Chamber and committees

Well answered, Shona—very good. We will move on to questions on completion rates. Michael Marra will start on this section.

So, we do not know how much is needed now. I am concerned that the lack of capital funding that is being provided to our colleges means that safe and warm wind and watertight buildings are not being provided for students to learn in. Should we not provide that first, before we invest in net zero and all those other things? I am trying to figure out what is being prioritised, so will you comment on that?

Would Shona Struthers or Andy Witty like to comment quickly on any of those questions?

It must be very quick, and the answer must be very quick.

We have a couple of sweep-up questions—-one from me and one from Graeme Dey. This goes back to evidence that we have already heard, but we need to ensure that we get coverage for our inquiry and budget scrutiny. Previous evidence on funding explained that colleges are continuing to deal with the impacts of Covid. Would you have expected the funding to carry on for a bit longer? I am looking for comments on the fact that that funding has been cut off and will not continue.

Thank you for that. My goodness—look at the time. Thank you all for your time today.

We will now consider our final agenda items in private.

Thank you for that, Karen.

Graham Dey will kick off our questions.

As other members have done, I thank Daniel Johnson for raising this important issue. These women have suffered, and in many cases, continue to suffer huge amounts of stress and anguish. I have previously raised questions about transvaginal mesh in the chamber and have written articles in support of women who have been affected, and I welcome the chance to speak in the debate.

Two years ago, the Scottish Government announced the service to help women who were suffering from complications after receiving vaginal mesh implants. Sadly, hundreds of sufferers are still waiting for their ordeal to end.

Backed by £1.3 million of Government money, NHS National Services Scotland was tasked with establishing the new service within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The official announcement said that it would be introduced “gradually” from August 2020; no one knew just how gradual the process would be. For some sufferers, the effect has been catastrophic.

A constituent of mine has been in touch to tell me that she has been in constant pain since her operation 17 years ago. The plan that was unveiled in July 2020 gave her hope, but she is living proof that the promise has not been fully honoured. She said:

“I find it impossible to trust the NHS to care for me with mesh issues. A life with mesh is a painful, humiliating, and soul-destroying existence and has already destroyed so much of our lives.”

One woman who has been affected by the scandal has been in touch regarding her experience of the transvaginal mesh removal reimbursement scheme, details of which Jackson Carlaw provided us with. She understood that there was to be flexibility on the reimbursement criteria, but she says that it now appears that a ceiling of £3,000 for flights to America has been introduced by NHS NSS.

In some situations, the cost of economy flights exceeds the £3,000 limit. There is nothing in all the supporting documents to the bill stating that there will be a ceiling on the cost of flights. Furthermore, as I am sure that we all appreciate, flight prices depend very much on the time of year and how far in advance you book them. When you are planning surgery, you do not have that foresight or the ability to do long-term planning. Under the guidelines made by the Scottish Government, there is no appeal system for the mesh reimbursement application process. Where is the flexibility and the due consideration that was to be given to each application? It is non-existent. Several women’s claims are in excess of £3,000, and all should be given equal consideration.

In 2019, the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, promised:

“I am absolutely committed to and determined that we will do everything possible to get these women the treatment and the care that they need”.

Neither I nor the women who have contacted me believe that enough is being done by the Scottish Government to engage with the mesh survivors or help with their heartbreaking plight.

The current Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf, must be honest with Samantha and hundreds of other victims who are still waiting for help and justice and explain to them why the system is still failing. The health secretary must tell them exactly what will be done to get them the treatment that they were led to expect. As my constituent said,

“We don’t want mesh to wreck what time we have left.”

The Scottish Government appears to have washed its hands of these women as soon as the bill was passed, and that is unacceptable.

Like other members who have spoken in the debate, I commend, in the words of the Scottish Government’s motion,

“the hard work of ... staff and teaching professionals in Scotland’s schools, colleges, universities and early learning and childcare centres”.

However, we have also heard from members across the chamber that the SNP Government has presided over 15 years of failure in Scottish education, with the attainment gap widening and education standards dropping. The SNP has starved schools and staff of resources, and its curriculum for excellence has been an unmitigated failure. We need to restore excellence in Scottish schools so that every child has the chance to succeed, no matter their background.

The SNP seems to have dropped its commitment to close the attainment gap by 2026. Shirley-Anne Somerville told the Education, Children and Young People Committee:

“I will not set an arbitrary date for when the attainment gap will be closed”.—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 18 May 2022; c 4.]

If the member does not mind, I will carry on.

The SNP stated in the 2016-17 programme for government:

“We intend to make significant progress within the lifetime of this Parliament and substantially eliminate the gap over the course of the next decade.”

It is clear that that has not yet happened. In 2022, the percentage point difference in higher A-grade attainment levels between the most and least deprived pupils is bigger than in any year since 2017. The attainment gap in the pass rate for advanced highers is the second worst since 2017. The attainment gap for those with additional support needs has widened at national 5 level. The attainment gap for pupils with additional support needs has widened at higher level, and the attainment gap for disabled pupils has doubled since 2020. Furthermore, a Scottish Government audit found that the school closures had a disproportionately negative impact on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Education, Children and Young People Committee noted Audit Scotland’s conclusion that

“The poverty-related attainment gap remains wide”,

with limited progress on closing the gap, and that

“inequalities have been exacerbated by Covid-19.”

The report states:

“Progress on closing the gap has been limited and falls short of the Scottish Government’s aims. Improvement needs to happen more quickly and there needs to be greater consistency across the country.”

As we have already heard, Nicola Sturgeon said that she has a “sacred responsibility” to provide equal opportunities to all children. She stated:

“Now that I am First Minister, I am determined—indeed I have a sacred responsibility—to make sure every young person in our land gets the same chance I had to succeed at whatever they want to do in life.”

I think that we can agree that she has failed to deliver on that promise.

It was a sign of the weakness of our current system that it took the PISA tests to identify that there might be a problem with attainment in key areas. We should have our own data about how young Scots are doing against international comparators. That is not the case at present and we must make sure that it is the case in the future. It is, after all, imperative that our young people can be confident that, wherever they go in the world, their academic achievements will be recognised.

I want to touch on the much-needed on-going reform agenda. When it comes to the detail surrounding who is responsible for each element of the current education reform, the picture is very unclear. Is the SNP merely rebranding the SQA rather than creating a genuinely reformed qualifications body?

The new qualifications body, which is tasked with reforming the qualifications agency, is dominated by former SQA managers, while those with the most valuable contributions to make—teachers, pupils and parents—appear to be pushed to the side. Shockingly, as we have heard from Stephen Kerr, it has been revealed that only three teachers were involved in the high-level discussions on the reforms of Education Scotland and the SQA.

It is important that the Scottish qualifications review does not duck the big issues. Any reform programme must address the mismatch between the curriculum’s ambition and what the national qualifications deliver—or, right now, fail to deliver—for our young people.

Despite what it says, the Scottish Government remains complacent about education in Scotland. There are fewer teachers, larger class sizes, a growing attainment gap, lower levels of numeracy and literacy, and far fewer subject choices. The withdrawal from international comparisons has shielded the Government from proper scrutiny, while its reforms to Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority appear to be nothing more than cosmetic changes.

Nicola Sturgeon said that she should be judged on her education record. She stated:

“Let me be clear—I want to be judged on this.”

If we are to judge her on that, it is obvious that young people have been failed by the Scottish Government—not only now but for each of the past 15 years that the SNP has been in power.