Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, February 9, 2017

Official Report 937KB pdf

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Barnardo’s Scotland Nurture Week

The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S5M-03336, in the name of Stuart McMillan, on Barnardo’s Scotland nurture week. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament welcomes Barnardo’s Scotland Nurture Week, which runs from 13 to 19 February 2017; understands that this is a week-long series of events and activities aimed at showcasing the importance of nurture and attachment in child development; notes that Barnardo’s works in Inverclyde in partnership with schools and nurseries and takes a unique approach to health and wellbeing by working to embed nurture principles in early years settings and the classroom; further notes that this approach provides wrap-around support to families with the aim of using nurture principles to support the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people as well as help raise attainment, and notes calls for all parties to come together to support this approach.

12:48  

I thank all the members who have signed the motion; I also thank those members who have stayed to take part in the debate or to listen to what is said. Next week is Barnardo’s Scotland nurture week. Given that Parliament will be in recess next week, I am glad that we have the chance to debate the subject today, and I thank the whips for allowing that to happen.

For any parent, a child is a responsibility and a challenge, and it is easy to feel swamped by both. For those parents whose children require extra attention or who might have their own difficult personal issues to deal with, those day-to-day challenges can multiply hugely. In my Greenock and Inverclyde constituency, Barnardo’s is part of the Nurture Group Network, which is vital to child development and wellbeing. In December last year, I lodged a motion, which quite a number of members signed, that highlighted the additional funding that Barnardo’s had received to help Inverclyde pupils.

The Nurture Group Network recognises the importance of nurture in school settings and trains practitioners throughout Scotland in running nurture groups. Barnardo’s Greenock-based nurture service reaches out to both parents and children. It offers advice, information, expertise and, crucially, the support that can ensure that the young people who go through its doors get the best possible start in life and enjoy the best possible future as a result.

Nurture groups are a psychologist-designed and teacher-led intervention for disengaged and troubled children. They remove behavioural barriers to engagement and attainment in schools through recreating missing or distorted early attachments.

Nurturing approaches are based on the recognition that the factors that lead to many young children failing to reach developmental milestones can be addressed by helping parents and those who work with children to take relatively simple measures to improve attachment and thus the child’s development. They are also a powerhouse of work to improve families’ futures through offering a range of group and one-to-one services that are focused on building attachment relationships in the critical early years.

Babies are born with 25 per cent of their brain developed. That figure leaps up to 80 per cent by the age of three. The principles of early support are well established. Children need warm, attentive and stimulating parenting at that age to support their social, emotional and physical growth. The benefits of that to society through breaking potential intergenerational cycles of crime, alcohol and drug abuse and teenage pregnancy are widely recognised.

Barnardo’s provides services that take an attachment-based approach to working with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families in the country. That includes working in nurseries and primary schools and at the early stages of secondary school. Crucially, it also includes work with families before the school gates are reached to ensure that children arrive at school ready to learn.

In Inverclyde, where levels of poverty and unemployment and drug and alcohol issues are, sadly, above the national averages, Barnardo’s works with mothers-to-be as well as parents of newborns, toddlers and children aged five to 12, often using respected programmes. There are also services that are targeted at young parents aged from 14 to 25 who might feel removed from accessing mainstream services. That approach helps parents to build strong and healthy relationships with their children, and improves educational attainment and life chances for whole families.

As well as offering one-to-one support, Barnardo’s nurture service offers participants the chance to increase their social networks by meeting other parents. That can be vital for many young parents who face the problems of isolation.

There are now more than 300 nurture groups in schools in Scotland. That is a ratio of around one group in every eight schools. Barnardo’s works in Inverclyde and other local authority areas to help to build the capacity of the early years and teaching workforce to take a nurturing, attachment-based approach to its work with children and parents.

Nurture children are carefully selected using the Boxall profile, which is an online resource that allows teachers to develop an accurate understanding of children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties and to plan effective interventions and support activities. A nurturing philosophy that is rooted in attachment theory is used to ensure that children with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties are provided, once they are in the group, with the early nurturing experiences that are vital to learning. Make no mistake: nurture groups can turn children’s lives around.

In the autumn of last year, Queen’s University Belfast published an independent evaluation of the nurture signature schools programme in Northern Ireland, which is a Government-funded pilot programme. Nurture groups were set up in 20 schools and continued in a further 10 schools. They were thoroughly evaluated for outcomes and cost effectiveness. The two-year evaluation found that, across the 30 nurture groups, children made what have been described as

“consistently large improvements in social, emotional and behavioural development”

and that there was

“evidence that greater progress was being made by those attending on a full-time basis, looked after children and by those not eligible for free school meals”.

