Chamber and committees

You spoke about the environment and the ability to participate without others watching. There is a women-only gym in Dumfries, for example—I hear amazing music when I walk past with my dogs. Today, we are talking about how we encourage women and girls to participate in sport. Part of that is about recognising the need to be able to participate in a safe place, without fear of being judged or someone criticising you for wearing a hijab for instance. We know that it is easier to buy sports hijabs now. Is getting the rock music on and having women-only gyms part of how we make progress towards greater awareness and acceptance of women from ethnic minorities participating in sport?

That is interesting. On Covid recovery, do you agree that it will not be an overnight fix and that it will take a long time? I fully endorse supporting the mental health of all the workforce—that is critical—but it must be part of a long-term plan to address Covid recovery. Is that correct?

Good morning to the witnesses in the room, and good morning to Gordon Jamieson online, who was a senior nurse when I was an NHS nurse employee in Dumfries and Galloway.

My question is about the innovation that Gordon Jamieson was talking about. Does that include enhancing the roles of allied health professionals and nursing staff? For instance, that could involve enhancing the role of registered nurse first assistants in the operating theatre, or enabling nurses to give midazolam in endoscopy, or expanding the role of allied health professionals in other areas, albeit within the scope of their role and by using competency-based training and assessment. Is that part of the innovation that you will take forward?

Thank you, convener. Good morning to you all.

I will pick up on what Heidi Vistisen said about uniforms. In the previous session, I talked about the Norwegian handball team that got fined $1,500 because the players wore shorts instead of bikinis. Wow! They broke the rules because they wanted to wear something that was more comfortable. There was also the German gymnastics team whose members wore the full-length unitard because they did not want to wear what was prescribed as normal. One of the articles on sportanddev.org says:

“Recent conversations around women’s uniforms have highlighted the deep-rooted sexism that often prevails in the sporting field.”

My question for Heidi Vistisen, and possibly also Baz Moffat, is how important is it that we recognise that what women wear on the field for sports or physical activity needs to be their choice and not prescribed or mandated through a historical sexist approach?

I am conscious of the time, so I will stop there.

Inclusion is a great way to tackle racism.

My question might tie in with what Heidi Vistisen said about data. The Scottish Government has data from the active Scotland outcomes indicator equality analysis. It is very complicated. The data shows that 77,000 people in Scotland describe their religion as Muslim and that there are 16,000 Hindus, 13,000 Buddhists and 15,000 from other religions. I will not go on but, when all those groups are combined, they still account for less than 3 per cent of the overall population. It is difficult to take apart all the aggregate data.

Heidi Vistisen talked about the need to engage with and develop folk at the grass-roots level. Is getting in about communities and supporting people to participate in whatever sport they choose what is important?

I was going to mention the Scottish graduate entry medicine programme as a success for us in the recruitment of GPs.

As far as Covid recovery goes, I know that there is not an overnight fix, and the NHS recovery plan progress update says that recovery from the pandemic will take place not in weeks or even months but in years. Therefore, I am interested in hearing your perspectives on Covid recovery. Innovation is being used—for example, NHS Near Me and digital appointments have been part of the recovery—but how do you feel that recovery from the pandemic is affecting remote and island areas specifically? Michael Dickson is nodding, so I will go to him first.

What I am going to ask is similar to what I asked earlier, and I will also come on to uniforms.

What are the particular challenges facing women and girls from ethnic minority groups in participating in sport? Obviously, there are real challenges; it is quite apparent from some of the statistics that have come out that ethnic minority girls and women do not have the opportunity to participate or even engage.

I will go to Ewelina Chin first.

I want to pick up on what Sandesh Gulhane said about social prescribing and third sector and independent organisations. In our social prescribing inquiry, we heard about some great work that is being done in Shetland on engaging people. It is about tackling isolation and loneliness and recognising that those issues are a problem. In turn, that supports mental health. My question is for Michael Dickson. How does each local authority and NHS board interface and engage to support all of that? We know how important our third sector organisations are. I am looking at an RSPB link with nature prescriptions that can help to support people to get outside and tackle isolation and loneliness, and to join groups or whatever. Do you see that happening on the ground?