Seòmar agus comataidhean

Deputy Presiding Officer, I must know what the bonus is first—I mean, I have to have notice of what the bonus will be.

Anyway, I am pleased to support the Government motion, and I welcome the additional £20 million of funding. As others have said, one of the unexpected and rare bonuses of Covid and its restrictions was the empty roads and streets, which made walking, but particularly cycling, safer and more enjoyable.

As a consequence, in the capital, Edinburgh city streets have many designated cycle lanes, which must give a degree of comfort to cyclists and motorists. However, I say in passing that some cyclists who ride through Holyrood park do not use those lanes but insist on using the road. I do not know why. Some do not wear reflective clothing. Some might have a bright light but simply rely on the rear reflector light to alert motorists to their presence. That rear reflector is all that we can see. I cannot fathom that either.

I return to the issue of roads. Cycle lanes are, of course, not available—nor would they be practical—on the main arterial roads in my constituency: the A68, A7, A707, A702 and A703. They are tricky to drive, let alone to cycle. There is also the hazard of the Sheriffhall roundabout—known to cyclists as “the meat grinder”—where the A7 meets the city bypass. I have never seen a cyclist try to tackle the Sheriffhall roundabout.

However, local and short distances are being tackled. I will start with the example of Borders schools, which are getting children into the habit of and having confidence in cycling. In February, I visited Stow primary school, which is undertaking Living Streets’ WOW initiative, which is a walk-to-school challenge. WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW travel tracker. Pupils who travel actively at least once a week for a month are rewarded with a WOW badge. WOW schools in Scotland see, on average, a 5 per cent to 10 per cent increase in pupils walking to school with a corresponding drop in car use, helping to reduce congestion and increase safety outside the school gates.

The Scottish Government awarded Scottish Borders Council £1.2 million funding for spaces for people, which included spend on measures such as 20mph speed limits in every town, to make the roads safer for walkers and cyclists. The road from Clovenfords to Caddonfoot was closed as part of that. It proved to be such a success that the closure was made permanent, to create a car-free stretch, which is now used extensively by dog walkers and cyclists. The local primary school is also making use of the grass football pitch halfway down the road, because there is now safe access—previously the road, which has no pavement, had a 60mph speed limit.

The 20mph limit is now fully operational across the Borders. I believe that that has improved the lives of communities such as Stow, where there is a very narrow pavement abutting the busy and also narrow A7, which runs through the village.

Last year, the Hike & Bike Hub opened on Channel Street in Galashiels. It aims to promote active travel and healthy leisure activities, and to make them available to everyone, regardless of income on a “pay what you can” basis, so some are hired at the full rate, some are hired at a reduced rate and some are free.

There are also many bike recycling social enterprises. Examples are Re-cycles Penicuik; the Stow cycle hub at the station, which includes bike hire; and Just Cycle in Tweedbank, which recycles bikes that are destined for the tip. People do not need a lot of money to have a bike—there are some terrific bargains.

There is a 51-mile circular cycle route through the Scottish Borders that goes through Tweedbank, Melrose, past Leaderfoot viaduct and on to Scott’s view. Other routes run parallel with the Tweed, east and west. Those are absolutely protected, away from the main road, very flat and quite often tarmacked, so they are also suitable for wheelchairs and prams.

Borders Buses carries the sign “The bus you can take your bike on”. It has 23 bike-friendly buses. Those take people away from very busy roads that they cannot cycle on. People can put their bike on a bus in Edinburgh and Glasgow. They can also take their bike on the train.

Of course, there is the famous mountain biking centre at Glentress. That has different levels of biking trails and is for real cyclists. I have never been on any of them; I never intend to be. I value my bones.

In Midlothian, the council has been given funding of more than £266,000 for three projects. I will cite one as an example. Shawfair connections is to be completed in 2026. That is important, because Shawfair is an area with a huge household development and is adjacent to the Borders railway, with its own station. The project will commence in October and will consider priority routes for active travel infrastructure in the Shawfair area. Planning ahead is important. When housing developments are being considered, there is a need to build in active travel routes at the beginning.

There are many cycle paths across Midlothian. Each Midlothian school has a travel plan that aims to encourage pupils and staff to walk, cycle or, more often, scoot. Currently, Midlothian has 17 cycle-friendly primary schools. In my patch, those are Strathesk primary school, Cornbank St James primary school, Cuiken primary school, Sacred Heart primary school, which are all in Penicuik, and another in Gorebridge.

