Chamber and committees

Good morning, Ian. You talked a little bit about growing the game for women and you have taken a couple of questions on that already. I am interested in how we can support growing the game, especially when dealing with sexism.

The Children’s Parliament report for the Scottish Football Association is titled “Getting It Right for Every Child in Football.” The report quotes a girl who says:

“As a girl playing in what is seen as a boys sport it can be really hard and lots of sexism still exists especially from parents.”

Another girl says:

“There is lots of sexism from boys towards girls playing football making me not want to participate in school PE class games as I have been purposely targeted by boys and hurt because they don’t think girls should play.”

What is the Scottish Football Association doing to tackle sexism in football?

Good morning, everybody. I have a quick question for Dr Kennedy about the Scottish graduate entry medicine programme before I move on to my theme. ScotGEM is unique to Scotland and has been created to address rural healthcare needs. Basically, it is a graduate entry medical programme to train people who, for example, already have a degree in healthcare. My understanding is that the programme has been quite successful in Dumfries and Galloway. What is the perception of ScotGEM in your world?

I have a quick question for Dr Kennedy about the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee—NRAC—formula. I was at the NHS Borders update on Friday, and Ralph Roberts, the chief executive, was talking about how the NRAC formula works for the funding of remote and rural areas. Do you think that the NRAC formula needs to be revised or altered in any way?

Dental nurse work is taking place in a range of locations. It could happen at an NHS hospital—indeed, you mentioned Borders general earlier—as well as in dental practices, so there is a wide range of opportunities to implement those skills. Is that right?

There are also challenges facing dentistry in remote and rural areas. For a start, there is a crisis with the lack of dentists in Dumfries and Galloway. Is there a role for dental nurses to step in at some level to support good oral hygiene, especially in children and young people? Childsmile has been quite a success, but is there a role for dental nurses to help support people through our dental crisis?

The minister will be aware that I have been working to ensure that the MAT standards are implemented for rural parts of Scotland, such as Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders. Will the minister provide an update on how implementation is working in rural areas versus urban areas? Will she comment on how stigma reduction work is progressing in rural Scotland through, for example, the important work of local recovery cafes such as those that are run by Borders In Recovery, which has cafes in Hawick, Gala, Kelso, Eyemouth and Peebles?

The finance secretary will be aware of the unique challenges of rurality and depopulation that are faced by Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders. Will she further outline how the budget will support people in D and G and the Borders who are most impacted by the Tory-created cost of living crisis and will help to address depopulation and attract people to the region by improving transport and infrastructure?

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and congratulate Keith Brown on securing it. Jamie Greene has just delivered a powerful contribution. I am pleased to follow him in the debate and I want to thank him very much for speaking today.

Keith emphasised the fantastic work of Fighting With Pride, and I join him in welcoming that work on connecting LGBT+ veterans to organisations that can help them with whatever their needs are. I welcome members of Fighting With Pride to the public gallery this evening.

Fighting With Pride was established on the 20th anniversary of the complete lifting of the gay ban on LGBT+ service personnel—the UK Government even called it the gay ban. Fighting With Pride supports LGBT+ veterans and serving personnel and their families, particularly those who were affected by the ban, which was ultimately lifted on 12 January 2000. Before then, thousands of LGBT+ service personnel were removed or forced from service and abandoned, as has been described already.

The ban on LGBT+ service personnel was wide ranging and deeply hurtful to all those who were impacted. Some of those who breached the ban were either dismissed following a court-martial or administratively discharged. Others resigned or did not extend their contract due to the impact of the requirement to continually hide their sexuality. The policy was not enforced uniformly across the armed forces but, where it was enforced, it was usually carried out in a rigorous and often brutal way with long-term damaging consequences.

An independent review of the impact of the ban was published, and the statements that were taken as part of the review present shocking evidence. The testimonies demonstrate a culture of homophobia, bullying, blackmail, sexual assaults, abusive investigations into sexual orientation and sexual preference and disgraceful medical examinations, including conversion therapy and discharges without appeal. That led to appalling consequences in terms of mental health and wellbeing and homelessness. That takes me back to the days of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that was introduced in the United States of America, when I lived in Los Angeles. That policy was ended in 2011 by President Barack Obama. Such policies and practices have no place in any society, and I welcome the fact that we have moved on and that reparations have been made to those who were impacted.

I want to touch on the work of organisations across Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish borders to support veterans and service personnel who are part of the LGBT+ community. The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Families Association is a trusted source of support for serving personnel, veterans and their families in their times of need. It was founded in 1885, and the Dumfriesshire and Stewartry branch of SSAFA continues to do fantastic work for veterans. Its support covers regulars and reserves in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the British Army and the Royal Air Force as well as their families, including anyone who has completed national service. The team in D&G knows and understands the unique demands of service life in the UK and overseas and, in times of need, they enable forces families to thrive.

I am interested in the work that SSAFA has been doing with the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, which has awarded a grant, on behalf of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, to assist with the delivery of specialist support on the Forcesline helpline. Funding of £25,000 is being allocated to Forcesline to uplift and fully support any additional and specific needs from the veteran LGBT+ community that might result from the pre-2000 homosexuality ban. I remind folk that the Forcesline number is 0800 260 6767.

That work is also publicised by the Veterans Garden in Dumfries, which is run by army veteran Mark Harper—no relation. Mark is doing an amazing job at that garden at the Crichton, which provides a safe space for veterans, regardless of their sexual orientation. I hope that the minister will visit the garden to see its updated premises.

I again welcome the debate and thank Keith Brown for all that he does to champion veterans’ affairs.

I have a quick question for Jaki Lambert about remote and rural midwifery practice. Because NHS Dumfries and Galloway stopped allowing babies to be delivered at Galloway community hospital in 2018, women are now having to travel 72 miles, and babies are being born at the side of the road. Indeed, Michael Dickson might want to pick up this question, too. I know that there are challenges with regard to education, competency skills and recruitment, and safety, too, is obviously a huge issue, so I would be interested to what Jaki Lambert has to say about the necessary requirements for skills, development and safety when it comes to delivering babies.

I have just a quick question. Outside of current issues, does the Scottish Ambulance Service have enough capacity to deal with remote and rural areas? We are talking not just about emergency transfers, but patient transfer to appointments, too. How would you respond to that? Is there enough capacity?