Chamber and committees

In May last year, I asked the First Minister about the prescription of puberty blockers to children. He said:

“I support such decisions being made by clinicians—by the people who have clinical knowledge ... We should trust those who have clinical expertise, as opposed to standing here in the chamber ... making judgments about what is best for young people who need gender identity services.”—[Official Report, 18 May 2023; c 25.]

The truth of the matter is that we do not know whether puberty blockers have long-term life-changing consequences for young people who take them. That is why NHS England is conducting a review.

Will the First Minister publish all the evidence that his Government has that puberty blockers are safe for children? If his Government does not have any evidence, why is he allowing national health service boards to prescribe them?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the roll-out of free digital devices to school pupils. (S6O-03235)

I am afraid that it is broken promise after broken promise—from failing to close the poverty-related attainment gap to the roll-out of free school meals. Parents, teachers and pupils will now remember the SNP as the Government that stole the weans’ IT. Although I appreciate that the cabinet secretary was not in post at the time when the Government promised a free laptop to every school pupil, will she tell members why the Government promised something that it knew it would never be able to deliver?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce social housing waiting lists for disabled people. (S6O-03202)

Through its childcare expansion programme, the Government has created a system in which, when it comes to setting the rates, councils are both banker and competitor. Private, voluntary and independent nurseries are closing their doors. How on earth can the minister talk about the expansion of childcare and the importance of childcare when the Government does not have the right policy for it?

Absolutely. Nurses, doctors and others who work in front-line services are all impacted by that. That is why we need to look at childcare. I want childcare to work in Scotland. I think that everybody in the chamber wants that, but, every time I and others raise the issue, we seem to be shot down as if there are no problems whatsoever.

Nurseries in the private sector are closing their doors because this Government has not supported them under the current policy, and childminders are leaving the sector entirely. That is a shame, because the private sector is the backbone of our childcare sector. As Jeremy Balfour highlighted, it is the private sector that is offering parents choice so that they can get back to work. Without that, more parents will need to reduce their working hours or leave the workforce entirely. That will mean that we go backwards.

There is then the issue of councils. I recently learned that, in my own area, North Lanarkshire Council does not offer funded childcare to parents the day after the child turns three. That goes against the principle of the 1,140 hours. I received a response from the council’s education department, which told me that it had had to revert to the statutory guidance because of the legislation to defer entry to primary 1. That highlights the financial issues that our councils are facing just now—they have to go back to statutory policies because the Scottish Government has cut their funding. That is factually true, and the Government cannot continue to bury its head in the sand on the issue.

I do not want childcare expansion to fail. I want it to be a success, and I want it to work for parents and for young people. It is far too important to let it fail. It supports parents to get back into the workforce, and it drives down child poverty. I end with another plea: get the childcare expansion back on track so that we can all, collectively, work together to support parents and their children.

Will the cabinet secretary engage with the private sector to ensure that nurseries do not continue to close their doors? That will make the childcare policy fail, and nobody wants that. The Government must engage with the private sector and sort out the problems to get the childcare roll-out back on track.

Parents of additional support needs pupils protested outside North Lanarkshire Council last year. They said that teachers and pupils are being failed by an education system that does not recognise the specialised skills that are needed for children with additional support needs. Many school-age children end up, due to the lack of ASN schools available, being placed in mainstream education schools, despite meeting the criteria for an ASN school.

What is the cabinet secretary’s response to the many families in North Lanarkshire who are being failed by the education system due to the lack of specialised schools and facilities for ASN pupils?

The minister might be aware that in North Lanarkshire, 1,170 disabled people, many of whom are children, are currently stuck on social housing waiting lists. Instead of taking the issue seriously, the Scottish National Party Government has chosen to slash the housing budget by more than £200 million in the past year. How does the minister expect to cut those lists when social house building is being discouraged by his own Government’s cuts?

Will the minister give way on that point?