Seòmar agus comataidhean

I appreciate the drive that you have put into that. I hope that the committee will get a chance to find out what developments there are, particularly if you are working with the Government.

Given the time, I will move on to ask about the national team. We have had some papers saying that there is a hope to develop a very top-end training complex. How far ahead are you with that, and given some of the discussions we have had, I would like to know whether that will involve only the men’s game, or whether it will involve the women’s game? Who will be able to use that facility?

Good morning. My question probably leads on from what Laura Wilson was talking about, as it is about the models of training for staff in the NHS. For a lot of professions across the NHS, we have a very university-based style. We have heard a lot of evidence about that and about how we encourage people in remote areas to train and stay in their own area, in order to build a workforce that cares a lot about that community.

I would be interested to hear from each witness, when it comes to their profession and the wider NHS, what models they think that we could use, or what the universities could do, to get a better balance for people.

I am sorry to interrupt, but do you have any good examples of where that has happened, or is it something that still needs to happen?

Mhairi Templeton, I do not know whether you have any examples.

That would be great—thank you.

Do we have any good examples of what is working in optometry?

That is lovely, thank you. I put to Dr Kennedy the same general question about models of training. I am also interested in the extra medical training places that have been provided. Was the remote and rural aspect part of the process of working out what medical training was needed?

I am interested in some of the points that you have made around the balance between grass-roots community sport, with football as part of that, and the national team and the drive to get quality in that team.

First, on community space, I know from what we have read that you have an influence on it and you meet with stakeholders about it. Where are we at the moment in terms of having good quality space for people to play ordinary games of football?

Do you have a strategy to try and work with stakeholders? I think that everybody here would agree with your point that having those facilities is important for preventative health impacts, but have you started to pull together a strategy for that? Who might be able to work together to improve grass-roots clubs?

Lovely.

I, too, thank my colleague Alex Rowley for bringing this important issue to the Parliament’s attention.

I am proud to say that I grew up in, live in and now represent a coalfield community. I thank the visitors in the public gallery, who, like me, believe in those communities, not only because of our history of mining and powering the country but because our history built resilient people and bold communities with warmth, talent and tenacity. They deserve the wealth that has been generated from the labour of our parents, our grandparents and the wider communities.

It is almost 40 years since the rapid closure of the mining industries began, and former coalfield communities in my South Scotland region are still feeling the consequences. We have heard about the inequality in work opportunities and about the need to claim benefits. We have heard about the inequalities in educational opportunities and about the mortality rate. I repeat that the mortality rate in the Scottish coalfields is 25 per cent higher than the Scottish average. Make no mistake: that is by economic design. We in this place—we here—have to take responsibility to change the direction of that, and that is what the debate is about.

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust does such important work in my region, and we have heard about other work from members across the chamber. I live in Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, and the trust is a central part of our community. It functions as a model of how to effectively build progress in conjunction with communities, rather than by imposing things on those communities. We have heard that the Parliament recognises that; Alex Rowley spoke about that. There have been 112 motions in the Parliament recognising those benefits.

When mining went—or, rather, when mining was so cruelly taken away—many Ayrshire mining communities were simply left to struggle. As anyone in Ayrshire knows, mining was a core part of our identity and remains so to this day. It has not been forgotten because of economic change. Without mining, many towns and villages would never have come to be, so there is a lasting cultural memory for many of those who still live there. The mine was the centre of their work or their parents’ work, so they see themselves first and foremost as part of mining communities.

Let us be clear that those communities did not create, but rather fell victim to, the social and economic problems that we all know affect other former coalfield areas. Unemployment, a lack of Government investment and the acceptance of a decline in services are scars that take a long time to heal, and their effect on the day-to-day lives of generations of local people and families is still clear to see.

Organisations such as the Coalfields Regeneration Trust stepped into the void. During rapid and unthinking deindustrialisation, those organisations have pioneered projects such as Yipworld, the Zone, Auchinleck Community Development Initiative, the EPIC East Ayrshire Pipe Band Academy and the Netherthird Initiative for Community Empowerment. We need such projects in our communities and, without their help, we would be in a worse state. People who live there know that—no one needs to say it because we see it every day. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust is essential to our communities.

I will repeat points that have been made. We need the Government to support a capital endowment for community regeneration, we need the Scottish Government to change its procurement rules and we must restore funding for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. We know that we must do those things. In the words of Mick McGahey, let us stand firm and fight.