Chamber and committees

I was struck by the idea that witnesses do not tell Parliament and committees what should be added to a bill by way of amendment.

Are there any other comments, or does that cover it? If not, that is excellent—we will move on.

The bill provides that, where a child should be deprived of their liberty, no one under the age of 18 can be committed to a prison or a young offenders institution. They would instead enter secure accommodation or similar residential establishments. I think that we would all welcome that move, but do you have any concerns about moving to that set-up—perhaps around capacity? Are all of the existing facilities that would accommodate those young people of a suitable standard? I am not trying to put words into your mouth; I am just planting those ideas. Is there anything there that makes you think, “This is great, but—”?

I do not need to be convinced—I have visited one—but, when there are changes to the law such as this, there will be an element of the public that will want that reassurance.

With respect, we should not be sitting here, disputing whether the figures are out by a factor of three or a factor of 11. I am pretty sure that, in evidence to us last week, the minister indicated that, after a meeting with Pam Duncan-Glancy late last year, an undertaking was given to talk to COSLA about the issue and get the answers. Has that meeting, for that purpose, taken place? It sounds like it has not taken place, because there is no agreement on the numbers.

Good morning. At last week’s meeting, the Scottish Transitions Forum talked about there being a “legislation salad”. The view has been expressed that the legislative landscape is already very congested. I am interested in exploring with you how easily you think the proposals in the bill would dovetail with existing duties and current policy development, such as the principles into practice trials, to avoid a situation whereby—regrettably, perhaps—that congestion would provide cover for more inaction rather than enable what we all want to see, which is an improvement in the situation.

What was the outcome?

Is another strategy not the last thing that we need? Is it not action that we need? On that basis, this process of interrogating your bill has laid bare, for all the committee members, I think, the shocking situation that exists.

Would the purpose that we are all committed to not be better served by looking closely at what does not work—rather than focusing on one aspect of it, or a couple of aspects, as your bill does—and changing lots of little things that would make a huge difference? Is there not a bigger picture here beyond the bill that we ought to be focusing on more?

Thank you, convener. I appreciate it.

We have talked about the bill and how it could be improved. However, imagine that the bill was not there. Shortly, we will have two Government ministers in front of us. If you were sitting with them, what would you say was needed to improve the experience of those young people in transition, and how should they go about it? Be as brief as possible.

However important and necessary it might be to have new strategies and strategy refreshes, a lot of people roll their eyes when they hear about them, because what they are actually looking for is real, practical change that will improve their experiences and the experiences of their loved ones. Through our evidence, we have heard that there are a lot of little things that could be done that, cumulatively, would make a huge difference to the experiences of people going through the transition to adulthood.

One issue that has been mentioned multiple times is that there is a lack of documentation that follows a young person and explains their needs, their requirements, what they react badly to and so on. We have heard that, at every stage of their transition, they have to keep telling their story over and over again.

I want to explore the issue of documentation further. I am aware of what is called a communication passport, which has been developed by My Communication Passport, details of which can be found at mycommpass.com. The communication passport is in operation in one school in my area, and I know that the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, has championed the document. Are you aware of the initiative? I have a copy here of a communication passport that belongs to a young constituent of mine. Do you feel that it might be worth exploring having a nationwide roll-out of the scheme? It is all very well and good that it is available in some localities for some individuals, but, given that it works, do you think that it is an example of one of the many little things that we could do to improve the situation?

Of course, in a practical sense, the existence of such passports should be hugely helpful to the very bodies that are interacting with those young people.