In Inverclyde, Barnardo’s has adapted to suit its aims the original wellbeing outcomes that were used in the getting it right for every child approach. It has sought to ensure that every child, citizen and community will be safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected and responsible.

A central part of the Barnardo’s service is to stress the importance of attentive and stimulating parenting. It does that through initiatives such as PPP—the positive parenting programme—five to thrive, which encourages bonding and offers five cues to help with babies’ emotional development, and mellow parenting, a programme that is aimed at vulnerable and hard-to-reach parents. The service provides an empowering experience for parents and children.

Barnardo’s has helped children and their families for more than 150 years. Central to its aims is the belief that every child deserves the best start in life, regardless of gender, race, disability or behaviour. Barnardo’s understands that being a parent or carer can be hard work. Its children’s centres provide a fun safe haven where mums, dads, parents-to-be, carers and children can learn, develop and spend quality time in a welcoming and supportive environment. I have been to see the facility in Greenock, and I cannot praise it enough—it is outstanding.

I am sure that I speak for all members in the chamber when I say that we value the work that Barnardo’s undertakes to support children and families in my constituency of Greenock and Inverclyde and across the country. I have two asks for the minister. First, can the Scottish Government look favourably on investing in nurture groups across Scotland? Secondly, there is a belief that all schools should use the Boxall profile to better understand and support the social, emotional and behavioural needs of their children, so I would be grateful if the minister could consider whether that could be utilised in all schools in Scotland.

12:56  

I thank my colleague Stuart McMillan for bringing the important topic of nurture to the chamber. I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to speak today, as I recently visited Blacklands primary and Kilwinning academy in my constituency, where I saw for myself the positive and tangible effects of nurture groups on attainment and inclusion.

In Blacklands, there was a particularly touching moment when one wee boy alerted a teacher to the fact that one of his friends had done something well, and they had quite a cute “Well done” song. That is a simple thing but, in a nutshell, it is what nurture is about—it is about having a space where we support children to develop healthy and supportive relationships and attachments, where we make them feel valued by others and confident in themselves, and where we teach them how to communicate constructively and positively. Through all that, it is about equipping them with the emotional and mental resilience to deal with the challenges of life, whether those are the little everyday challenges or the much bigger and traumatic ones.

Nurturing emotionally healthy and resilient children paves the way for future generations of healthy and resilient adults—those really are skills for life. Nurturing is not only of immeasurable benefit to the individual, as it leads to healthier and happier lives, but it is of benefit to us all, with evidence suggesting that nurture groups can work to reduce crime and health problems in wider society.

At the immediate school level, the positive impact that nurture groups have on attainment and thus on closing the attainment gap cannot be overstated. As Stuart McMillan said, the first challenge with vulnerable or disadvantaged children is often ensuring that children get to school in the first place and are ready and willing to learn when they get there. Nurture groups make a huge difference on all those points, resulting in improved attendance and reduced exclusions, improved behaviour and positive attachments to teachers and the school.

The results on attainment are no less impressive, with trials showing that children attending nurture groups demonstrate significant gains in academic achievement, including in metacognition skills, language and literacy. There is no doubt that poverty and income inequality play serious roles in educational inequality, but income is not the only factor. Stability, love, security and support are more important in a child’s life than how much money their family has. Nurture groups are founded on the recognition of that and the importance of ensuring that children get the right support, at the right time, from the right people, and have equal opportunities to engage with learning, whatever is going on in their lives that is outwith their control.

In that regard, the nurture group approach dovetails with the Scottish Government’s GIRFEC approach. I am pleased that Scotland has the best ratio of nurture groups to schools in the UK, with one nurture group for every 8.3 schools, and that the majority of local authority-funded nurture groups in the UK are in Scotland.

It is important that nurture groups enable children to remain part of their mainstream class, and that they work in both primary and secondary school settings. Nurture groups are an eminently sensible and feasible way of tackling some of the most complex issues that children face, at a very early stage and in a meaningful and sustainable manner.

I have run out of time, so I will finish on that note.

13:00  

I remind members that I am a serving councillor on Perth and Kinross Council and refer them to my entry in the register of members’ interests.

I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing this debate, and I welcome Barnardo’s Scotland nurture week, which will be next week. The importance of nurture in the development of children is one of those rare things on which I think that all members broadly agree. It is a matter that transcends the political divide. It is essential that children in Scotland grow up in an environment in which they are well cared for and well supported and, crucially, in which they feel safe. We can all agree on that.

