Chamber and committees

I could not agree more with Daniel Johnson. It is incumbent on all of us to challenge the narrative in our universities.

Mr Ewing ruined the punchline of my Labour colleague and has now ruined mine. We absolutely support his cause and will back his mission to ensure that that is seen as a core skill.

I understand that time is ticking away, and I hope that members will forgive me for not taking any more interventions so that I can make a couple more points.

Sue Webber talked about people who choose to enter education later in life and the challenges that they face in looking for a job or career. They need this Government’s support.

Pam Gosal mentioned her son and his experience of finding a pathway that works for him. I am really pleased that he has managed to find an apprenticeship that is right for him, but, as we have spoken about so frequently today, too many people are falling through the cracks because they have not been signposted to the right place for support.

Before I conclude, I want to raise the issue of how positive destinations are recorded. I completely understand why positive destinations are recorded, but—this is a huge but—we record data only within the first three months of young people leaving school and then 12 months after their leaving. In 2020-21, 71 per cent of school leavers who had left within the past year were in a positive follow-up destination, which was down from 86 per cent who were in a positive initial destination. We know that there was a decrease, but we have no idea about the journey of the young people thereafter. As it stands, there is no concrete data. I would be grateful if the minister would expand on that in his closing speech and explain why the Government currently focuses only on the first year after leaving school.

As always with education-related debates, it has been a lively afternoon with many passionate speeches. However, the reality is that, although we talk about the expansion of vocational and technical qualifications in Scotland’s secondary schools, there will be young people who are facing an uncertain future as they approach their final exams. I challenge the next Government to back our young people by making sure that they have the tools to succeed in life and by putting their priorities first and proving to them that, regardless of what they want to do in life, the Government will support them.

Yesterday, the chancellor announced the introduction of 30 hours of free childcare from nine months old, which has the potential to truly transform childcare by supporting parents and giving their children the best possible start in life. Mums across Scotland have contacted me to say that they think that that is a wonderful policy. Does the First Minister agree that the Scottish Government should match that major commitment by extending its current childcare policy?

Local councils have had to cut subsidies for bus travel because of the SNP Scottish Government’s woeful local government settlement. The fact of the matter is that, outside the major cities, public transport is unreliable and infrequent, particularly across the central region. Will the minister explain how the policy can be deemed a success, given the lack of bus services for our young people to enjoy?

I congratulate my friend and colleague Roz McCall on securing this important debate and on making an excellent speech in which she brought first-hand experience to the chamber and spoke from the heart.

I want to start my remarks on a positive note. I believe in the Promise. I want all children and young people, no matter what start they have had in life, to receive the same opportunities. However, I have learned in my short time in this Parliament that believing is not enough. We have to want to make it work, and to make it work requires diligence in education—and buy-in, not from MSPs, but from the children and young people whose lives we are seeking to improve.

The fifth of February marked the three-year anniversary of the Promise. When we signed up to the legislation as corporate parents, we promised care-experienced young people that we would improve their lives in care and provide them with opportunities when they left the care sector. I have taken part in previous debates relating to the Promise and improving outcomes for care-experienced young people. The previous debate on the topic took place a year ago, and in that debate I criticised the Government for its lack of progress. Let me be clear that we are still in the same position. We need, collectively, to do much more when implementing the Promise.

During that debate, I raised the concerns of Jamie Kinlochan—a long-term campaigner who has raised the subject of the number of young people who have, tragically, died shortly after moving out of care. A freedom of information request had revealed at that time that 24 young people in care died in 2020, compared with 21 the year before. In total, between January 2014 and September 2021, 111 children and young people died. The chair of The Promise Scotland, Fiona Duncan, admitted that the young people who had, sadly, died had been let down by the policy. I would be grateful if the minister, during her speech, could update the Parliament on the work that has been done in that area.

