Chamber and committees

Will the minister join me in welcoming Ireland’s pilot project, dubbed “the little baby bundle”, which will see 500 newborn babies receive a baby box in a policy initiative that is similar to Scotland’s? Does she agree that universality is an essential aspect of Scotland’s scheme, which promotes an equal start for all children in Scotland, reducing stigma and conveying benefits beyond the purely financial?

Brexit continues to have a substantial economic impact on the UK and Scotland. Will the minister provide further information about the assessment that the Scottish Government has made of the impact of Brexit on Scotland’s economy? Will he say more about the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to mitigate the impact of Brexit on Scotland’s public finances?

Kaukab Stewart has identified an error in her contribution and provided the following correction.

At col 26, paragraph 4—

Original text—

As Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stated:

“The UK Government has breached the foundational principle of international refugee protection.”

Corrected text—

As Professor Alison Phipps, UNESCO chair in refugee integration through languages and the arts, stated:

“The UK Government has breached the foundational principle of international refugee protection.”

I agree in principle to looking at any opportunity to provide dignity and respect to all those we welcome here. I further suggest that all immigration policy should be devolved to Scotland as soon as possible so that we can make those decisions for ourselves.

Children who live in hotels are close to my heart. Thankfully, the policy that said that children could not enrol in school until a permanent catchment area was decided has been changed and children can now go to school from day 1. They now have the opportunity to play, make friends and learn, which is so important. I place on record my thanks to the community, staff and pupils of Garnethill and St Patrick’s primary schools, among others, for their welcome to asylum-seeking children. I have had the joy of teaching children from Syria and Afghanistan and have been privileged to see their progress.

I believe that we must move away from a profit motive in our system for asylum seekers and refugees. It is long overdue that the right to bid for contracts to house and care for asylum seekers should be returned to councils, along with the funding to do so.

I am mindful of the time and will skip to my final point. I thank asylum seekers and refugees for their courage and tenacity in challenging the system, both for their own sake and for the sake of those who follow them in calling Scotland their home.

I am grateful for the opportunity to mark world refugee day and to highlight Scotland’s efforts to welcome asylum seekers and refugees from around the world to what I consider to be a safe haven, where they have the opportunity to live meaningful lives free from fear and persecution.

I will go on to talk about asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow, but it is impossible to talk about this subject without first and foremost condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the UK Government’s latest appalling immigration policy, which is to traffic asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be considered and decided. The policy is inhumane and the Home Office that pursues it is callous, uncaring and in breach of international obligations. As Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stated:

“The UK Government has breached the foundational principle of international refugee protection.”

[Kaukab Stewart has corrected this contribution. See end of report.] Just as I thought that the Home Office could not strip away any more dignity from refugees, it is now electronically tagging them, further dehumanising and depriving human beings of even a moment of peace.

In complete contrast is Scotland’s approach to asylum seekers and refugees, which is outlined in the “New Scots Refugees Integration Strategy”. The approach places refugees and asylum seekers at the heart of the communities in which they live.

I whole-heartedly celebrate the contribution that asylum seekers and refugees make to this country, and I agree that there are many positive aspects to Scotland’s approach and practice. However, I will point out some things that need to be improved.

According to Professor Alison Phipps, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization chair for refugee integration through language and the arts at the University of Glasgow, the UK Government’s Nationality and Borders Act 2022 undermines our ability to pursue a compassionate and progressive strategy. Professor Phipps highlights the efforts of Together with Refugees, a coalition of expert lawyers led by the University of Glasgow honorary graduate Dr Sabir Zazai OBE, who is CEO of the Scottish Refugee Council and of JustRight Scotland. Those groups work tirelessly to advocate for asylum seekers and to unpick the legal impacts on Scotland of the UK Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

I commend to the minister the work done by Refugees for Justice in preparing an asylum dispersal proposal for Scotland. I would also commend it to the Home Secretary, but I fear that all compassionate approaches are far from the hostile environment agenda that is clearly being set down there.

