Chamber and committees

Widening participation is a fundamental pillar of the 40 faces campaign, and the University of the West of Scotland is Scotland’s leading university in widening access. Last week, the Scottish Funding Council published its indicative allocations, and the UWS will have the number of its funded places cut by a staggering 734. Of those, 220 will be reallocated to another institution. The UWS wrote to you on 19 April, detailing its concerns that that will limit its ability to continue to lead in widening access. When was the decision to reallocate the places from the UWS to another institution brought to the attention of the minister? Will you meet the principal and vice-chancellor of the university to discuss the unintended consequences of the decision?

Foster care is, of course, a preferred option in many of the cases that Roz McCall has discussed this afternoon—or rather, this evening. I am satisfied that my amendment 1 will provide the assurance that the very best option will be provided and that young people who need to go into care will be in the best place for them. Martin Whitfield’s amendment 82 mentions the extensive range of services that should be available directly in secure care settings. However, during some of the visits that the committee undertook as part of our evidence sessions, we saw that many of those services are there or are provided in partnership with other providers such as the national health service, the local authority or, indeed, the third sector. I have echoed what the member said.

With that, I am delighted that it seems that my amendment 1 might pass.

Amendment 1 agreed to.

As Ruth Maguire stated at the outset of today’s proceedings, children can be both victims and perpetrators of harmful behaviour. There is always a fine balance in managing the risk when two young people are involved in something distressing. The bill will introduce changes that will end the placement of under-18s in young offenders institutions. However, I am clear that no child should be accommodated in the same secure accommodation facility as the child who has caused them harm.

I recognise that all children in secure accommodation are vulnerable, that protections must be in place for their safety and that reassurance must be given that those protections are in place. Amendment 1 provides that, before approving a secure accommodation service, Scottish ministers must be satisfied that it can ensure that no child will be placed with another child in particular circumstances. Those are when it has been established that one child has offended against the other child, or when they have acted or behaved in a way that has had, or is likely to have had, a serious adverse effect on the health, safety or development of the other child.

I thank the minister for the productive discussions that we had following my lodging a simple amendment at stage 2, which was rejected. We have worked together to ensure that amendment 1 may proceed.

I am aware that processes are in place for the appropriate placement of children in secure accommodation and that, in practice, no child who has committed an offence against or harmed another child would be placed in the same facility as that child. However, my amendment will provide reassurance that processes are followed by secure accommodation services, and it will ensure that Scottish ministers are satisfied that that approach is followed before they approve such a service. I encourage all members to support the amendment.

I move amendment 1.

As the minister will be aware, the Education, Children and Young People Committee wrote to the First Minister about the Cass review last week. We called for a clear timeline to be established for a Scottish response to the review. The committee also called for a comprehensive children’s rights and wellbeing impact assessment to be carried out. That is because we recognise that the Cass review raised some very complex and sometimes competing children’s rights considerations. Will the minister undertake to carry out such an assessment? When will that be done? How will she ensure that that fully explores the rights of children and young people across Scotland?

Thank you very much. We will move straight to members’ questions. I bring in Liam Kerr, to start off.

Ruth Maguire would like to come in with a supplementary question on that theme, before we move forward.

I know that colleagues will come in on the specific theme of the education reform agenda, so you will be able to elaborate on that.

There are a couple of supplementary questions.

I will bring in Pam Duncan-Glancy. Thank you for your patience.

You have already touched on my next question, Nicola. Under the curriculum for excellence and, in particular, the broad general education, teachers and schools are expected to determine the curriculum. How do you ensure that, within that education space, schools are consistently directing towards the five elements that are listed in article 29 of the UNCRC?

On that note of making sure that children’s voices are heard, we will conclude our question session. I thank you for your evidence this morning.

That concludes the public part of our proceedings. We will suspend the meeting to allow our witnesses to leave and then we will move into private session to consider our final agenda items. Thanks very much.