It is also vital to a child’s development that they are able to learn. We regularly debate the different ways in which we can close the attainment gap, or the direction in which the Scottish education system is moving, but we focus primarily on the curriculum and the standard of teaching. Of course, the curriculum and teaching are extremely important, but many children are at a significant disadvantage relative to their peers before they even reach the school gate.

Many children from a disadvantaged background struggle with educational attainment. They have to manage their environment outside school on a day-to-day basis. The experience of living in a home where there is drug, alcohol or domestic abuse, or where there are other stressful situations, can severely disrupt a child’s education.

As a councillor in Perth and Kinross, I have seen at first hand the impact that Barnardo’s Scotland has had on the lives of such youngsters. I congratulate and pay tribute to Barnardo’s. Its work to tackle the issues is to be commended. By providing services on the principle of positive attachment in the most vulnerable families, Barnardo’s helps to ensure that when children arrive at school they feel safe and—just as important—ready to learn. The problem is that some children have difficulty engaging with school, because of the situation in which they find themselves and the background from which they come. We have to ensure that children are ready to learn, and Barnardo’s is addressing the issue. I very much support the work that it is doing.

It is clear that poor attachment in the early years of life affects how a child manages, the results that they can achieve and their risk of mental health problems. We are seeing more and more such problems. We must tackle the root causes as well as finding methods of treating youngsters who face complex issues, which become even more complex as they experience more in life.

The nurturing approach that Barnardo’s promotes is the best way to address the problem, by making children feel secure and safe, giving them opportunities and working with families and schools. The growing number of children who are affected by mental health issues is very concerning and makes it all the more important that we foster stable and nurturing environments for children when they are at an early age. Strengthening the emotional resilience of our children in the face of anxiety, stress and mental health issues is essential.

I am happy to support the efforts of Barnardo’s Scotland ahead of next week’s series of events and activities in support of the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children.

13:04  

I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing this motion to Parliament and for highlighting Barnardo’s Scotland’s very important work in improving childhood development in Inverclyde and in other areas across the country. I also thank Barnardo’s for its insightful briefing ahead of today’s debate, which highlights many of the important issues. Barnardo’s is a great support to all MSPs.

We can all agree on the importance of nurture in early childhood development—it is vital—and nurture week is a great way to showcase the best practice that is currently being exercised by Barnardo’s in some parts of the country. It is therefore a good time to reflect on how we can use that knowledge of best practice nurture principles, which all the research tells us absolutely work in achieving positive outcomes for children, and consider how we can embed the approach throughout our early years provision in education systems across the country.

We know that early intervention is absolutely crucial to closing the attainment gap. Those children who face the most difficult beginnings in life, navigating family situations marked by poverty, alcohol and drug abuse or violence in the home, and those who may find themselves in care as a result of those issues, are most likely to exhibit signs of challenging behaviour and to suffer from inequity in attainment at school. The damaging effects of early, unmet attachment needs can therefore have a lifelong impact on a child’s prospects.

Given the Scottish Government’s commitment to closing the attainment gap in education as its top priority in this parliamentary session, more focus and attention needs to be given to adopting attachment and nurture-based approaches in the early years. I hope, therefore, to see an acknowledgement of that in the forthcoming mental health strategy, which I hope will reflect the importance of embedding nurture and attachment in the early years of a child’s life in order to prevent problems with mental health later down the line. We heard about some of that at First Minister’s question time earlier. Perhaps the minister could elaborate on that in her closing speech.

I also hope that the forthcoming mental health strategy will reflect a commitment to working across portfolio areas. It is vital that people in health, education and the third sector work closely together to tackle the complex issues of wellbeing and mental health and their undeniable impact on other areas of life. With that in mind, it is worth drawing attention to the recent publication of the “State of Child Health Report 2017” by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which includes several recommendations for action in Scotland. In particular, the report highlights that one in 10 children starting school experience social, emotional or behavioural difficulties and that as many as five children in every class have some form of additional support needs, all of which puts pressure on other services.

That shows just how important it is that we start to embed the practice of nurture throughout our education system from the very earliest stages. Not only will that ensure that professionals are equipped to support children who need extra support, but that early investment and prevention will have a long-term positive impact on the need for services in later life. The report highlights that half of mental health problems start before the age of 14 and three quarters start before the age of 24. That underlines the importance of early intervention, so I hope that the Government will give due consideration to the recommendations in the report.

