Seòmar agus comataidhean

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am not sure whether my vote registered. The app says that there was an error. I would have voted yes.

Women across Scotland face the significant challenges of health inequalities on a daily basis. For many women, those inequalities can define their lives—in some cases, simply because they are women, and in others, because they are women who live in areas where there are higher levels of deprivation. It is clear that women need many of the short-term and medium-term actions in “Women’s Health Plan”.

I thank the First Minister for confirming that the appointment will be made. If the First Minister truly recognises the urgency of the matter, will she give women across Scotland the answer that they not only want but need, and ensure that the appointment will be meaningful and will take forward the important short-term actions in “Women’s Health Plan” that have not been forthcoming so far?

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government plans to appoint a women’s health champion, in light of the appointment of a women’s health ambassador for England. (S6F-01264)

I thank Douglas Lumsden for bringing another important sports debate to the chamber. I echo the comments of colleagues and, on behalf of Scottish Labour, I pay tribute to all of those involved in Scottish Rugby for their efforts and successes during the past year, particularly given the adverse impact that the pandemic had on team sport in Scotland. It is great to see that rugby in Scotland is looking as strong as ever.

I will begin my speech by focusing on the successes of the Scottish women’s rugby team, which qualified for the women’s rugby world cup that will take place in New Zealand later this year. That is a significant success for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, it is the first time that the team has qualified for 12 years, which is a magnificent feat, and I know from this debate that the whole Parliament wishes the team well in its group stage fixtures against host nation New Zealand, Australia and Wales.

Qualification also has significance for the future of women’s rugby and women’s sport more generally. Like other sports, rugby has been a male-dominated scene for years, but by playing in the most prestigious of competitions and representing our nation, its elite female athletes will be role models to many young women and girls who might have an interest in sport. It is crucial that we show support through increasing public awareness and other means when the tournament arrives later in the year. Brian Whittle’s points about it being seen and visible in order to encourage people to take part were well made.

Given that we are marking success, I will mention another south of Scotland team, Ayrshire Bulls men’s rugby side, which had national success in the Scottish premiership in 2021 and before the pandemic. It is important to have strong voices for rugby in our own areas, and I am proud that we have that in Ayrshire. I am sure that it encourages local young people who aspire to be rugby players to take that on and be successful.

That said, as with other sports, we know that not everyone plays rugby in order to become a professional and play at the highest of levels; it can also be about enjoying outdoor activity with friends, learning new skills and keeping fit. It is therefore absolutely right that the motion highlights the value of the players, supporters, coaches and volunteers who, more widely, make community rugby and sport what it is. Without those coaches and volunteers, many weekly training sessions and matches across the country would not go ahead. It is therefore really important that we recognise them. I have a football referee in the team that I work with, and he said that I should also mention how tough the referee’s job is and say that we support referees as well.

Many contributing factors make community sport work to the benefit of our physical and mental health, and it is right that we pay tribute to everybody who gives their own time. That said, we must not lose sight of the fact that sport is inaccessible for many and that rugby, football and tennis clubs might be unaffordable for many. I hope that the minister will take that point on board. Jackie Dunbar’s point was also well made—it is important that sport is accessible and affordable for all.

It is right that we have today’s debate to recognise the progress and success of Scottish rugby at the highest level, but also to recognise the importance and influence of rugby at the grass-roots level. As the motion states, admirable organisations such as the School of Hard Knocks use sport to overcome some of the challenges that are faced by the most vulnerable in our communities. However, we need more from the Government and more intervention to focus our efforts on making sport affordable and accessible. I take the opportunity, once again, to pay tribute to the Scottish rugby teams and wish them well for 2022-23.

They back the Government implementing what is in the Feeley report, and so we must move to make sure that those things are implemented for people at pace.

It is a question that I ask in this chamber almost weekly: when will the Government implement the commitments that it has made?

That is why Scottish Labour is calling for the end of all non-residential social care charges across the current financial year, and we are calling for it to happen right now. We simply cannot expect people to bear the brunt of the Scottish Government’s constant hand wringing for much longer. We are in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, and people need support from this Government now. That is not too much to ask—it was, after all, in the SNP’s manifesto last year. I remember the days when breaking a manifesto promise was considered to be unacceptable, both from the Opposition benches and the Government back benches.

As my colleagues have already mentioned, this is not simply a request from Scottish Labour that we are not willing to do ourselves. Only this week, as we have heard, Scottish Labour-run West Dunbartonshire Council unveiled an ambitious cost of living plan, which includes ending non-residential social care charges. Imagine if that replicated on a national scale.

Here we see forward-thinking work going on at a local level, and yet the SNP’s proposed vision for a national care service strips councils of most of their powers in this regard. I have heard it said that, before long, under this Government, local government will hardly be able to cut ribbons, never mind anything else. The commitment that this Government gives to local government is a disgrace.

It is clear that we should be doing more. Today, we should be backing Labour’s motion to end non-residential care charges.

The law states that a person is involved in antisocial behaviour if they act

“in a manner that causes or is likely to cause alarm or distress”

to anyone, or if they behave in a way that is

“likely to cause alarm or distress to at least one person who is not of the same household”.

