Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services that are declined. (S6O-00422)

In 2018, Audit Scotland, in its report on “Children and young people’s mental health”, warned that scrutiny of CAMHS was focused

“on inputs and outputs rather than outcomes”.

Since then, what action has the Scottish Government taken to shift the focus to outcomes, and how will it measure service quality to seek to increase pathways for improving the mental health of our children?

In her statement, the First Minister commented on the situation of pregnant women and encouraged them to get vaccinated. I, too, encourage them to do so. What action is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that that message is being communicated across the country in order to protect pregnant women?

Funding for initiatives is always welcome, but it is also important that there is a clear due process for determining how grants are awarded. Can the minister confirm that any future international development moneys will get to those who need it most and will be subject to such due process, to ensure transparency, accountability and value for taxpayers?

Advocacy services are an important lifeline for many different groups, including vulnerable older people. However, even before the pandemic, reduced funding for advocacy organisations across Scotland meant that they were struggling to meet demand. Does the First Minister agree with independent advocacy services that increased funding is necessary to allow those organisations to protect vulnerable individuals’ rights?

I congratulate my fellow co-convener of the cross-party group on lung health, Emma Harper, on bringing the debate to the chamber.

World COPD day is organised by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. It is a collaboration between healthcare professionals and COPD patient groups throughout the world, and its aim is to raise awareness, share knowledge and discuss ways to reduce the burden on individuals who have the condition. This year’s theme is “Healthy Lungs—Never More Important”, which is very poignant.

The aim is to raise awareness that COPD is an on-going issue and to ensure that individuals around the world can be supported. Notwithstanding the threat of Covid, COPD remains a leading cause of death worldwide, which is a reminder of the need to focus on lung health. To that end, we need to ensure that there is support. Avoiding extensive air pollution and occupational exposure is also crucial, and it is essential to ensure that regular physical activity is undertaken at whatever level possible.

As we have heard, COPD covers a group of conditions, including bronchitis and emphysema. Those conditions create real difficulties for people, because they involve trying to take in air and empty it out from the lungs through airways that have become extremely narrow. The condition is, unfortunately, progressive and long term, and it is without a cure. We know that approximately 141,000 people across Scotland have the disease. However, the figure could be even worse, as it is believed that two thirds of people with COPD do not know that they have it because they are undiagnosed.

Last year, I was honoured to be nominated as the British Lung Foundation’s smoking cessation champion for the Parliament. I am equally honoured that the role has been reinstated for me during this session.

Although it is not always the case, we widely accept that there is a connection between smoking and COPD, with the damage that it does. It is vital to ensure that campaigns happen across the country to indicate the dangers of smoking to young people.

In my role as co-convener of the cross-party group on lung health, I am privileged to have met many individuals who have come to the group and have given us real inspiration, none more so than Linda McLeod BEM. Working with like-minded individuals across my region, Linda chairs the support group Breathe Easy Clackmannanshire. The organisation recently received the Queen’s award for voluntary service, showing the high esteem in which it is held.

I spoke with Linda about what was happening at NHS Forth Valley. There are real issues around what is happening in the wee county. We know that individuals who require support can have it, but they need pulmonary rehabilitation services across the county. Tragically, shortly after we had that discussion, the pulmonary rehab unit was relocated to Larbert. There was then an issue with a pulmonary rehabilitation service delivered by videoconferencing. That has now been removed altogether, however.

The current situation across the wee county is that many individuals are being affected by the absence of that pulmonary rehab service. They now have to travel a considerable distance, many on a number of buses. For some of them, that is virtually impossible. Estimates suggest that more than 3,000 people in the Forth Valley area could benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation. I hope that the minister will consider that in her summing up. We know that the average cost for pulmonary rehab is about £130 per patient, but that rises to £3,000 for a patient in hospital. Those issues are vitally important.

Some 6 per cent of all deaths in Scotland are attributed to lung disease, so ensuring access to pulmonary care is vital. It is crucial that the pulmonary rehabilitation service is maintained and retained locally, which ensures that more people with COPD can access the healthcare that they require.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to open this highly poignant members’ business debate. During the previous session of Parliament, I was extremely privileged to have been able to mark two significant military centenaries in the chamber. The opportunity of marking such an anniversary for the most all-encompassing symbol of remembrance for all those who served, and are still serving, in Her Majesty’s armed forces throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, as well as for their families, is a special moment for me. I thank my fellow MSPs who supported my members’ business motion for allowing me this privilege.

The history of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance may not be as clear cut as has been previously assumed. The first reference to the poppy has been traced back to the Napoleonic wars. Several documents have been unearthed, noting that, following Napoleonic battles, poppies became abundant on the battlefields where soldiers had fallen. The same sources drew the first comparison between bloodstained individuals and the red colour of the poppy. As many of us know, the growth of the scarlet corn poppy is aided by massive disruption to the soil. Thus, the devastation of the natural environment caused by such conflicts saw fields littered with bodies alongside red poppies.

To fast-forward to modern times, while poppies remain more popular in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, other nations have become involved. Actually, it may be an American, Moina Michael, who can be credited with the first charitable poppy sale. She worked for the overseas war secretaries office of the Young Men’s Christian Association in New York. She was so stirred by what is perhaps the most famous war poem of all time, “In Flanders Fields”, by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, that she vowed to pin a poppy to her lapel and swore always to wear one to honour the war dead. Using money that she had earned from the YMCA, she purchased 25 silk poppies and distributed them among her colleagues.

