Chamber and committees

No, I have not fed into that, because, as I said earlier, that was before my time, but I can bring Nick Bland in again if you wish further information on that.

I have noted your comments, and I can follow up on the guidance that is used by the independent fund distributor—as I said, it is either “Inspire” or “Aspire”, but I can never remember which one it is. It uses clear monitoring and governance structures. That is all written down, and I can provide you with that evidence.

That is always a challenge, and we want to prevent siloing—I think that that is what you referred to in your question. The eternal conundrum is to get that clarity and that connection and collaboration across portfolios. It is a challenge. There is absolutely no doubt about that.

I say right from the beginning that I have not had a direct role in the setting of the national outcomes. Those were laid in Parliament before my appointment to this role. However, obviously, I have a keen interest.

Nick Bland can come in on this one, because it was before my time—that is the only reason.

Obviously, we want to prevent delays as much as possible, but I cannot give you a definitive answer to that. Where there are suitable course corrections that do not alter the intent of the original action and lessons are learned for the second half of the equality evidence strategy, those will be highlighted. Work on that is on-going, but I am broadly content with the direction of travel.

Analysts across the Scottish Government and the National Records of Scotland are now progressing with the equality data improvement actions set until the end of 2025. Action leads provided an update on progress in September 2024. I can highlight to you that, of the 45 actions in the strategy, 14 are complete, 23 are on course, seven are delayed and one is not yet started. Details of progress and causes for delays are discussed with the EDIP project board on a quarterly basis. An interim review of the equality evidence strategy and EDIP will be published by the end of 2024. That will set out the challenges faced, which can be expected to cover points such as issues with collecting and analysing data, especially with regard to datasets that are too small, for instance, and delays due to indirect processes. For example, some surveys are currently being evaluated, so new data is delayed because of that, as well as there being issues of resourcing and prioritisation, as you would expect.

I will try to answer that question, although it is quite complex, and there are many views on the issue. I listened with interest to the evidence that was given to the committee. It is a conundrum that I wrestle with, as I have a history and an interest in mainstreaming in particular. The matter is actively being considered, and one of the issues is about mainstreaming. I am also getting calls regarding disaggregation and intersectional data. At the moment, I am wrestling with the need to make sure that there is no dilution for any particular group.

One of the calls that I get is to recognise that we are not a homogeneous group, and women are not a homogeneous group, either. We should bear in mind that women make up more than 50 per cent of the population, so they are not technically a minority group, either. However, we know that budgeting has an impact on women, and there can be exponential negative impacts for those who are also disabled or in an ethnic minority, for instance.

That is where I am at the moment. I am considering all those strands and weighing up whether we need to have one thing or the other. Is there a way that we can bring it all together while not having so much data that we do not know what to do with it all? Sometimes, when we gather data on intersectionalities, it can be so small that it is not valid. It is about making sure that we have quality assurance across the piece.

I take extremely seriously my role in mainstreaming equality across all portfolios. The member will be aware of that. Ultimately, I suppose that I should do myself out of a job because, in every portfolio, every minister who makes budget decisions should have the confidence, the tools, the data and everything that they need—[Interruption.]

All countries around the world are grappling with that challenge. I am satisfied that we are making progress and I assure the member and the committee that, in my role, I will continue to provide the service, support and leadership that the true embedding of mainstreaming requires.

Thank you for that question. I have reflected on that issue. On balance, it is an absolute bonus that I had that previous role on the committee, because I can see more clearly the lens through which the citizen sees those things. While the Government does its work and provides its documents, we have to challenge the accessibility of those documents to the average citizen and improve their transparency.

Another reflection is that equalities covers every strand of the various portfolios, but the big fiscal levers and the big budgets do not lie within the equalities budget. The big challenge for me in my role is therefore to encourage, support and challenge my colleagues across portfolios.

Thank you, convener. It is a pleasure to be back for a second time since I took over as Minister for Equalities.

I am no stranger to the committee, given my previous role as its convener, and members will be well aware that, at that time, my personal commitment was to ensure that the budget delivered for the most marginalised in Scotland. I came to my ministerial role determined to ensure that we accelerate progress to embed equality and human rights into everything that we do, and the budget process is an integral part of that.

This year, I know that you are particularly interested in transparency in the budget process. The Scottish Government is committed to embedding equality and human rights considerations into budget decision-making processes and the three principles of accountability, participation and transparency. For example, we have improved the Scottish Government’s publication, “Your Scotland, Your Finances”, which we publish as a citizen’s budget. That online publication has been reviewed to improve accessibility and is now produced four times a year, alongside the draft Scottish budget, the final budget approved by Parliament and in-year adjustments to reflect autumn and spring budget revisions.

Through successive open government national action plans, we have worked with the Parliament, its committees and wider stakeholders to improve the understanding of our public finances, and as a result, 23 supporting documents have been published for the 2024-25 Scottish budget. The open budget survey, which was published by the Scottish Human Rights Commission in July, highlighted that Scotland has made progress on all three areas of open budgeting at a time when many countries have stalled or, indeed, slipped backwards.

We are also progressing actions to deliver the recommendations made by the equality and human rights budget advisory group. Last month, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government and I met the group to discuss how we can achieve our shared ambitions.

As for the Scottish budget process of 2025-26, the Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution. Although the United Kingdom budget is a step in the right direction, it still leaves us facing enormous cost pressures, and we therefore must make difficult decisions to put Scotland’s finances on a sustainable footing while putting money behind our priorities. Equality and human rights considerations are not separate from those priorities, but underpin them all.