In what sense is deliberately seeking to scare or intimidate a woman who is simply pursuing the healthcare to which she is entitled not antisocial? Why cannot the antisocial behaviour laws be used? Will the minister ensure that those laws are used now to protect people who are seeking healthcare?

This is an important and timely debate with an immediate purpose. It is the kind of debate that we should be having more of in the Parliament, but that, sadly, we rarely do. The Government does not often want to debate issues such as this—issues that it has made commitments on but that it is not prioritising, and issues that it could easily achieve.

Everyone in Scotland knows that social care is really being held together by the hard work of overworked and underpaid carers across the sector, and that they hold it together every day with little support from central Government. If you talk to workers on the front line, you feel that there is very limited support from this Government.

On top of that, those who require care are often some of the worst-hit by inflation and the general increase in the cost of living. Unfortunately for them and so many others, we are now well into the depths of the cost of living crisis, which is already biting hard for families all across the country. Those same people are asking for help.

This Government’s record of supporting local government is very poor. I think that we should have some honest debate and discussion around that. This Government has presided over the slashing of care packages and the withdrawal of respite care. It has failed to immediately implement a number of key Feeley review recommendations, including that of universal non-residential care. All of those things would have made such a crisis much more bearable for those with care needs and their families. Let us not forget that it was this Government that set up the Feeley review, so why are we still awaiting its implementation? Far too long a time has passed.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions justice ministers have had with ministerial colleagues regarding using antisocial behaviour laws to prevent people from carrying out intimidating protests outside abortion clinics. (S6O-01252)

It is welcome that the Scottish Government has accepted the recommendations that were made in the review, although it remains unfortunate that the Scottish Greens have had to be forced, yet again, into backing a policy that they committed to supporting in their manifesto just last year. The announcement will be welcomed by campaigners who I have campaigned with many times at the Killoch site in Ochiltree, East Ayrshire. Given the report, surely the minister can categorically confirm that the notification direction on planning permission will mean that the proposed incinerator development at that site will not go ahead.

I am pleased to open the debate for Scottish Labour.

We welcome the committee’s report into the health and wellbeing of children and young people. That is an overlooked and important subject that requires much greater attention, especially as a cost of living crisis looks set to grasp hold of many families for months, and possibly years, to come. Let us hope that that does not continue for years—but let us hope that, in the Parliament, we all commit to taking the necessary action to ensure that, if it does, it does not affect our young people. We must do that in every way that we can.

The evidence is overwhelming. It is not just that there are too many children living in poverty in Scotland—even one is too many—but that as many as one in four children is living in poverty. I will say that again: one in four children in this country lives in poverty.

In a great number of cases, those children are not living in homes where no one works, although the right-wing media would like to paint that picture sometimes. Those children are often from working families that simply cannot put food on the table. There are many factors as to why that is the case. Above all, for me, it is a matter of people being underpaid and abandoned to insecure work that simply does not provide enough to raise a family on. If we change that, the mental and physical health of young people across Scotland will begin to improve, year on year.

Naturally, young people cannot wait for all Governments to get their act together, so we must reflect on the marked effects that deprivation has on mental health as well as on physical health right now, and we must do all that we can to prevent inequality and ensure that prevention strategies are properly funded so that our young people’s health is protected right now.

The committee recognised that we must look at CAMHS. At the end of March 2022, more than 10,000 children and young people were waiting for CAMHS treatment. I know that this is said every week to the minister in this chamber, but it appears not to be being heard: these figures are unacceptable and clearly demonstrate the SNP’s long-term inability to improve mental health services. For eight years, the First Minister has followed the same script about her Government’s priorities with regard to young people, but young people need action, not rhetoric.

That includes, as the report highlights, dealing with the limited capacity in our mental health workforce. We clearly cannot wait for the SNP Government’s workforce plan to bear fruit. We have to train and employ a generation of new mental health workers on good wages who can commit their working lives to helping to tackle this problem. Scottish Labour is calling for real investment in mental health services to bring down waiting lists and put specialists in every GP practice, and I reiterate that call today. The Scottish Government must prioritise the issue and do more.

We Labour members recognise that many young people have unpaid caring responsibilities, as the report mentions. Despite that, there is no real strategy in Scotland for unpaid carers—particularly young carers. We heard a lot of evidence about that. Those young carers desperately need the restoration and expansion of respite services, with entitlements to short breaks and wellbeing services as standard. They are entitled to those things and we should press to ensure that they are available across the country.

It has been raised with me that we must also continue to analyse and report on the impact of Covid-19—particularly the impact of long Covid on the health and wellbeing of children and young people—and consider what challenges that is already creating and will create in the future, ensuring that that influences any policies that we implement.

All those reforms will help us to focus on prevention and early intervention in the immediate term, while wider economic change is, I believe, inevitable and essential. The cost of living crisis is rapidly exposing how thin our safety net is, and, in my opinion, the entire concept of employment and the ways in which the state protects and assists its most vulnerable people need to be revisited to create something that is fit for the 21st century.

There is no reason why a wealthy and prosperous country such as ours should even have to worry about this problem; it should be the first order of every day in every Parliament across this country. However, under successive Governments of all stripes, not enough has been done. That has to stop. We all have to do more.

I am sure that I speak for my party and many people in the Parliament and around the country when I say that the current state of provision is well below what is acceptable and we will not continue to put up with it.