Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government whether it produces guidance for local government on how allegations of sexual misconduct against councillors should be handled. (S6O-02053)

I thank the First Minister for providing advance sight of her statement. I begin by associating the Scottish Conservatives with that statement.

We are joined in the gallery by the courageous campaigners on historical forced adoption. Today’s events would not have been possible without them and their determination to seek a sincere national apology for the fact that 60,000 women were forced to give up their babies for adoption simply because they were young or unmarried. A national apology cannot right the wrongs of the past, but for those suffering lifelong trauma, it will be the start of a healing process. My only regret is that, sadly, many campaigners have died before this apology was made.

We need to make sure that this part of history will never repeat itself and that we protect the rights of women and children in Scotland. Will the commissioned study be trauma informed, and will the support that is offered be meaningful and needs based?

Emma Harper spoke a lot about positive destinations. Does she agree that they should be measured over a longer time than 12 months, particularly for rural jobs and jobs that affect climate change and our environment?

If the member will let me make some progress, I will come back to him.

When we consider the expansion of vocational and technical qualifications, we must understand the environment that our young people currently experience. Almost 1,000 schools have not been inspected; there are 140,000 fewer college places; students are worth almost £2,500 less if they go to college instead of university; there is a widening attainment gap between the poorest and richest pupils; and there are 1,699 fewer teachers. Those are the reasons why young people fall through the cracks.

I do not disagree with that at all. There are different career paths and we can all understand that young people face challenges as they grow up. As we have heard from Sue Webber and Pam Gosal, it is still challenging for young people to get into apprenticeships now, and many young people can access an apprenticeship only by reaching out to friends and family. We must look at the overall picture. I talked about my experience as being just one of the many experiences of young people in the education system.

This Government must do more to provide young people with the tools to succeed. The cabinet secretary began her contribution by congratulating young people on their successes, which we all applaud, but she did not say that those achievements were made despite the problems within an education system that this Government has presided over for 15 years.

My colleague Stephen Kerr pointed out the many challenges that Parliament faces in ensuring that our young people flourish. He is right. We need talent, and that must be addressed by attracting people into our education sector to inspire the next generation.

Michael Marra spoke about the broadening of subject choice for young people, saying that the stakes have never been higher for many of the young people who are trying to enter college or university.

As a Scottish Conservative, I believe in aspiration, but aspirations can be met only when Governments provide people with the tools to succeed in life. My own education journey hit speed bump after speed bump and, at some points, I thought about giving up completely. When I was at school, there was no proper support network or careers advice, which resulted in many young people in my home town falling through the cracks in the education system, and I could have been one of them.

For a high school pupil in the mid-2000s, not getting a place at university was a sign of failure. There was never a mention of, or focus on, vocational and technical qualifications—if someone said that they wanted to go to college, it was because they were not intelligent enough to go to university.

The truth is that I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in sixth year. That, combined with the stigma around non-academic subjects, meant that I lost interest in schooling during my senior years. That resulted in my not obtaining the grades that I should have and becoming one of the few Scots to have repeated their final year at high school. I ended up going to university because that was the done thing, not because it was right for me. Things did turn out okay, but some of the friends that I went to school with dropped out of university. There was no support and no clear pathway for them.

I am therefore pleased to close this debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives not only because I almost fell through the cracks, but because this Government must do more to support our young people. We must keep telling our young people that there is no wrong path and that success should not be measured by the number of degrees someone obtains.

Professor Louise Hayward’s interim report has been referred to several times today, and I welcome the outward thinking about engaging young people in choosing their own future.

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?