Chamber and committees

The data that was published alongside the early learning and childcare expansion interim evaluation report highlighted that, between 2018 and 2022, there was a 19 per cent decrease in the number of childcare providers in Scotland. In England, that reduction was just 10 per cent. That indicates a lack of adequate support for the sector and the providers.

The minister has previously stated that the Government is assured that the childcare sector is, in fact, economically sustainable. Will she confirm today that that is still the case? Will the Government publish the evidence that supports that view?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting childcare providers. (S6O-03806)

I am grateful for that intervention. Not one—not one—of the 10,000 children who are now living in temporary accommodation was even born at that time, and I would hazard a guess that those children were not yet even hoped for by any of the families who live there now.

The SNP’s record on housing is, frankly, one of abject failure. The most vulnerable people in Scotland are paying the price for the incompetence. These children and families do not have the luxury of waiting for the SNP to get its act together. They need action, and they need it now.

Those children are completing their homework on a desk or on their knee on a bed that gives under their weight. Those children worry about having to be out of a room by 9 am on a Saturday because they are in temporary accommodation. That is the life that they face day in, day out. It is the ache for a home that lives in all of us.

The Government has admitted that there is a housing emergency but, rather than acting with urgency, its policies have fuelled the crisis.

It was interesting to be shouted at by Ben Macpherson, but it is always a pleasure to follow him.

I quote:

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

Those are the very powerful words of Maya Angelou in “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes”.

“The ache for home lives in all of us”,

but today, in this country, we face a situation that is nothing less than a national disgrace—a housing emergency that the SNP Government has allowed to spiral completely out of control. Let us be absolutely clear that this is not just a housing emergency; it is becoming a housing crisis. We have heard about the homeless and those who live on the streets.

Given that a housing emergency was declared on 15 May—I say with respect that the Government did that only because it was backed into a corner—it is surely reasonable to expect the Government to provide an immediate adaptive response. It is not just the case that the Government has failed to do that; the situation has got worse. There is no excuse and no explanation, particularly for the number of children who are living in temporary accommodation under this—I quote this carefully—incompetent SNP Government.

Let us look at the situation for children and young people. In doing that, I remind those on the Scottish Government benches of the Government’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the consequences of failing to live up to them.

Families across Scotland, including those in East Lothian, are being forced to live in temporary accommodation for an average of 342 days. That is almost a year of instability in the short life of a child—a year of uncertainty. Some 10,000 children in Scotland are trapped in temporary accommodation, which is only slightly less than the combined capacity of all the primary schools in East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian. Imagine that—10,000 children without a secure home. That is the ache for a home that lives in all of us. Those 10,000 children are stuck in bed and breakfast accommodation.

I am more than happy to give way to Kevin Stewart.

I am grateful for Mr Stewart’s contribution and I look forward to his speech.

In 2022-23, in East Lothian, 572 applications were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. That is 116 per 10,000 of population. Of the 947 people who were associated with those applications, 661 were adults and 286 were children, some of whom were babes in arms.

In 2022-23, there were 393 households in temporary accommodation in East Lothian—that is 80 per 10,000 of population, which is higher than the national average. Edinburgh, West Lothian, East Lothian and Midlothian have the first, fourth, sixth and seventh-highest homelessness rates in Scotland. Of those 393 households, 100 were households with children or pregnant women, and 150 children were in temporary accommodation.

I realise that time is short, and I am disappointed that I took so many contributions rather than interventions, so let me finish by saying that the people of East Lothian, the people of South Scotland and the people of Scotland deserve better. They deserve a Government that cares, acts and delivers real, affordable homes for those who are in most need.

Maya Angelou talked of the “ache for home” that

“lives in all of us”,

and tonight’s vote will confirm or refute that view across the chamber.

My point is with regard to the wording of proposed new paragraph 12(3) of schedule 3 to the 2014 act in amendment 6. Can the minister confirm that the “claim” that is referred to three times in that sub-paragraph is the original claim, and not a subsequent claim that someone who owes tax might be making?

A constituent who had an appointment for November told me that that appointment was cancelled in August, with an explanation that a new booking system would be operated at the eye pavilion. Is it just a coincidence that that coincides with the closure?

I am grateful to Graham Simpson for taking an intervention. Of course, it is not for the committee to decide on stage 3—that is for the Parliament to do. However, it is right for the Parliament to take into account concern that the committee may have about the need for adequate time to be provided between stage 2, which will take place in committee, and the subsequent stage 3 proceedings in the chamber.

The purpose of Graham Simpson’s amendment to the business motion is to provide as much time as is reasonably practicable, given the challenge that the Government finds itself facing. We will support his amendment.

Following the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, should the Scottish Government not be aware that its failure to address concerns about co-ordinated support plans merely opens up a different avenue by which young people can bring an action against a local authority or, indeed, the Scottish Government?