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I wish to quote the Royal College of Nursing’s warnings:

“Scotland does not have the number of nurses now that it needs to meet the demand for care in health and social care services. Thousands of registered nurses are missing from health and social care teams across Scotland, impacting on the quality and safety of patient care. This is a desperate negative spiral. The Scottish government must take urgent action now and make investment focused on addressing the nursing workforce shortages.”

Those are the warnings from the profession itself. Does the Government believe that it is currently training enough staff to meet demand?

I will move on to one of the things that witnesses said that we might touch on later: the important investment in ending child poverty and meeting the targets for 2030. Can we meet those targets? Chris Birt mentioned spending pressures. What are the spending pressures around that? Can we, should we and how do we meet those costs?

Does Edel Harris want to add anything?

I have one last wee question. We are hearing that we have to get the money—the additional payments—to people, but we also need to do other stuff. How do we get the balance right? Will you remind us of what else it is important that we do to meet those targets?

Emma Jackson is nodding.

Scottish Labour warned the Scottish Government about the consequences of poor NHS workforce planning. I am absolutely clear about Scottish Labour’s position on NHS staff: they are hard working and dedicated, and we owe so much to them.

However, our staff are under intense pressure because of the SNP Government. Agency spending is unsustainable, and vacancy rates are rising to alarming levels. In rural areas such as Dumfries and Galloway, in my region of South Scotland, the consequences of those issues and the recruitment and retention of staff are a key challenge, and that has been the case under the SNP Government.

Apprenticeships offer a good way of expanding the workforce and providing flexibility to people who live in those areas. Has the Government made any progress at all in developing apprenticeship models for healthcare workers, as recommended by the nursing and midwifery task force?

I thank Sarah Boyack for bringing the debate to the chamber. Throughout her time in the Parliament, she has long been a champion of affordable, accessible and sustainable transport, and it is welcome that she brings the voices of the Scottish Youth Parliament to the Scottish Parliament debate today.

It has been a great delight to read through the work of the Scottish Youth Parliament on transport. I congratulate the convener of the group, David McGilp MYSP, who represents my home area of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, which is in my South Scotland region. It is tremendous to see that.

Public transport is an asset to many of our constituents, none more so than our young people. Within my region, there are many remote and rural towns and villages whose connections with larger towns and cities rely completely on good public transport. Whether it is for employment, attending hospital appointments or even visiting family and friends, constituents depend on timely, reliable and regular transport. From the young to the elderly, public transport is a vehicle for social connection, and that must be considered when making decisions on provision.

For young people, affordable and accessible transport is a key factor in enabling educational and employment opportunities. The under-22s free bus travel scheme has been a welcome step in improving the affordability of public transport, and it has been fantastic in improving access to travel for many young people.

In my region, the distance between towns and villages can be tens of miles, so the scheme is welcomed by the young people who are completely reliant on bus services. In the rural community where I live, pupils from about 15 schools came together to go to the school that I went to. We could be connected with our young friends at school, but it was really difficult when we were out of school in the long holiday periods, for example. My children have made really good use of the under-22s scheme, which allows them to have a real connection with their friends over the holidays.

I note the committee’s research. The young people have said that the scheme is a great thing to have but that having limited services limits the opportunities. That is certainly true in my region.

Finally, I want to recognise the human rights aspects of the issue. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and young people have the right

“to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities”

and the right

“to participate fully in cultural and artistic life”.

It is the responsibility of the Government and all of us in the Parliament to encourage the provision of appropriate and equal cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure opportunities. Access to affordable and reliable transport plays a huge part in ensuring that right. We must all work together to ensure that the experiences of young people are as good as they possibly can be and that the opportunities work for everyone, particularly for those in rural areas. I hope that the minister has some information and feedback for us in that regard.

I thank Sarah Boyack again for bringing the debate to the Parliament. I wish the Scottish Youth Parliament more successes, and I hope that it continues to push us to make sensible decisions around accessibility, infrastructure and affordability for young people in all aspects of our community, so that no one is left behind.

I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate to the chamber. I also thank him for his contribution in raising so many of the issues that people with bladder cancer face.

Having listened to the debate, I also thank Emma Harper for her contribution about her nursing experience and Dr Gulhane for his contribution about some of the other technologies that we can use. All the speeches so far have been really helpful. It is important that the Parliament considers this cancer, given that we have such poor outcomes in Scotland. Mr McMillan described the reasons for that well, so I will not set them out again. Raising awareness of cancers such as bladder cancer is pivotal to ensuring early diagnosis and improving prognosis.

In my short contribution, I want to raise the issue of health inequalities. The current health inequalities in Scotland are significant. Unfortunately—as, I know, we all agree—they are worsening, particularly in relation to healthy life expectancy, with stark differences between the most and least deprived areas. We all want to make a difference to that.

Health inequalities exist across a range of health conditions, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, poor oral health and—crucially, given tonight’s debate—cancers. We have to make sure that communities come forward for screening in a timely manner. The latest public health figures show that the incidence of all cancers was 24 per cent greater in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived and that death rates were 78 per cent higher. We take that very seriously. I am sure that the minister will remark on it, as I know that she works hard to ensure that we have strategies to address it.

Screening and early detection are incredibly important if we are to turn around cancer outcomes, particularly for bladder cancer, as we have heard tonight. People do not always come forward for tests and screening, but screening gives us the opportunity to make sure that our most vulnerable constituents access important services. At times, the Government has run early cancer detection campaigns, which I support. In my research for the debate, I was particularly pleased to read about the STV and Fight Bladder Cancer blood in pee campaign, which ran in Scotland in December 2024 to raise awareness of bladder cancer. That was one of the few things that I could find specifically on bladder cancer.

That is a fantastic suggestion. Emma Harper is right to say that, if a good campaign is working, we should get it out across Scotland. We should all put our forces behind that, through any channel that we can use.

The campaign that I mentioned talked in its notes about lower-income communities. It tried to encourage people from all backgrounds to access their GP immediately if they had any problems. The initiative aimed to combat late diagnosis, which, as we have heard, is a major contributor to the poorer outcomes for bladder cancer in Scotland. By encouraging people in lower-income areas, in particular, we can get better outcomes.

Again, I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the issue to the chamber. I acknowledge the great speeches from other members, and I know that the minister will also give us a good speech. I hope that, through having the debate, we have started to play our part in turning the issue around. I thank all the health staff, charities and affected families for the information that they share, which allows us to debate in this way.

Of course.

I am interested in the argument that social security should be seen as preventative spend, in how we talk about the matter and in the question whether treating social security as that kind of spend helps with our decision making on the Scottish budget and our seeking to ensure that that approach happens. I wonder whether we can hear from Mairi Spowage first, if she does not mind, because I know that her organisation has responded on that issue.