Another huge concern for me is that council funding levels may threaten the commitment to the Promise. Many care-related services depend on local government funding to survive, including council care providers, respite services, services to support mental health and social wellbeing and services that work alongside third-party organisations to promote and retain foster carers. Should the Scottish Government continue to underfund councils, I fear that those services may be scrapped.

I would be grateful if the minister could confirm whether she has considered the millions of pounds-worth of cuts that are scheduled for local government over the next three years and the impact that they could have on our care-experienced young people.

Four minutes is not enough time for us to properly discuss the Promise. There are many areas that require proper dialogue, and many of those areas have been covered collectively in the contributions that we heard so far.

I will finish by discussing the introduction of a national care allowance for foster care. At present, Scotland remains the only part of the United Kingdom that does not have a national allowance for foster carers. I am sure that everyone in the chamber agrees that foster carers are selfless, caring and wonderful people who provide young people with a fresh start in life. Foster carers have waited too long for the Government to back them as they have backed our care-experienced young people. Therefore, I have another request for the minister: will she confirm that the national minimum allowance will be introduced soon?

We are still a long way from achieving the Promise, but my colleague Roz McCall clearly articulated how it can be achieved. We often talk about lived experience in the chamber, so I call on the Government to continue to listen to our foster carers, care organisations and care-experienced young people—only then will we be able to achieve the Promise.

Last weekend, I joined the First Minister and MSP colleagues as we gathered in the chamber to celebrate international women’s day. The event was organised by the Scottish Women’s Convention, and I put on record my thanks for such an enjoyable afternoon. A personal highlight of the day were the contributions from Grace and Zara from Our Lady’s high school in Cumbernauld. The quality of their speeches was outstanding. Grace and Zara are an asset to their school and fantastic role models for other young women. It made me proud, as a Central Scotland MSP, to see the next generation of talent afforded the opportunity to speak in this chamber. I hope that we will see them elected, perhaps to the Scottish Parliament or another chamber, in the future.

I will start my speech by talking about opportunity. After all, the theme of this year’s international women’s day is embrace equity. However, it is crucial that we recognise that we are still living in an unequal country. Despite it being more than 100 years since women first received the vote, we still earn 11 per cent less on average than our male colleagues, run just 4 per cent of Scotland’s top businesses, fill just 13 per cent of senior Police Scotland posts and represent just 6 per cent of Scottish newspaper editors. Our journey towards achieving equality is far from over.

Even with all the progress that has been made by generations of feminists, gender still plays an important role in how we are seen and in the life opportunities that we enjoy in Scotland today. We cannot, in any debate about equality, ignore the inequalities that persist in our society for more than half of the population. It is vital that we continue to strive towards ending those inequalities. As a Parliament, we must be ambitious when looking at the progression of women’s rights and, of course, protecting those rights that have been hard won over the years. We cannot afford to go backwards, and we must continue to ensure that the voices of women are heard and not vilified.

Members on my side of the chamber agree with the premise of the Scottish Government motion, and I associate myself with the First Minister and her calls to end the discrimination, harassment and abuse that women and girls face in our country and around the world.

I will start by looking at some statistics for Scotland. Sexual crimes are at their highest level on record. Domestic abuse incidents are at their second-worst level on record: in 2021-22, there were more than 32,000 charges of domestic abuse in cases that were reported to the Crown Office. Threatening and abusive behaviour offences were recorded as the most common types of offence related to domestic abuse. Only yesterday, we heard of the intimidation and harassment that women receive on public transport. That is not the Scotland that I want my daughter or any young girl to grow up in, and I hope that we can all agree that we can and must do better.

The issue of abuse and discrimination is not isolated to one country. Sadly, it is an all-too-common theme around the world. One newspaper story that I hoped that I would never read was about Mahsa Amini, who was beaten to death by Iranian authorities for not wearing a hijab properly. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran claimed that she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital, but eyewitnesses allege that she was severely beaten and died as a result of police brutality. The case shed renewed light on the country’s treatment of women, with a growing number of female Iranians choosing to flout the law to wear the hijab. I applaud the brave women who have stood up against their oppressors, but I worry about the severe consequences that many will face for doing so.

