr Lloyd’s petition brings into sharp focus the urgent need for reform. The postcode lottery in diagnostic services, the lack of specialised training for clinicians and the gaps in support post-diagnosis are all issues that we can and must address. By supporting the asks of this petition, we could affirm a fundamental truth: that every person in Scotland deserves access to timeous, compassionate and appropriate care, regardless of where they live and what their circumstances are.

There is a lot of work happening across the country as we sit here today, as the Government outlined, but in most places change is not being felt on the ground. We must collectively put our shoulders to the wheel on this issue. Thank you, convener.

I apologise to everybody. I will need to nip out to another committee shortly, but I will come back.

I want to understand the level of investment that your sector, or your members, have made in supply chain infrastructure and technology, and how that has helped to reduce barriers to trade in the past few years. I am also interested in the impact that an SPS agreement might have on what your sector, or your members, plan to do in that investment space.

As the minister has touched on, increasing the dental workforce plays a crucial role in improving access to NHS dentistry, in Dumfries and Galloway and across all our rural areas more widely. Can the minister say more about the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to support the dental workforce pipeline, especially in rural areas, where the need is acute, with far too many of our constituents travelling extensively to secure treatment, oftentimes when they are in pain?

I grew up in Canada, and what you describe reflects the hockey system there. It is very seductive for young people to get that kind of recognition at a young age, but the long-term impact is significant. I am not suggesting for one moment that that should never happen, because we want to recognise when somebody has talent. We want to nurture that, because we want to get those players into our teams, including, we hope, our national teams, so that we have strong players in Scotland.

It would have been really good to hear directly from young people. I know that you are here representing their voices, but I am glad to see that there are some young people in the gallery. Those are really uncomfy benches to sit on, so I am amazed that you are not wiggling about more and that we are not getting more noise over here. It would have been fantastic to hear from them.