Moina Michael continued her endeavours to ensure that the poppy was adopted as a symbol of national remembrance, and the American Legion eventually adopted the poppy as an official symbol of remembrance two years later. The popularity of the new custom grew exponentially, and the tradition crossed the Atlantic.

A lady named Mme E Guérin had travelled from France to attend a conference of the American Legion, and she saw the sale of poppies as a great way to raise money for children who had suffered during the great war in France. She was quick to organise a team of French widows, who immediately began making paper poppies on an industrial scale. They made 1 million of them by 1921. Following the tremendous success of her poppy sales, Mme Guérin sent a delegation of poppy sellers to London in a bid to get the United Kingdom involved. Field Marshal Douglas Haig was highly enthusiastic about the idea that was put forward by Guérin’s delegates. To that end, the Royal British Legion adopted the poppy almost immediately, and the first-ever annual poppy day in the United Kingdom occurred on 11 November 1921, marking the third anniversary of armistice day. The poppy rapidly outgrew its American roots and was adopted by Canada and Australia in 1921 and by New Zealand a year later.

At that time, poppies intended for distribution in the UK were still made in France by war widows, but a factory opened in Bermondsey in 1922. The factory employed five disabled ex-military personnel to produce poppies all year round for distribution in the weeks prior to remembrance Sunday. The first official UK poppy appeal in 1921 raised £106,000, equivalent to almost £5.5 million today. The Royal British Legion now aims to make £25 million annually from the sale of poppies.

Here in Scotland, Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory opened in 1926 at a former woodcutting factory in the grounds of Whitefoord house, opposite this Parliament’s Queensberry house. It moved to the Warriston area of the city in 1965. Its team of 34 veterans proudly produce more than five million poppies and 15,000 wreaths annually. They relocated to Redford barracks in 2019 to allow substantial refurbishment work to be carried out at the factory, to which they began returning this summer.

The poppy’s enormous financial success and its adoption as a symbol of charity means that it has transcended its purely metaphorical and commemorative status. The red wildflower has become a physical, palpable object providing financial stability for those affected by war. That is a result of the tireless endeavours of volunteers from across the United Kingdom.

Poppy sales support the Royal British Legion, Poppyscotland and the Ancre Somme Association, for which I am proud to be the honorary ambassador for Scotland. I also hold the post of honorary president for the Ribbon of Poppies project.

I conclude by echoing the words of Canadian journalist Matt Gurney to those who accuse the red poppy of glorifying war:

“The red poppy is inherently a symbol of peace. Not just of peace as a concept—pleasant a concept as it is—but as the hard-won peace that hundreds of thousands ... earned at such great cost.”

The poppy is not a symbol of anyone’s victory. The flags of nations and countries or military ensigns all serve far more ably in that role. Neither is the poppy a symbol of military conquest or national glory. It is a natural reminder of the ravages of war and conflict. None of us needs to be reminded why the red poppy was chosen as the symbol of remembrance. Flanders field is a poignant place and it is because of that that we must, and will, always remember.

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the 2019 Scottish export statistics. (S6O-00334)

I thank the minister for that extensive response. We welcome the statistics, which show a 3.4 per cent increase in Scottish exports. However, they also show an increase in the proportion of goods exported to the rest of the UK, with the figure increasing by 5 per cent to £53 billion, which is 60 per cent of exports from Scotland.

Given the increasing importance of the UK market, does the minister agree that any potential trade barriers between Scotland and the rest of the UK would risk significant economic damage?

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

We acknowledge that there will be differences and changes. We want a tailored approach, which is important. However, we have to recognise that there will be some difficulties, and that people might slip through the net and will not access all the benefits to which they are entitled. We need to have the time, the funds and the process in place to ensure that people can access benefits.

It is important to ensure that anyone who applies for any type of benefit is given the necessary support and that mechanisms are in place. The risks around the idea of improving potential for payments from the Scottish Government have to be considered. Similar pressures exist for claimants who receive the highest rate of PIP. Those potential pitfalls will need to be considered.

Turning to other aspects of the social security system, I welcome the recent benefit take-up strategy, which members have talked about, and I acknowledge the importance of tailoring support to certain demographics. Many older people face barriers to accessing their benefits, and do not take them up because of those access issues. Citizens Advice Scotland has demonstrated one such barrier, when one of its assessments found that one in 10 people between 65 and 79 are not able to use a computer to access benefit applications, which makes the process much more difficult.

I should stress that changes to benefits can be confusing and stressful for older people who depend on them. We should therefore consider the vital importance of communication. I know that the Scottish Government has considered some of those aspects, but it still needs to address some points, because the system needs to work well and timeously. It is important that the Government continues to engage with older people, stakeholders and charities such as Age Scotland, which have talked about the work that is required.

Another group that members have talked about is those who care for others. I welcome the fact that the take-up strategy acknowledges the simplicity of the carers allowance application process. We need to consider that point, because the benefit will be replaced with Scottish carers assistance. Given the increasing importance of carers over the past 18 months, it is vital that we consider that group now and ensure that we give those people the support that they require.

As I stated at the outset, it is clear that the devolved benefit powers that Scotland has received can, if used properly, be an effective tool to ensure that people receive the support that they need. It is therefore disappointing that we have not gone as far down the road to deliver those benefits as we had hoped.

I am sure that the Scottish Government will take on board some of the concerns that we have heard from many members. If the Government is able to listen, I hope that we can arrive at a social security system to which other countries can aspire. However, at the moment, I am disappointed that we have a strategy that still looks like a missed opportunity.