The Scottish Government has committed £300 million to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region deal, but economic development has stagnated as communities remain isolated due to poor transport links. Does the cabinet secretary accept that investment in projects such as Winchburgh station will be critical to economic growth in the region?

The headlines tell a sorry tale, as the latest PISA study confirms that Scotland has fallen to record low levels in maths, reading and science internationally. As Willie Rennie has said, the cabinet secretary should not be so proud of that dismal performance, with maths and science lower—and lower, indeed, than the OECD average. The PISA study also shows that attainment in maths, science and literacy has risen in countries such as Japan and Korea. In two of those categories, other countries, such as Singapore, Italy and Israel, have also experienced increases in attainment. We must remember that Covid was global and it cannot be used as an excuse for anything any longer.

As education expert Professor Lindsay Paterson has pointed out, the results show that the decline between 2012 and 2022 is the equivalent of losing 16 months of maths teaching and eight months of reading. The loss of 18 months in science schooling is truly shocking, as it is vital to our competitiveness in an increasingly digital world. We must wake up and smell the roses: we are falling behind.

Professor Paterson has also pointed out that, since 2010 and the introduction of curriculum for excellence, the attainment gap between those from the poorest backgrounds and those from the wealthiest has widened. Members should remember that the issue is, after all, one of priorities. Closing the gap was once claimed to be the priority of the SNP and the former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

The Scottish Government’s behaviour in Scottish schools report has found that levels of disruption have increased across all the surveyed categories. Low-level disruptive behaviour, disengagement and serious disruptive behaviours have all increased since 2016, and there has been a decline in most reported positive behaviours.

It will come as no surprise to anyone in the chamber that I want to focus on mobile phones, on which the Scottish Government’s behaviour in Scottish schools report could not be clearer. In secondary schools, the behaviour that was most commonly reported as having the greatest negative impact was pupils using and looking at mobile phones or tablets when they should not have been. More than half of secondary school staff said that it was one of the three behaviours that had the greatest negative impact.

Of course, most pupils are well behaved, but all suffer from the consequences of disruption and are vulnerable to distraction. We know that mobile phones are not the only cause of growing school discipline problems; the report also cites rising incidences of drug and alcohol consumption. However, if mobile phones are a significant contributor, their removal must surely be part of the solution.

Gordonstoun school made headlines earlier this year when it banned phones, and the headteacher, Lisa Kerr, was spot on to argue:

“we don’t allow them unfettered access to other addictive substances, so why mobiles?”

She also claimed that it is

“lazy, irresponsible, and dangerous not to place controls on young people’s access to an online world which they, and we, simply don’t fully understand and can’t control.”

Frankly, I agree.

Quietly, other schools are following suit.

I am afraid that I do not have the opportunity. I apologise for that.

Here in Edinburgh, the headteacher at the Royal high school has taken the opportunity to strengthen its mobile device policy. Devices are not permitted to be used during the school day, and that is being strictly enforced. As a result, there has been a marked improvement in pupil engagement, with pupils talking more and being less heightened about what they are missing on their devices. The headteacher, Pauline Walker, said:

“it took a couple of weeks for pupils to realise the school was serious. Now they are more engaged and less anxious about what they might be missing on their phones, but know they will be confiscated for the rest of the day if they are seen in use.”

One problem that was cited in the behaviour in Scottish schools report was the perceived lack of consequences for pupils who engage in serious disruptive behaviour. It is essential that they know that rule breaking means trouble. Banning mobile phones in schools will not solve deep-rooted problems, but it will help. A consistent and enforced mobile phone policy restricting their use is vital if we are serious about tackling behaviour issues in our schools.

It was heartening to learn yesterday that refreshed guidance will be forthcoming to reinforce the banning mobile phones in our classrooms as an option for headteachers. I thank the cabinet secretary for her commitment yesterday that she will write to me with further details on that.

The Scottish Conservatives will restore excellence in our education through learning in schools, giving teachers and school staff the support that they need and giving every young person the chance that they deserve.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning any new infrastructure investments in the next financial year in connection with city and regional growth deals. (S6O-02864)

Evidence shows that there is a clear link between mobile phone use and poor behaviour in schools. New guidance on mobile phone use in schools has already been introduced south of the border. The cabinet secretary stated that she

“cannot unilaterally ban mobile phones”

but will

“work to provide refreshed guidance to schools on the use of mobile phones”.

How long will it take to see decisive action on that?

Does the cabinet secretary agree with me and the charity Zero Tolerance that what is required to tackle the issue is not greater bureaucracy, Government directives or national frameworks, but action?

When the minister was out visiting the various hospices, I was at the Marie Curie hospice in Fairmilehead. They mentioned a pilot that has recently taken place in England, where the equivalent of NHS 24 has a button to press to enable families at home to access out-of-hours advice quickly, rather than waiting in the often lengthy NHS 24 queues to get a district nurse out. Has the minister considered innovative solutions to help such people?

I will do a George Adam. Moved, Presiding Officer.

It is a privilege to be able to bring this debate to the Parliament. Not that long ago, back in November, I hosted, on behalf of my colleague Miles Briggs, a round-table event on the dying in the margins study from Marie Curie and the University of Glasgow. It was heartening to see such strong cross-party support at that meeting, and I am delighted to see such strong representation from members on all sides of the chamber today, too.