At times like these, we need to be thankful that, throughout our United Kingdom, we have the right to freedom of speech and expression. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have banned women from attending university, leaving future generations of women unable to choose their futures. In Ukraine, the on-going conflict has severely impacted women and girls. From the bombing of maternity hospitals to human trafficking and gender-based violence, the horrors of war are a daily reality for Ukrainian women.

The violation of women’s rights must stop. We must stand together, always, against those who seek to remove basic human rights from women. I lodged the Scottish Conservatives amendment to highlight the violation of women’s rights globally, and I hope that the Government and Opposition parties will support it at decision time.

I hope that, one day, we will be able to use international women’s day as a cause for celebration because we have achieved equity, rather than a reason to talk about progress and the mountains that we still need to climb.

I want to finish on a positive note, as we are celebrating women today. We have achieved many things together, from the roll-out of free period products across the country to support for the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. We support women best when we work together across political divides and Parliaments. If we are serious about embracing equity, we must continue to do that.

I will finish with this quotation:

“there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

I move amendment S6M-08137.2, to insert, after “maintain equality”:

“; expresses disappointment in the backsliding of women’s rights across the world in the past year, and particularly in Iran and Afghanistan”.

[Applause.]

Yesterday, the results of the controversial school sex survey were released. The total participation rate for children and young people was 58.3 per cent in the local authorities that took part. Of those who were eligible to answer the questions relating to sexual activity, only a tiny fraction of school pupils answered. The data proves what I and other members said all along: our children and young people do not feel comfortable answering such invasive questions. Will the First Minister finally agree that those inappropriate questions should be removed from all future health and wellbeing surveys in our schools?

Tomorrow marks a very sombre occasion. It is exactly one year since the invasion of Ukraine began. The twenty-fourth of February 2022 has become a date that will live in infamy. On that day, we first became aware of the tragedy that was unfolding in Europe. News of the invasion was instantly beamed across our television stations, radio airwaves and social media channels.

The shocking way in which wars are reported in our era makes the reality to which we all bear witness very real and accessible. Even so, the decision that was taken by Vladimir Putin to declare war on Ukraine sent shock waves throughout the world. Putin’s remarks were carefully orchestrated and stage managed from Moscow with the sole intention of usurping large swathes of Ukrainian territory. It was a deliberate action that has dangerous consequences for the general peace and security of Europe.

We all know that war comes with a very real human cost. I was roughly six months pregnant when I turned on the news to see a wounded pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher. The maternity hospital in Mariupol had been bombed. The wounded woman held on to her bloodied left abdomen as emergency workers carried her through the rubble. I watched on in horror as videos showed the devastation that was caused by the bombs, and all I could think about was the women and newborn babies who were in the building at the moment that the hospital was attacked. I later learned that the woman who was carried through the rubble was taken to another hospital, where the doctors tried to save her and her baby; however, neither of them made it.

The Russian ministry of defence claimed that the bombing of the hospital was justified by the presence of Ukrainian armed forces. Bombing innocent women and children can never be justified. It was a war crime, and they knew it. Even now, I cannot get out of my mind the image of that woman holding her unborn baby or the fact that their lives were cruelly ended that day. I do not think that many of us will ever truly understand the horror of the Ukraine war.

As my party’s spokesperson for children and young people, it would be remiss of me not to mention the devastating impact that the war is having on the lives of Ukrainian children. A recent report in The Daily Telegraph highlighted the horrendous reality for those attending school in Ukraine. More than 4.7 million children are enrolled to attend lessons. Those lessons are interrupted by air raid sirens instead of school bells; by power outages; and by fear and trauma instead of safety and learning. It cannot be right that those young people are seeing that as their new normal when it comes to their education and their lives.