The Scottish Government will ensure that the budget process complies with our legal and statutory duties, but we must—and will—go further than that. Evidence is being gathered from across Government to support the decision-making process, including through a recent ministerial workshop on equality and fairer Scotland and child rights considerations in this year’s budgets that was chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and supported by me as Minister for Equalities.

Improvements that have been made this year have focused on better integration with the programme for government and the budget process itself to ensure that evidence actively shapes budget decisions when they are made. For example, the cross-ministerial workshop took place earlier in the budget process and had a clearer focus on the difficult decisions required to bring the budget into balance.

Those improvements are supported by new analytical capabilities, which build on previous feasibility studies to provide evidence on the distribution of Government spending on childcare, health, schools and transport across different households. The equality and fairer Scotland budget statement will set out major decisions that are taken as part of the budget, including the evidence to support those. That will include decisions to maintain, increase or decrease spending.

I use my role to demonstrate visible leadership, exert influence and support my ministerial colleagues to deliver effectively. Changing the culture to mainstream equality and human rights across Government is a matter of urgency as well as a moral obligation. In the coming months, I will meet one to one with my ministerial colleagues to explore what actions can be taken in each portfolio to improve equality and human rights. That will include emphasising their duties under the public sector equality duty and highlighting the excellent guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

I hope that the committee recognises the Government’s commitment to continued improvement in equality and human rights budgeting and the actions that we are taking to achieve that.

I thank Karen Adam for bringing this important debate to the chamber, and I thank all the members who have taken part. I welcome the One Parent Families Scotland representatives who are in the public gallery.

Back in September 2022, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the launch of the One Parent Families Scotland report “Living without a lifeline” at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. I was struck then, as I am now, by the importance of tackling poverty, especially given the cost of the school day and the impact that stigma can have on one-parent families. I am therefore delighted to close this members’ business debate to celebrate the 80th anniversary of One Parent Families Scotland, which has worked tirelessly to support families to achieve their potential, to reach a decent standard of living and to contribute to Scottish society.

As Karen Adam highlighted, single-parent families make up a quarter of all families with children in Scotland. Over the years, One Parent Families Scotland has supported thousands of parents and children, and it continues to do so each year, making an intrinsic difference to the lives and future chances of generations of children across Scotland. The support and advice, and the strategies and tools, that the organisation’s dedicated staff provide have helped to empower parents and increase children’s resilience, confidence and academic achievement.

When the charity was formed all those years ago, single parenting was a taboo subject, which had a damaging impact on mother-and-child relationships. Thankfully, through the work of charities such as One Parent Families Scotland, attitudes have changed for the better. I therefore join my colleagues Stephen Kerr, Martin Whitfield and Maggie Chapman in paying tribute to and celebrating—as they did eloquently—the strength, love and resilience of single-parent families across Scotland, and the work that One Parent Families Scotland does with them.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that every child has the nurturing care that they need to get the best start in life and to fulfil their potential. We want to protect parents and carers from stigma and give them the resources and the help that they need, where and when they need them, to ensure that children have what they require for healthy development.

We know that parents and carers are the strongest influence on a child’s life, and by helping parents, carers, families and communities to build better lives for themselves and their children, we can help to ensure that every child has the best start in life. Being a parent or carer is one of the most rewarding and important roles that anyone can take on, and we recognise that the challenges are even greater for single-parent families, who are disproportionately impacted by issues such as poverty.

There can be no acceptable number of children living in poverty in Scotland, and ending child poverty is a national mission of the Scottish Government and the top priority of our First Minister. In our document “Best Start, Bright Futures—Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-2026”, we identify six priority family types that are at greatest risk of poverty. That includes lone-parent families, of which about 90 per cent are headed by women, and young mothers under 25. We know that both those groups are at considerable risk of poverty. We therefore recognise the critical role that advice services such as One Parent Families Scotland play across Scotland’s communities.

Key to tackling child poverty is helping people to understand their rights and seek solutions in a range of areas such as benefits, debt, housing and homelessness. By providing access to advice on income maximisation and debt management and other valuable support, the One Parent Families Scotland advice and information service is working with the Scottish Government to reduce child poverty across Scotland. We have provided more than £500,000 of funding this year to the service in recognition of its ambitions to improve and increase the financial wellbeing of single parents and their families.

We are also supporting One Parent Families Scotland with core funding. Since 2016, through our children, young people and families early intervention third sector fund, we have been providing more than £370,000 annually to support organisational costs, which enables One Parent Families Scotland to continue its vital work, because we want to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.

I draw attention to Emma Roddick’s speech, in which she illustrated clearly how children can make demands on parents, who often have to balance those demands within their means. I take the opportunity to highlight the work of Parent Club Scotland, which provides, through its website, email programme and social media channels, supportive tried and tested tips and advice for low-income families to help parents with the everyday challenges and issues that they face.

Roz McCall raised the issue of single parents not being able to work and their need to have benefits while they cannot access the type of work that they need. Benefits provide an important lifeline and, although this Government does what it can, I take the opportunity to call on the UK Government to abolish the two-child cap, which serves only to push hard-pressed families further into poverty and denies parents vital financial support that is needed to look after their children.

Rona Mackay was right to mention the game-changing Scottish child payment and the positive impact that it has had. I mention the value of the baby box, which provides very important resources in the early stages.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with fantastic organisations such as One Parent Families Scotland to support single-parent families and ensure that all children in Scotland grow up loved, safe and respected and can realise their full potential. I congratulate One Parent Families Scotland on its remarkable 80 years of service to single-parent families across Scotland and simply say thank you.