In closing—I realise that time is short in these debates—I think that the key theme of the debate is about the deserved recognition of the great work in developing attachment and nurture in some pockets of the country. There is also the wider issue of how we can further develop this practice and mainstream it throughout our education system.

As Stuart McMillan’s motion suggests, this is a principle that all parties can get behind. I liked Ruth Maguire’s mention of the “Well done” song—perhaps we can all come up with some way to celebrate each other when we work together in a positive way. By working across the chamber and with third sector groups such as Barnardo’s and the Nurture Group Network, I hope that the approach can be expanded and I hope that we are able to see real progress in this area during this parliamentary session.

Thank you very much. Can I just check that you mentioned the “Well done” song?

Yes.

But you did not sing it—that is just as well, because I do not think that that would be parliamentary, but there we are.

I call Jeremy Balfour—have I got that right? No, David Torrance is next. Sorry—I drifted because I was thinking about the song. I call David Torrance, to be followed by Jeremy Balfour.

13:09  

I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate to the chamber to welcome Barnardo’s Scotland nurture week. A special thank you also goes to Gordon MacDonald for the loan of his glasses so that I can actually see my speech.

As a father of two, I stress the importance of building a supportive and long-lasting relationship with my children—a relationship that has lasted throughout their childhood and is just beginning to touch their young adult lives. However, as any parent will know, the first few years of a child’s life are crucial for their emotional, social, psychological, neurological and physical development. To support children who have insecure attachments, all members of the Scottish Parliament should encourage leaders and players in education to promote a nurturing approach to help to create strong attachments, which are the foundations of children’s positive emotional development.

Key to that mantra is Barnardo’s Scotland, which is Scotland’s largest children’s charity. It provides more than 130 local services throughout Scotland and works with more than 26,500 vulnerable children, young people and their families. It provides help with issues such as attachment and early development, it supports parents in the community and it provides guidance and advice on a case-by-case basis. That individualised service is a distinguishing feature of Barnardo’s Scotland. The charity has successfully developed a structure in which staff can acknowledge and respond to children, young people and families based on their individual circumstances, needs and background, rather than on their age, gender, class or status.

I am sure that my fellow MSPs will agree that closing the poverty-related attainment gap, especially through working with young and vulnerable children, is a priority. Barnardo’s Scotland has taken a unique approach to health and wellbeing in order to ensure that children who are living in the most disadvantaged areas are receiving as much attention as possible to literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. Support services in Fife are an excellent example of how Barnardo’s Scotland individualises its support case by case, especially by working with other support groups including the Fife advocacy forum, Fife Council and NHS Fife. Barnardo’s child and family support service has been providing services to children and families in need for more than a decade. That Fife-based service currently has eight strands of service, including children’s rights, intensive family support, assessment of parenting capacity, family carers, family health, a nurture hub and substance abuse services.

I stress that those services often do not just involve a one-off appointment; families are encouraged to follow up with staff for up to a year after the initial meeting, which ensures that the services that Barnardo’s offers can make a long-lasting impact on our communities. I have confidence that Barnardo’s Scotland nurture week will bring awareness not only to children and young people who are suffering, but—crucially—to parents, who often take on an extremely emotional and physical role in dealing with the day-to-day struggles of their children in need.

Barnardo’s nurture service offers a space not only for children to express themselves, but for parents of vulnerable children to meet and socialise, essentially by creating ad hoc support networks. Barnardo’s Scotland is aiming to create a domino effect by fostering support and extending that support in everyday life, not just under the care of compassionate staff and volunteers.

Crucially, the getting it right for every child agenda brings all those initiatives together. Nurturing Inverclyde has set a great example for the rest of the country by putting children at the centre of the local community. Inverclyde Council has adapted GIRFEC to suit the needs of the local area; I call on every constituency to do the same by working with and consulting their council services and leaders of community development planning, and with a range of stakeholders who can contribute to wellbeing outcomes.

In conclusion, I once again thank Stuart McMillan for this important debate, and I commend Barnardo’s for its invaluable contribution to Scotland’s young people and their families.

13:13  

As other members have done, I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate to the chamber and for giving us the opportunity to talk about this important subject.

I am sure that we all agree that, as has been said, nurturing children in our society and our country is so important because it can create positive attachments and help the child to mature, learn and thrive. For parents, it is often hard to nurture children, especially younger children. I speak from experience as a father of twins who have just reached six years old.