Last Monday, I was privileged to speak with asylum seekers living in Glasgow Kelvin, who had recently been residents in one of the several private establishments that house asylum seekers when they arrive here. Some of their experiences were far from ideal. I was struck by their stories. They had previously been doctors, teachers and other professionals and were all desperate to work and to provide for their families. The right to work should be at the heart of any compassionate system. They paid tribute to the warm welcome that they had received from Glaswegians and were very grateful to Migrant Empowerment, which I note is represented here today, for its assistance.

Hotel accommodation is not part of the agreement between the UK Government and those who are paid to house vulnerable people. The maximum amount of time that any asylum seeker should spend in a hotel is five days; the average stay in hotel accommodation in Glasgow is currently 72 days, and many residents have been there longer, due to a lack of accommodation for placements. That is unacceptable.

Asylum seekers get around £40 a week from the UK Government, via a voucher card that can be used only in certain shops and does not give change. If the card stops working, that can take days to resolve, meaning that the asylum seeker has no access to money. That is obviously unacceptable.

Just to explore that a bit further, what suggestions could be given to the students whom you consult with? I was going to come on to the ones who might slip through the net, because we want to be there for everybody and leave nobody behind. What do colleges do to make sure that they catch everybody? Do students who are not so prepared feel that they can ask for extra support, and can the colleges respond to that?

I am interested in parity of esteem for all courses. It was good to hear about the widening participation routes. If a student chooses one of those routes, how well prepared do they feel to take the next steps, whatever those may be? You have demonstrated that, by and large, students can choose different routes, but how well prepared for that do they feel? Are they nervous or apprehensive? Are they supported? Do they get advice from the right people at the right time?

Is there anyone who would particularly like to answer that?

The cost of living crisis is squeezing every household in Scotland, none more so than those on low and moderate incomes. In these difficult times, does the minister believe that mid-market rent can play an even greater role in the affordable housing supply programme, offering an alternative route for tenants?

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in support of what is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we will pass during this parliamentary session.

As WWF Scotland has pointed out, the way in which we currently produce and consume food represents one of the biggest drivers of the climate and nature emergencies that we face across the globe.

This legislation will be an important foundation to support and advance existing Scottish Government commitments on health and wellbeing, including the extension of free school meals and the halving of childhood obesity from its current rate of 29 per cent by 2030.

Obesity Action Scotland advised that healthy food can cost up to three times as much in deprived areas. The poorest one fifth of households need to spend 40 per cent of their disposable income to eat healthily, as opposed to just 7 per cent for the richest one fifth. Making good food affordable and accessible will be a primary objective of the good food nation plans that the Scottish Government and local authorities will be obliged to produce.

I note my sympathy with Monica Lennon’s amendments that related to the extension of the free school meals provision and the incorporation of UNCRC article 24 into Scots law. That article states that children and young people have the right to high-quality, nutritious food.

The Scottish Government will extend the free school meals provision from all primary 1 to 5 children to all children in primary and special schools during this parliamentary session. That is a significant commitment, with funding identified to deliver it. Further extension would require funding to be identified from a fixed budget. However, it is an ambition worthy of serious consideration should our future circumstances as a nation change.

The Scottish Government has made clear that it is committed to incorporating the UNCRC into all Scotland’s laws, within the limits of devolution. In the meantime, it is significantly increasing funding for child poverty and children’s rights-related action. I look forward to an update on work on incorporating UNCRC at the earliest opportunity.

Just as the food that we eat is fundamental to our health and wellbeing, the bill has the potential to underpin a range of policies from healthy eating and equality of access to good food to meaningful improvements in school meals and hospital catering, and from supporting local food producers and food production to taking responsibility for how our food system impacts on the environment. Those outcomes are urgently required. That is why organisations such as the Trussell Trust, Glasgow Community Food Network, Nourish Scotland, the Soil Association, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and many others have campaigned so hard and so effectively for this legislation.

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s acceptance of the amendment from Ariane Burgess, which requires the establishment of a Scottish food commission to oversee preparation and implementation of the plan.

Evie Murray, the founder and chief executive officer of Leith-based charity Earth in Common and long-term member of the Scottish Food Coalition, pointed out that

“It is very significant that the Scottish Government has recognised the importance of an independent food commission to oversee the implementation of the Good Food Nation Bill. Without it, the bill would have been toothless—not a good thing when it comes to food!”