Even more concerning is the news that has recently come out from a Yale University report, which has indicated that more than 6,000 Ukrainian children are being sent to camps that are specifically designed to expose them to Russian propaganda and are orchestrating forced adoptions into Russian families. In fact, Ukraine’s national information bureau claims that the number of children who have been deported to Russia could be more than 16,000. That is abhorrent. The removal of protected people is prohibited under article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention. Furthermore, under article 50, it is prohibited to change the personal circumstances of any child, including their nationality.

We simply cannot allow Russian aggression to define a new normality for the experiences of Ukrainian children. I therefore hope that members of this Parliament and our colleagues at Westminster and across other devolved Governments will condemn that practice in the strongest possible terms. Ukrainian children must not be forcibly removed from their families.

Just as in relation to the story that I shared earlier, it is important that we pause and reflect that almost 1,000 Ukrainian children have been killed or injured because of the war. That is a travesty, and our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost a child during the conflict.

By all accounts, the conflict is beginning to pick up pace again as we move out of Ukraine’s harsh winter months. We must continue to do all that we can to support the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend their freedoms.

President Zelenskyy has stated:

“The United Kingdom is marching with us towards the most important victory of our lifetime. It will be a victory over the very idea of war.”

What a wonderful concept that would be for us all to embrace—a world without suffering; a world without conflict; a world where the children of tomorrow will not come to accept the ravages of war as being their new normality. As our most famous wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, said,

“The salvation of the common people of every race and every land from war and servitude must be established on solid foundations”.

That is an outcome that we can all hope and pray for.

Last week, the cabinet secretary set out four red lines to councils: teacher numbers, the length of the school week, pupil support assistance, and probationary teachers. I hate to break it to the cabinet secretary, but councils have already made savings in those areas in previous years, and some have no choice but to look at making further savings to balance the books. As the cabinet secretary is keen to set red lines in education, perhaps she could outline what other savings councils should make in order to balance their budgets in the face of Scottish National Party cuts.

No—sorry. I have only four minutes.

To its further embarrassment, the SNP Government has now handed back the administration of the severe disablement allowance to the DWP because, according to the former Cabinet Secretary for Social Security, there would be “no advantage” to Social Security Scotland delivering it. It is clear to everyone that the Scottish Government did not have the right mechanisms in place. To me that is a scary thought, considering that the SNP thought that it would win in 2014.

At one point during the independence referendum campaign, Alex Salmond boldly claimed that it would cost only £200 million to set up an independent Scotland. Setting up Social Security Scotland has already cost the public purse £651 million. It is obvious that the Scottish Government’s claims about a fully independent Scotland in 18 months were pie-in-the-sky thinking, just like its current plans to hold another referendum.

It is not only the handover of devolved powers that has led to another failure of the SNP Government; since its implementation, Social Security Scotland has performed poorly, with waiting times for applications increasing and payments not being made on time. Whether it is less than half of people aided by the fair start Scotland scheme sustaining employment, or application processing times for best start foods increasing year on year, it is concerning that the SNP seems totally incapable of getting to grips with the new welfare systems.

More recently, MSPs were told that the winter heating payment could now be delayed until March. I must ask: what on earth is the Government doing? It is certainly not focusing on the creation of a benefits system that supports Scots. The SNP needs to urgently explain how it intends to fix the mess that it has created, and how new and expanded benefits will be funded on top of increasing demand.

I believe in devolution. I was only seven years old when the Parliament opened, and I grew up in a country that has the advantages of having two Parliaments. However, the SNP is making a mockery of devolved government by not being able to get the basics right. I believe that the ability to support those in need is a vital role for any Government. If the SNP continues to make a mess of the roll-out of Social Security Scotland, it will make a mockery of the Scotland Act 1998 and this Parliament.

Crucially, the SNP’s failure to get this right will have let down the thousands of Scots who rely on those benefits, and that would be shameful.