Parents, wherever they come from, often need help. It is too easy for society, and even sometimes for we politicians, to blame parents rather than to support them. That is where Barnardo’s and others can bring in their valuable experience in order to help.

I am still very new to Parliament and am still learning lots. What has surprised me most since I came to Parliament has been finding out about the importance of the child’s learning from 0 to 3 years, even before they start nursery or school. As we have heard from other members, children who are nurtured grow in those formative years, and what happens to them then has a knock-on effect not only when they go to primary school, but in secondary school and later when they go out into society. We therefore need to support vulnerable families and children who have extra needs so that they can be nurtured to grow not only in their younger years but in the years to come.

I welcome the work of Barnardo’s and other organisations and the help that they can give to many families in our communities, because if we get it right for every child, we will see fewer children with mental health issues, the attainment gap will lessen and we will have stronger families in our society. Whichever political party we are in, that is what we all want in Scotland.

I welcome the debate and I wish Barnardo’s well next week. I hope that its campaign goes beyond these four walls and out into the whole of our society, and that local authorities and families appreciate and realise a bit more what they can offer as we seek to nurture our children.

Thank you. I call Fulton MacGregor.

The Minister for Public Health and Sport (Aileen Campbell) rose—[Laughter.]

I think that that is due to lack of lunch, minister.

12:17  

I am sorry to disappoint everybody, but there is one more member to go before the minister.

I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate to the chamber. Like other speakers, I am delighted to be able to participate in this members’ business debate on Barnardo’s Scotland nurture campaign. As Jeremy Balfour has just said, Barnardo’s is a fantastic organisation, and I wish it well with the upcoming campaign.

Other members have covered most of the points in this very consensual debate. I, too, stress that I recognise the importance of nurturing interventions for children and young people. That nurturing is particularly relevant, as we have heard, to children who face inequity in terms of their attainment and therefore face the greatest challenges. Poverty is prevalent in the constituency that I represent and it is understandable that it can have an impact on childhood experiences and the direction that a child takes. I think that the nurture campaign ties in with the review of looked-after and accommodated young people that the Scottish Government has announced.

There are nurture groups at St Monica’s primary school in my constituency and there is inclusion support across the area. Great work is also done by North Lanarkshire Council in community learning and development. I know that a lot of parents and schools speak very highly of the support that they receive through those links.

Last night, I hosted in the Parliament’s garden lobby an event by the Scottish Association for Mental Health on mental health and work opportunities, which I think went well. I feel that that issue links well with the subject of this debate, because the people whom I spoke to at the event talked a lot about the mental health issues that young people currently face and the difficulties for young children who are starting school if they have not developed proper attachments and had proper nurturing.

I was pleased to hear Monica Lennon’s question to the First Minister earlier today. I had a supplementary question, but Monica Lennon asked about the points that I wanted to come in on, which allowed the First Minister to talk about the direction that she and the Government are going in and their ambitions for young people with mental health issues.

The Nurture Group Network’s annual Scottish conference will, I am pleased to announce, be held at the end of the month in my constituency, at the Coatbridge campus of New College Lanarkshire. The theme is teaching and learning for children who have social, emotional and mental health issues. The conference is a great opportunity to promote the work of nurture groups and to demonstrate why they have had such acclaim from teachers, parents, pupils, education professionals and others.

As I said, many of my points have been covered, so I will take the opportunity to say again that this is an area that every member of Parliament should support, and I again thank Stuart McMillan again for bringing the debate to the chamber.

Thank you, Mr MacGregor. Now, I call Aileen Campbell to wind up for the Government. [Laughter.] Minister, you have seven minutes or thereabouts.

13:20  

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Please forgive the premature nature of my rising to speak earlier. I think that you had to put your teacher voice back on to tell me to sit down.

I, too, thank Stuart McMillan for lodging his motion and highlighting the fantastic work of Barnardo’s Scotland, which is being celebrated through its nurture week. I have appreciated all the speeches in the debate, which have highlighted the local work that is happening across everybody’s constituencies and council areas.

Good attachment, positive relationships, nurture, support, stability and love are all essential ingredients for a good and happy childhood that sets strong foundations for later life. Ruth Maguire also articulated the wider societal benefits that we all feel—whether in justice, the economy or the health service—when we focus on the early years, which shows why it is everyone’s business to get this right.

That is why, today, I want to touch on what the Scottish Government is doing in the important early years and throughout the child’s life journey, with a focus on nurture. I also stress that, although we have that focus on the early years, we should never forget that early intervention and the early years are different things. We should not think that, once a child is beyond the early years, we can give up. We must ensure that we act early when we can, and provide support to children and young people whenever they need that help.

