Chamber and committees

The Muirhouse millennium centre in my region is facing financial difficulty. Several meetings have been held to address the centre management’s concern about the lack of future core funding, which could mean the risk of closure. When community centres are not funded property, it is not only the centre that loses out; the families depending on them for support and help, particularly during the cost of living crisis, are left without a lifeline. Will the First Minister increase funding to local authorities to ensure that they have the necessary funds to support essential community centres such as the Muirhouse millennium centre?

Yesterday, it was reported that councillors in Edinburgh will be asked to approve a £2.4 million cut to teaching assistant posts. In an industry that is already struggling with the retention and recruitment of staff, that news is deeply concerning.

Can the cabinet secretary tell us what action will be taken to protect pupil support and classroom assistants’ jobs, given the vital role that they play in children’s educational and social development?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to increase the recruitment of pupil support assistants, including ensuring that they receive fair pay. (S6O-01858)

I thank Meghan Gallacher for bringing the debate to the chamber.

In November, I met Graeme McAlister, the chief executive officer of the Scottish Childminding Association, who raised some very important issues surrounding the future and welfare of childminders in Scotland.

The childminder workforce in Scotland has now declined by 30 per cent, and with that we have seen the loss of more than 10,000 childminding places for families. As the number of places drops and the cost of childcare rises, many families find themselves unable either to afford childcare or to find it. We cannot allow that situation to continue.

There is currently not enough support offered to the childminding workforce in Scotland, and the sector is under pressure, with a lack of trained professionals available to fill much-needed positions. Childminding is a vital and valuable industry, but the childminding workforce requires significant support to carry it through the current decline.

Many in the workforce are reporting that delivering the funded early learning and childcare hours has caused a significant increase in paperwork. That has resulted in many childminders undertaking an additional, and unpaid, five-plus hours of paperwork each week, resulting in a loss of focus on the child.

Childminders who were previously providing funded childcare hours are no longer choosing to do so because of an unsustainable amount of paperwork. The provision of funded childcare hours must continue, but the Scottish Government needs to ensure that it is supporting the workforce to do that.

Even more alarmingly, 60 per cent of childminders who were surveyed believed that they would have to reduce their heating settings this winter, when children are present in their homes. It is shocking that some are considering switching off their heating when their own families are present, let alone when their home is open for their childminding business during the day. Only 13 per cent of childminders said that they believe that they can pay themselves the living wage and almost all respondents reported that they worked extra unpaid hours every week. That statistic is deeply concerning.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis is putting this vital industry at risk. It is time for the Scottish Government to recognise the pressures on the childminding workforce in Scotland. Underpaying and overworking this integral sector will never allow it to flourish. The Scottish Government must take measures to encourage and support the much-needed recruitment of childminders and demonstrate that it values Scotland’s children and the dedicated workers who care for them.

Thank you, Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. My casework is inundated with constituents experiencing housing issues, whether caused by them being on lists waiting for permanent family homes to be offered, in unsuitable temporary accommodation, or suffering the effect of mould and damp in social housing.

I am very concerned that the allocation for housing in the Scottish Government’s proposed 2023-24 budget will only make the housing crisis worse. We need to address the problems head on. If funding is not allocated to the housing budget for the building of new homes, the Scottish Government will be hard pushed to reach its own affordable housing targets. Further cuts to local government also mean that councils cannot attempt to tackle this housing crisis. The creation of new homes is crucial to solving the catastrophe that is currently unfolding in our housing sector.

The reduction in housing investment can be attributed directly to the UK Government’s disastrous mini-budget, and the steep rise in interest rates that came as a result. Scottish Labour supports a rent freeze and eviction ban to help tenants during the cost of living crisis. We recognise that that is not a long-term solution to the housing crisis, but ending restrictions on rent and evictions would only exacerbate the crisis, with an estimated 14,250 households experiencing homelessness in 2021.

Shockingly, an estimated 13,000 children might not sleep in their own homes tonight. New housing must be built to try and tackle this evolving problem, and the Scottish Government must increase funding to local authorities in its 2023-24 budget to deliver vital homelessness services.

City of Edinburgh Council alone is facing a £65 million bill to tackle homelessness. Local authorities across Scotland will also be buckling under the weight of the overflowing housing sector. New and existing homes must be brought up to standard to ensure that they are energy efficient and that tenants are protected from mould and damp. I recently raised that issue in a motion before Parliament, and I am very worried that, without action, housing across Scotland will be putting our constituents in danger.

Damp housing disproportionately affects those living in poverty, and the cost of living crisis has forced people to avoid heating their homes. That has simply made the problem worse. New homes need to be provided, and we need to ensure that they are energy efficient, insulated and, most importantly, affordable for those who need them most. That must be a priority for the Scottish Government—otherwise, the housing crisis cannot be resolved.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app did not connect. I would have voted yes.

Thank you very much.

Good morning. I had a question on accommodation and homelessness, but the cabinet secretary has already answered it. Convener, can I go on to theme 4, which is on refugees and asylum seekers?

Thank you. What support can be offered to non-Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers—particularly those who have no recourse to public funds because of their immigration status—to ensure equal rights for all refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland?

I thank the committee for giving me this opportunity to come and speak to you all.

I am disappointed that it has taken a year to come back to this petition. Within that year, as you have probably heard, many accidents have happened and quite a lot of deaths linked to swimming-related issues have taken place. That is probably one reason that quite a lot of constituents have come to us to say that they want us to make sure that learning to swim is in the curriculum and that school students are taught that skill.

You have mentioned the minister’s comments. I wonder whether the committee could invite the minister and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to say why they feel that learning to swim should not be in the school curriculum. I would request the committee to leave the petition open for further consideration.

I have said the majority of the relevant stuff previously—nothing has changed since my previous presentation, and I am in your hands. We have been speaking to schools and schools also feel that, if it is in the curriculum, students will learn to swim.