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That is very helpful—thank you.

You have probably heard the views of those who hold vigils about the kind of information literature that they provide to support women in their choice. Do you have a view on what is provided to support women in the clinics and on the view of those who hold the vigils that they require to give them additional information to help them with their choice?

The protesters intimidate women at what is undoubtedly a challenging moment in their lives. Given the waiting list pressures across the NHS, has the First Minister had direct discussions with health boards to ensure that women can continue to access abortion services in a safe but timely manner, to avoid adding further anxiety to what is already a challenging time in their lives?

I, too, thank Karen Adam for bringing this important debate to the chamber.

On behalf of Scottish Labour, I thank young carers across Scotland for everything that they do, and I reiterate our support for them. We welcome the Carers Trust’s annual young carers action day and recognise the impact of the work that the trust has carried out across the United Kingdom and here in Scotland.

As the motion states, it is right that caring should not become

“a barrier to learning, earning or being able to get on in life”,

although I appreciate that that might be the challenging reality for many young carers here in Scotland. It is therefore incumbent on all of us in the Parliament to remove those barriers whenever we can.

As other members have said, it is apt that the theme of this year’s action day is “Fair futures for young carers”, because, ultimately, the issue comes down to fairness. As we have heard during the debate, young carers currently do not get a fair deal. The barriers to their learning or earning are such that taking on caring responsibilities means making sacrifices that will have lasting impacts. There is no equality or fairness in that; it is an injustice. As we have heard, we should all be determined to help to overcome that.

The Carers Trust’s most recent report showed that extremely concerning figures have emerged from research carried out in Scotland. We should ensure that we are all aware of those. Half of young carers who work struggle to balance caring duties with their paid work. More than half of them are usually or always stressed because they are young carers. Two thirds feel that the cost of living crisis always or usually affects them and their families.

Those facts represent important information that young carers are giving us, and we must take them seriously. They must act as a wake-up call, because they are not just figures; they represent the individual stories of young people across Scotland who are genuinely struggling to balance their caring duties with work and education, and who are feeling the impacts on their emotional and mental health.

Our excellent young carers should not find themselves in such a position, but it is a reality. The Government must reflect on those important pieces of information. Waiting lists for mental health services in Scotland remain far too long, and young people continue to suffer as they wait for appointments that they need urgently.

Those challenges are exacerbated by the UK Government’s handling of the economy, which has created a cost of living crisis that, as we have heard from young carers themselves, adds anxiety and stress to individuals’ and families’ situations. Governments must accept responsibility and accountability for their own discussions and actions and, of course, their failings. When they do so, we can properly engage in co-operative action and overcome those significant and worrying challenges.

A further key area that has been raised by young carers and by members during the debate is the balancing of caring responsibilities with education. Schools, colleges and universities must be more flexible in supporting young carers to be able to carry out their duties but still have the ability to achieve their goals.

I recognise that I am running out of time, but there is so much more to say on the issue. Once again, I thank Scotland’s young carers for the tremendous contribution that they make, not just to their families but right across Scotland. It is important for us to hear their voices, and Karen Adam’s securing of today’s debate has allowed us to do that. I commit my party to continuing to support a cross-party approach to the matter.

I hope that John Swinney recognises that I do not shy away from saying that I understand that different policies across the nations result in different levels of child poverty, but does he understand that we need to talk in this Parliament about what more we can do? Sometimes it feels as though the Government will not address other things that can be done. It feels as though it spends a lot of time debating its superiority over other Governments in the UK, which can be frustrating for people who spend their whole lives saying that more can be done.

I thank the Social Justice and Social Security Committee for putting together this timely report. I am not a member of the committee; however, tackling child poverty should be the core task of this and every Parliament, so I hope that today’s debate encourages some tangible steps towards achieving that task, rather than it being just talk. People and children really need some action.

If we want to have a constructive debate in the chamber, we have to understand what the Opposition MSPs have a responsibility to do: we have a responsibility to work together, as my colleague Paul O’Kane outlined. There are points in the report that we agree with, and we feel that the committee has worked really well together. However, we have a responsibility to hold the Government to account on the promises that it has made, and to ask questions about what it might wish to do, or be able to do, to tackle the problem.

Scottish Labour agrees whole-heartedly with the committee that parental employment is a key determinant in ending child poverty. In fact, I would say that it is a primary determinant to which Governments across the UK have paid far too little attention: they often seem to think that poverty is the result of some mysterious trend rather than a logical consequence of their having made it harder and harder for people to secure long-term and sustainable employment.

I make it be clear—I think that I have said this in the chamber previously—that I do not believe that the UK Tory Government policies of the past 14 years have helped at all. I always make that position clear. I also make it clear that my job in Parliament is to hold the Government to account for the actions that it can take.

Parental unemployment, especially for extended periods, is at the heart of increased levels of child poverty. We have agreed on that. That, combined with the increasingly hostile environment that surrounds benefits, means that we end up with a recipe for a desperate problem to which we must seek solutions.

Reduction of child poverty is a goal that is shared across Parliament—I have heard that and I believe it—but we know from the report that the Scottish Government is set to miss its target for child poverty reduction next year. If we want to reach the 2030 target of only 10 per cent of children being in relative poverty, even more work will need to be done. It will need to start now, and it will need to be work on action.

The Government’s poverty statistics show that 24 per cent of all children in Scotland were living in poverty between 2019 and 2022. That means an extra 40,000 children have been added to the ranks of the poor over the past decade. I do not think that the Government wants to end its time in power with that as a headline. I hope that the cabinet secretary will give us some feedback on what modelling the Government has done on the issue as the numbers increase, so that we can secure some good work for the future.