Our focus on the early years starts with maternity services. Stuart McMillan mentioned the brain development that occurs before a child is born. That is recognised and articulated strongly by Suzanne Zeedyk in what she describes as “the connected baby”. I recommend that any member who is new to this Parliament looks at her work and how she articulates the importance of attachment for all our children.

In January, we published “The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland”, which includes a number of recommendations that focus on provision of family-centred, safe and compassionate care that recognises the importance of attachment and bonding. Post-birth skin-to-skin care is already well established throughout Scotland and should continue to be promoted. In addition, women and babies should be kept together whenever possible to assist with bonding and attachment and to help to support breastfeeding, which is also recognised as a positive, proactive mechanism for supporting that important attachment.

As a Government, we are also committed to supporting parents and promoting a fair and equal start for every child. It was good to hear some of our MSPs talk about the challenges that they have had as parents. We will continue to roll out the family nurse partnership programme to reach all eligible teenage mothers by the end of 2018, and we will ensure that every newborn in Scotland receives a baby box that contains essential items for a child’s first weeks. It includes materials that promote attachment and helps parents to prepare for the arrival of their wee one.

Our national parenting strategy highlights how we will help parents to lay strong foundations for the loving, nurturing relationships that we all know are integral to children’s wellbeing. Our well-established play talk read campaign encourages parents and carers to incorporate playing, talking and reading into their daily routines and it helps to drive home the importance of positive interactions with children from day 1.

However, this does not stop with parents. All staff who work with children and young people play a crucial role in helping them to develop skills and positive mental health, and to foster resilience. Our national practice guidance for an ambitious expansion of early learning and childcare, “Building the Ambition”, describes good practice in creating caring and nurturing settings that allow wellbeing to flourish. This guidance also sets out the importance of attachment, in which the parent-child relationship is viewed as one of the most important factors in child development.

Such nurturing approaches are especially vital for our looked-after children, which is a point that Fulton MacGregor, Monica Lennon and, I am sure, other members raised in their speeches. Our looked-after children currently demonstrate the poorest outcomes in comparison with their peers. None of us who is a parent would ever accept poor outcomes for our children, and we should not accept them for those for whom we have a collective corporate parenting responsibility. This Government expects all corporate parents to work with young people and to consider fully how they can fulfil their statutory obligations differently and more effectively. Our commitment to getting it right for every child is at the heart of that, and of all that we do for our children. It is also at the heart of our curriculum.

To support the development and practice of nurturing approaches in our schools, Education Scotland has developed two national professional learning resources. The first, which is on nurturing approaches in the primary school, explores attachment and nurture in the early years. The second, which is on a whole-school nurturing approach, promotes school connectedness, resilience and the development of social and emotional competences, all of which are key aspects of promoting mental wellbeing. Further discussions are taking place to adapt the second resource for use in early years settings. I say to Stuart McMillan that Education Scotland also promotes the Boxall profile as a useful tool to be used as part of a child’s plan.

The Scottish attainment challenge has prioritised improvements in health and wellbeing. During the course of this session, we will allocate £750 million through the Scottish attainment challenge fund to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, and will target resources at the children, schools and communities that are most in need. A significant proportion of the Scottish attainment challenge funding has focused on promoting nurturing approaches and nurture groups. I hope that that provides some reassurance to Stuart McMillan regarding two of the points that he raised.

We recognise the importance of nurturing approaches in addressing and overcoming the barriers that some children experience in school. Barnardo’s is at the forefront of that work. It is involved with more families through the attainment challenge than it is through any other services in Inverclyde. That close partnership working has been effective in attracting and engaging more families who need support than have been engaged by other services within the wider nurture service provision sector.

In Inverclyde, 60 families are working with family support workers who are provided by Barnardo’s and funded through the Scottish attainment challenge funding. Since March last year, Barnardo’s has trained 90 staff in the “five to thrive” approach. The programme, which is run in partnership with Inverclyde Council, is an example that we want to encourage other schools and local authorities to follow. We greatly value Barnardo’s contribution and that is why we support it with core funding from the children, young people and families early intervention fund.

I thank Stuart McMillan MSP again for lodging the motion and highlighting the important work of Barnardo’s in embedding nurture approaches in services. Children get only one shot at childhood, and it is incumbent on us all to work together across professions, disciplines, portfolios and parties to strive to do our very best to help them to get it right.

13:28 Meeting suspended.  

14:30 On resuming—