Evie went on to say:

“With such a commission, Scotland is setting an example to the rest of the world. I believe that this cross-cutting, commission-backing legislation will produce multiple benefits for the people of Scotland and that other countries will follow suit.”

I thank the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for bringing the debate to the chamber and for the report that it published in May on its inquiry into the health and wellbeing of young people across the nation, which covered a wide range of important issues.

As we continue on our trajectory to making Scotland the best place for a child to grow up in, it is important to reflect on the critical work that is currently under way and to speak frankly about the many challenges that we face in getting there.

In Scotland, and in every country, poverty and social inequality are complex and multifaceted. They relate to much more than just income. Amnesty International’s former secretary general, Irene Khan, sums them up as being about

“economic and social rights, insecurity, discrimination, exclusion and powerlessness.”

In the committee’s report, there is worrying evidence of the growing impact of the cost of living crisis on our children and young people. Bill Scott, the chair of the Poverty and Inequality Commission, highlights the fact that

“Control over the vast majority of means-tested benefits, which are the most effective way of delivering support to lowincome families, is held at the UK Government level.”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 31 May 2022; c 26]

If memory serves me correctly, the Conservatives are more concerned with cuts than with offering meaningful support to people who are most in need.

New research published by Action for Children sheds light on the devastating impact of the recent cuts to universal credit. Analysis of the charity’s crisis fund, which provided emergency grants for food, utilities and other essentials to people in difficulty, found that more than half of the grants that were issued were awarded to those who were already receiving universal credit, suggesting that the payment is falling well below what is needed to meet even the most basic living costs. Among the appalling statistics are stories of keyworkers—who are doing all that they can to help—finding children arriving at school with chilblains on their feet because their house was so cold, or helping a single mother of two who, despite working 37 hours a week as a finance officer, still needed food vouchers to feed her family at Christmas.

By contrast—and as stated by the cabinet secretary to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee—in its never-ending attempt to mitigate the ripple effect of Tory austerity, the Scottish Government has worked hard to strengthen the financial support that is available for low-income families across the early years. The Scottish Government’s package of five family benefits includes the best start grant, best start foods and the Scottish child payment, which was doubled to £20 per week per child in April this year, all of which was achieved as part of the SNP Government’s first tackling child poverty delivery plan.

However, social security alone is not sufficient to tackle inequality. It is crucial to recognise the indisputable link between deprivation and poor mental health and how that, in turn, impacts on young people’s ability to thrive and reach their full potential. The millennium cohort study shows that poorer children are four times more likely to develop mental health problems by the age of 11 than children in higher-income families, not to mention the physical and emotional strain that living in poverty places on parents, causing feelings of shame and embarrassment that invariably filter through to their kids and can alter family dynamics.

Professor Hazel Borland, from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, touched on those feelings in her evidence to the committee:

“Poverty is incredibly stigmatising for families because it reduces choice. It reduces options and means that a child, young person or family cannot say yes to things that they might want to say yes to. Therefore, their world becomes much narrower”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 11 January 2022; c 17.]

and they begin to view themselves through a very limiting lens.

In the light of those points, I was pleased to see that the Scottish Government’s mental health transition and recovery plan is backed by a £120 million recovery and renewal fund over 2021-22. That represents the single largest investment in mental health in the history of devolution, as colleagues have mentioned.

I also welcome the additional £15 million that has been provided to local authorities to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for five to 24-year-olds in their communities, and the announcement of £5 million of funding for see me—the national programme to eliminate mental health stigma and discrimination.

As we look forward, and as part of the wider effort to ensure that children can flourish here, in Scotland, I join the committee in calling on the Scottish Government to set out in greater detail how the new child poverty delivery plan will contribute to improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people who currently live in poverty and to commission further research on the prevalence of mental health conditions among children and young people, so that we can build a better picture and allocate resources most effectively while remaining cognisant of the fact that prevention and early intervention are key.

No child should be going to school hungry or battling the stigma that goes with that. I look forward to the progress that we will make together as a country.