Chamber and committees

I visited nursing classes held at Edinburgh College’s Sighthill campus. The programme leaders expressed concerns about students not taking up nursing and midwifery courses due to the lack of support. We need to make that career path more attractive. One of the points that was mentioned was the need for more financial support for student nurses. Paying student nurses for their placement hours would be a relief and would be beneficial because it would attract more students to nursing in the future. It is one solution to filling the gap in nursing vacancies, not only by helping students with financial support but by promoting nursing and midwifery as a valuable career choice in the long term.

I have a question that follows from what Fergus Ewing asked earlier. Do you think that there could be a barrier for board members, if they have to have specific technical skills and knowledge about the islands to be on a board? Is that one reason why people are not coming forward to become board members?

Apart from that, in what other areas could island communities be better represented to increase accountability?

To ask the Scottish Government whether urban areas will be included in its land reform legislation. (S6O-02898)

People owning land or a building that they are not using can severely impact urban communities, especially if the use of that land or building is not beneficial to the community. In that situation, urban communities need to be able to buy that land and use it for a purpose that will benefit communities. Will the cabinet secretary advise exactly what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that urban communities’ rights are protected under the land reform legislation?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My screen did not refresh.

I appreciate Ben Macpherson’s intervention. I had the privilege of visiting both the boats—the one in Leith and the one in Glasgow. There was a positive response, but we are talking about a long-term solution.

The people who were housed on the boats had begun to build lives where they were docked. They built relationships, sent their children to local schools and got to know the areas. Of course, the lease of the boats had to come to an end and the refugees who had been housed on them were once again moved to a new place and had to begin again. That was due to a lack of a long-term plan.

Paul O’Kane and my colleague Paul Sweeney highlighted that Ukrainians are four times more likely to find themselves facing homelessness than members of the wider population. That is in the middle of a housing emergency across Scotland, in which the homelessness rate reaches close to 5,000 households a night in Edinburgh alone. I appreciate that, as the cabinet secretary said in her intervention, there could be different data in Scotland; I will await that. Miles Briggs rightly pointed out that sustainable solutions are urgently needed to reduce the impact of the housing emergency on Ukrainians and everyone in Scotland.

A long-term concrete plan is long overdue. The war in Ukraine is not over, and as long as Putin’s illegal war continues, Scotland must be both welcoming of and prepared for refugees coming from Ukraine.

The cabinet secretary spoke of the need to support the integration of Ukrainians for as long as they want to call Scotland their home. For true integration, the Scottish Government must ensure that a workable plan is implemented now—

—to allow Ukrainian refugees to access long-term assistance, not just—

This debate is an opportunity for us all to reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and it is a great honour for me to close it on behalf of the Labour Party.

A concrete solution for displaced people from Ukraine in Scotland has been long awaited. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago, the SNP Government promised a warm Scottish welcome for those who had been displaced. As Keith Brown pointed out, Scotland has been able to host 20 per cent of the Ukrainians who have come to the UK. Ordinary Scots and public service providers have pulled out all the stops and given displaced Ukrainians a very warm welcome and vital support. That is not to mention organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council, which has been working flat out to help the refugees to find housing in the middle of a housing crisis.

We must now support the amazing actions of Scots and local authorities with a solid, long-term solution that allows Ukrainian refugees to have fair access to housing, education and healthcare. That plan must remain in place for all those who might still be to come as Putin’s unlawful war in Ukraine continues.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice pointed out, under the supersponsor scheme, many ordinary Scots stepped up and housed those people who were most in need in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion. As Alex Cole-Hamilton mentioned, that was an excellent scheme, under which many Scots opened their homes to displaced people from Ukraine, but it was not a permanent solution.

We must remember that it was the SNP that temporarily housed Ukrainian refugees in boats in Edinburgh and Glasgow because it had not prepared anywhere else for them to stay.

I am tight for time, but I will take an intervention.