For those reasons, the Government should be taking more proactive measures to achieve its aims by ensuring that it efficiently utilises the powers that Parliament has. What can it do? We do not hear enough from the Government about what actions it can take. It is the job of Opposition members to push the Government. When something has happened, we have to push the Government to say what it will do in response, instead of just talking about the difficult thing that has happened. Sitting on hands and allowing significant levers to remain untouched is not good enough. It does not help the budgets of families who are struggling to get into employment.

Parental employability funds were stripped of more than £20 million in last year’s budget, and little has been done to address the shortfall. The Government promised to give support in the form of grants, not loans, so that families would not become trapped in debt. That was an aspect of the parental transition fund, but that fund has fallen by the wayside. I hope that the cabinet secretary will say what the Government thinks it might be able to do in that space to help families.

My party has set out plans to create jobs, grow the economy and tackle poverty. Scottish Labour believes—I believe that the Government also believes—that good-quality employment is a key driver in reducing poverty. We need to do more to achieve that.

We also need to consider affordable public transport, which others have mentioned, viable housing support, action on debt and measures to help families with soaring household bills. Other members have also mentioned education and childcare. It is a massively wide area, so we cannot cover all points in the debate.

We need to understand whether we have done things in a meaningful way and whether there is more that we can do. The report indicates that the Scottish Government could be doing more. Eradicating poverty in this country will come only from delivering secure long-term employment around which parents can build a family. Precarious employment and factors that drive unemployment play into the figures on child poverty, so we must address them.

Let us not suffer another lost generation of children. Let us “supercharge”, as others have said, efforts in this important area. To that end, I plead that the Scottish Government look at the promises that it has made and the reality of where we are. Being the best among other parts of the country is not enough. What actions can the Government take with the devolved powers that it has? I think that families would appreciate answers to that question. If we can get answers to people’s questions—or even questions about those questions—the Scottish Labour Party would certainly be happy to work together with the Government on them.

Today’s debate is of critical importance, and it is right that we continue to use our time in the chamber to debate the topics that match the priorities of the Scottish people. Although the SNP Government might want to hide from its responsibilities and its record when it comes to the NHS, we on the Labour benches have a responsibility to hold ministers to account on behalf of patients and staff who have been let down for too long.

The NHS is my party’s proudest achievement. It is our country’s most beloved asset, and it is an asset that belongs to everyone. When Bevan and Attlee established the NHS, it had the key founding principles of being free at the point of need, being a high-quality employer delivering first-class service and being an institution that would never discriminate when it came to the provision of healthcare. The founding principles of the NHS were important in 1948, and I argue that they are even more important in 2024.

The BMA Scotland chairman, Dr Iain Kennedy, has said:

“We have sleepwalked into our current situation ... We are now seeing the founding principle of the NHS, namely that it should be free at the point of need, threatened. This is the inevitable consequence of years of ducking the hard decisions”.

And yet it continues: in its amendment, the Scottish Government has managed to blame just about every factor other than its inability to meet the challenges facing the NHS today. Its self-congratulatory amendment will not be well received by the hundreds of thousands of Scots from across the country who are on needlessly long waiting lists. Let us be in no doubt that waiting lists are soaring, people are waiting in pain and our NHS is under extreme pressure.

The cabinet secretary knows that I am never fearful of calling out Tory austerity. In this instance, however, the Scottish Government is responsible for using devolved powers for the NHS. Because of serious mismanagement and, I think, broken promises, along with the arrogance of not accepting any responsibility, we are not in a good place for patients or staff here in Scotland’s NHS. The SNP wants to be in power, but it refuses to take responsibility. I think that patients and staff are tired of the endless excuses. Our NHS needs change, and there is a recognition that this tired Government is not up to delivering that change.

I accept that the cabinet secretary is only just in post, but, thanks to his predecessor, the challenge before him is significant. One in seven Scots is on an NHS waiting list, and that number is rising, despite, as we have heard, the First Minister’s commitment to eradicating that, and a treatment time guarantee, which, I will repeat, has been broken 680,000 times. No one underestimates the impact of the pandemic on our health services, and staff agree, but the reality is that, as is outlined in the Labour motion, the guarantee was broken far too many times—320,000 times—before the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is fair to say that key commitments in the NHS recovery plan are not being met. Those issues are being exacerbated by the Scottish Government’s decision to halt NHS capital projects, which are so desperately needed. Not only has the cabinet secretary let down my constituents in South Scotland, who will be waiting longer for the national treatment centre at Ayr, he cannot even get a hospital built in his own back yard. The impact of that decision will be longer and longer waits.

People must see the Government act. Under this Scottish Government, our tremendous NHS staff have been pushed to the limit. Services are at breaking point—

—and the Government must take action.

The roll-out of e-health and digital technology is going at quite a slow pace. Recording of patient data still differs from one health board to another, which hinders progress, and some prescriptions are still being written by hand.

If we are to develop an e-health strategy that is fit for the future, we must see rapid advancement in the streamlining of recording practices across the country, and we must ensure that staff and patients alike are clear on what that progress looks like. Will the cabinet secretary outline in any future e-health strategies how we might address those concerns?

I have a brief supplementary question, which Father Keenan or Dr Pickering might want to answer. I found the discussion about influence interesting. At the point in time that the influence is applied, who is the target of that influence in the various gatherings that have been mentioned? Is the gathering trying to influence lawmakers, or is it trying to influence individuals so that they will make different decisions? Have you thought about that? Does that represent a different way of approaching things?