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Like others, I thank my colleague Martin Whitfield for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am not surprised to see it under his name; I think that we can all agree that this issue and the rights of children and young people are always a priority for my friend on these Labour benches.

Martin Whitfield has spoken to me before about the excellent work of the no time to wait campaign, which, as we have heard, launched a pilot wellbeing and resilience service called the haven in September 2023 in Tranent. It is super to hear that others have been along to that; I think that the minister has also been.

From the discussions that I have had with Martin Whitfield about his visit, I know that he met the most amazing young people, such as we all have in all our communities. It is not just the young people but their families, too, who have benefited from the scheme. From Martin Whitfield’s experience, we know that the staff have also benefited from the service. As many people out there in our communities do, the staff are going way above and beyond the call to help our young people and ensure that we do not have young people unnecessarily going into mental health crisis.

As we know, the service is designed to work with and complement CAMHS. That is an important point—the more our local services join up with our public services, the better our outcomes will be. Providing a service that means that a young person might not have to go into a more psychiatric or clinical environment is a super intervention. My colleague Ben Macpherson mentioned other services out there that are doing that. We are so lucky to have those services, and we need to ensure that we work together to get it right.

Across the chamber, we all talk about taking a preventative approach, which, from the speeches that we have heard today and at other times in the chamber and in our committees, I think that we all believe in. That is why it is important that such members’ business debates take place.

For me, the important point is that we want young people and their families to know that they do not need to go into crisis and that there are services out there in the informal local space where young people and families can talk about their struggles, what they might do and what might help them. We are not just talking about the service; we have heard that the scheme has been successful. From its six-month report, we know that 52 per cent of those who visited felt that their situation had improved. That is an example of the lived experience that we talk about so much across the Scottish Parliament.

I was fortunate enough to visit Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity last year, which the haven is linked to. I could tell that it does tremendous work. On its website, the first thing that comes up when someone is going to donate is a message that says, “Will you give more than medicine to children in hospital?” That shows what the charity is seeking to do. The staff at the site that I visited showed me that the great facility there, which is mirrored at the haven site, is about understanding relationships and having a sense of play in normal space and in family time. It was very impressive.

The staff team is dedicated, and we know that young people are advantaged by having the service in the local community. We can all agree that we should get behind local community-based projects. I hope that the minister will refer to that in her closing remarks and that she will give us a sense of how we can all work together. Sometimes, members’ business debates allow us to have conversations about how we can all work together. I thank all the speakers in the debate, and I hope that our constituents can get the benefit of such services across Scotland.

I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. The reality for our staff and communities is that winter pressures now happen all year round. I will focus on delayed discharge and will use figures to do that, but we must remember that those are about real people and their families, whose lives are on hold.

The most recent monthly data, which is for July, in the middle of summer, revealed that an average of 1,900 beds were occupied each day as a result of delayed discharge and that 61,165 total bed days were lost, which is the highest ever monthly figure.

The Government talks up its joint plan with local government, but that includes no new money and is just not sustainable. Will the cabinet secretary say what it will take for this Government to take clear action on that particular point?

It is welcome that the UK Government has hit the ground running with the delivery of its child health action plan, which includes action on childhood obesity.

Given that a recent Scottish health survey found that one third of Scottish children are at risk of being overweight, does the First Minister accept that the UK Government action is an opportunity to act with urgency to use the devolved powers that we have in Scotland?

A quick question comes to mind. Will NHS Scotland be taking part in the review of adult gender services, as recommended by the Cass review across NHS England? Will there be some connection between NHS England and NHS Scotland on that?

Thank you.

With regard to hormone treatments, in the example of a female who is placed on testosterone, how do we ensure that people understand the potential risks of, for example, osteoporosis? Obviously, you will have much better in-depth clinical knowledge of such things, but the issue has been raised with me. Can people access bone density scans and so on, as they go through their life journey?

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to the reported rise in hospice care costs, including to ensure that employees in that sector have pay parity with NHS staff. (S6F-03333)

Given that hospice care is so valued, does the First Minister recognise that urgent action is needed? The sector is under serious financial constraints, with threats of closures. The Government must ensure that the hospice workforce does not conclude that it is undervalued and leave the sector. Hospices simply cannot take that impact. What action will the First Minister take today—right now—to reassure hospices and the workforce?

Given the recent news that alcohol-related deaths are at a 15-year high and that the number of people who are accessing planned alcohol care and treatment has been declining for a decade, healthcare professionals in my region, South Scotland, tell me that the prevalence of ARBD unplanned presentations at emergency departments is increasing. That is not good for the patients, for the families or for the staff. Does the Government recognise that, and what measures is it taking to ensure that early intervention and support for those patients and families can be achieved right across Scotland?

I also thank Graham Simpson for bringing this important debate to the chamber. In my contribution, I will talk specifically about the workforce that we need now and into the future to address all the important points that colleagues have raised. I have been fascinated by the knowledge of colleagues, and I have learned a great deal. I can generally get a lot of information about buildings in Scotland by following my dear colleague Paul Sweeney on social media.

Tonight’s debate is such an important one. The work to ensure the continued existence of the buildings that we are talking about must be done in tandem with the progression of construction training. Members have made many important points about legislation, but we need the workforce to be able to do all the work that is required to tackle the retrofitting challenges that we face.

During the summer, I had the great pleasure of meeting a number of trades workers from a great variety of trades and backgrounds across my South Scotland region. Young workers in particular recognise that they need the skills to enable us to meet the challenge of reaching net zero and deliver on the retrofitting of buildings, not only now but way into the future. There are lots of skills that they need to develop.

The consistent message that I have heard from businesses and workers across the sector is that the Scottish Government must set policies to establish clearer training routes, to invest in local training, in particular, and to drive a desire to save some of the skills and understanding in what is a craft industry. I have previously raised in the chamber the challenge that young apprentices face in accessing the local education that will allow us to keep those craft skills. People seem to find it difficult to find the right provision to enable them to keep up their competencies and qualifications and become professional in the sector.

A number of points made by members have made me realise that we need to support the workforce, and I hope that the minister might consider some of the points that have been raised with me. We need to champion some skills from a very early age—from primary school—and ensure that people see them as offering a lifelong career and as linked to the future of our environment in our desire to get to net zero.

We perhaps also need to address some of the further education complexities for apprentices, such as the long distances that they might require to travel to get some of the skills they need. We should consider how to support apprentices with that. We should perhaps consider a model of education infrastructure that helps people who might be challenged if they have to go and work far away, particularly if they are young. There has been a suggestion about mobile education facilities, and I wonder whether the minister could speak with his colleagues in the education and economy portfolios to explore what we can do to progress that.

I thank everybody for their interesting contributions, and I thank Graham Simpson for bringing the debate to the chamber.