Ahead of the debate, I have been working with Hospice UK, Marie Curie and St Columba’s Hospice Care to understand more about the key issues that hospices face, particularly the problems surrounding funding. I thank them all for their support in preparing for the debate.

Why are we here? First and foremost, it is because the funding of hospice care is unsustainable. Hospices face an expected deficit of £16 million this year, as statutory funding has not been keeping pace with historical and recent spiralling costs. In particular, the cost to hospices of matching the national health service pay awards in order for pay to remain fair and competitive for their staff has been highlighted to me as an issue.

With the demand for palliative care increasing and the health and care system under significant strain, the support that charitable hospices provide has never been more crucial or critical. Hospices provide vital support to general practitioners, district nurses, care homes, hospital teams and social care through training and education, specialist clinical expertise and strategic leadership.

Hospices bring more than £60 million of charitable funding into the local health and care system each year, and we should not hide from the fact that they lessen the demand on our statutory services by reducing the number of emergency admissions, reducing the length of stays in hospital and supporting people to stay at home. They are, therefore, worth every penny, as they provide significant value for money.

The harsh fact is that the number of people in Scotland who need palliative care is predicted to rise by 20 per cent by 2040. In addition, they will need more complex care, further adding to the pressure on the already overstretched NHS. Charitable hospices are a key part of a cost-effective solution to those pressures, but they can do their work only if the funding and the hospices themselves are sustainable.

Hospices are struggling to stand still, let alone invest in responding to the future challenges that they face. Current funding arrangements do not support hospices to innovate and grow their services. In Scotland, there are 16 charitable hospices—14 for adults and two for children and young people. St Columba’s Hospice Care and Marie Curie hospice Edinburgh, along with Marie Curie’s hospice care-at-home teams, provide hospice care across Lothian. In November, I had a very informative visit to the Marie Curie hospice at Fairmilehead. I am ashamed to say that, in all the years that I have been in this world and living in Edinburgh, that was the first time that I had been there.

In 2022-23, about 8,815 people died in the Lothian region, and 90 per cent of them had a palliative care need. Across the region, 4,060 visits were made to 672 terminally ill people by the Marie Curie hospice care-at-home team. Marie Curie hospice Edinburgh and the West Lothian service supported a total of 1,690 patients through their in-patient, out-patient and community and day-therapy services.

I think that a lot of people have a preconceived idea of what hospice care is and what a hospice is all about. They just see a building and think only of rooms and beds and people being there to die. However, that cannot be further from the truth. Most of Marie Curie’s work is done in the community, with the majority of hospice care delivered beyond the hospice buildings, out in people’s homes and in the community. Hospices give people the option to die with their friends and family in their own homes, supported by teams of experts.

Marie Curie has a fast-track team that helps people with tasks such as washing, caring and showering as they get close to the end of their life. Crucially, that keeps them out of acute hospital settings. The team is essential to keep people in the right place, and it also offers family support to relatives.

I would like to touch on the work of St Columba’s Hospice Care in Edinburgh. In March 2023, it began a trial of a groundbreaking new virtual ward service. As far as we have been made aware, it is the first hospice in Scotland to roll out a development of that kind. The new service across Edinburgh and East Lothian provides patients and families with an alternative model of care, and it allows patients to be fully cared for in their own homes or in places of residence towards the end of life. The care and expertise that the team provides allows patients to remain at home with a very high level of support, which would otherwise require in-patient hospice or hospital-setting care.

The cost to the health and social care service of caring for people in the last year of their life is vast. Almost one in three people in Scottish hospitals are in their last year of life, and 95 per cent of people in Scotland use NHS unscheduled care services in the last year of life, which represents a total cost of nearly £190 million. That is why hospices are crucial.

In 2022-23, hospice care providers made more than 123,000 visits to people’s homes to deliver vital support. As I stated earlier, hospices provide vital support to GPs, district nurses, care homes, hospital teams and social care through their training and education, specialist clinical expertise and strategic leadership. They also bring more than £60 million of charitable funding into the local health and care system each year.

Earlier this week, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health attended a round-table event on hospice funding. I heard that, rather disappointingly, the minister opened the meeting by saying that the hospice sector’s call for remedial funding to address the £16 million deficit that the sector faces over the next three to five years is unaffordable. The minister also said that that meeting was the “start of the discussion” and that it would feed into other meetings that are due to be held soon. However, there is no clear timeline for next steps.

I hope that this debate will go some way towards shaping the minister’s thinking and that it will get her up to speed with the invaluable role that hospices play in our society, as our population ages and as people’s needs as they approach the end of their lives become increasingly complex.

In conclusion, I think that we can all agree that a new national funding framework for hospice care is vital to ensure the on-going sustainability of the sector and to allow charitable hospices to continue to support the NHS and provide high-quality palliative care to people in the Lothian region and across Scotland.

The minister speaks of the need to reduce complexities, and he will be aware of the recommendations from the recent report on college regionalisation. In his statement, we heard of the need to ensure that more investment supports learners while ensuring that funding makes the greatest impact. Despite that, he made no reference to the disparity in funding between university and college students, with the latter receiving £2,500 less investment per person. Will the minister guarantee parity of funding between university and college students?