There are also secondary school cycle clubs. Beeslack and Lasswade high schools offer extracurricular cycle clubs, and Penicuik high school is in the process of starting one. A lot of important work is being done in primary and secondary schools.

Other initiatives include the installation of cycle lanes, where appropriate—not on some main roads, for example—cycle and scooter parking provision at schools and route maps that show recommended safe routes to school. There is also bike week, with events including “Bling Your Bike”, which involves pupils decorating their bike or scooter, and “Ticket to Ride”, in which pupils receive raffle tickets for cycling that go into an end-of-week prize draw for cycle prizes.

Rosslyn chapel and the national mining museum in Scotland have become the first two visitor attractions in the Lothians to achieve the cyclists welcome award from VisitScotland.

There have, therefore, been substantial developments to encourage more cycling. However, the safety of cyclists must be secure. Several years ago, I tried cycling to Parliament. In order to access the cycle path through the park, I had to cycle only a short distance without a designated cycle path, but I was knocked off by a passing car and lost my confidence. I confess that my bike is now a very handy handbag rack in the hall, and there it will stay.

Will the member give way?

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that the Community Pharmacy Scotland board has described the financial settlement that it has been offered as “derisory”. (S6F-02200)

I hope that discussions conclude shortly, recognising the key role that community pharmacies play in sustaining the health and wellbeing of our constituents.

On his line about delivering the right care in the right place at the right time, does the First Minister agree that, with their expanding professional services, pharmacies such as the high street pharmacy in Lauder and the larger chain pharmacy of Boots in Galashiels—examples from my constituency—also ease pressure on general practitioners and even accident and emergency services, emphasising, yet again, their key role in our health service?

The education landscape has changed beyond recognition in just a few decades, as has the world around us. Between the education that I had in the 1950s and 1960s, the education that I delivered as a secondary teacher in the 1970s and 1980s and education today, there are worlds of difference, in and outside the classroom. With the online world and technology, the needs of society continue to change and accelerate. What is taught will have to adapt while focusing on ensuring that children have the basic tools of numeracy and literacy.

There is much to be recommended in the broad base of our education syllabus, particularly in secondary education and beyond to tertiary. However, I welcome this wide-ranging report, which endeavours to provide a broad discussion about what our children need in today’s world to help them thrive and contribute to society in their own way. The report also endeavours to make schools a place where inequalities are minimised and diminished and, most importantly, a safe and happy place to be.

I will focus first on what is for me the linchpin of success: the teachers. Something that remains constant is the value of a good teacher, and there are many good teachers. Some of us here can no doubt easily recall the good and distinguish them from the mediocre, no matter how distant our learning experience. That evidences the impact that the quality of teaching has on us, even decades on, and it is recognised in the report, which states:

“One very strong theme that featured heavily in the responses to the National Discussion was the importance of valuing and appreciating all educational professionals working with and within schools. We listened to some robust views about the importance of teachers and the need for more support staff, including classroom assistants, learning assistants, support for learning staff, and pupil support staff. ... We heard about the importance of class sizes affecting how much time and attention a teacher or support staff member could give to each individual child or young person.”

The issue of class sizes comes next for me. The smaller the class, the easier it is to teach and to give time to each child. I once taught a class of 40 and another of 16, and how I taught was determined not just by the character of the class but by the size itself. That for me is self-evident.

Inclusivity is to be welcomed, but it is not the answer for all children who have, for example, severe learning difficulties or behavioural issues. That is not just about their development and wellbeing; it is about the other children in the class. In that respect, I refer to my intervention on Willie Rennie.

There is a question about whether it is best for a child with, say, very difficult behavioural issues to be in a mainstream class. I repeat that, in my casework, it sometimes seems that what is a presumption verges on the mandatory. I have had representations from parents of children who would need substantial support in order for them to remain in a mainstream class that they have concerns that that would not be best for their child’s development. That is especially the case if many children in a class require additional support.

I turn to the testy matter of how a school can deal with bullying which, again, often comes up in my casework. The report states:

“Within the National Discussion, we heard many times how important it was for pupils of all ages to feel secure and free from any form of bullying, intimidation, or harassment.”

However, in my casework experience, policies in certain schools are not always effective in striking the balance between the bully and the bullied. I appreciate that that is a difficult balance to strike, and I know that Scottish Borders Council, for example, is reviewing its bullying policy. For some parents, there is the perception that every effort is made to keep the bully in school, not the bullied child.

I understand that some 30,000 children have caring responsibilities. They might not always disclose that to a teacher in order to protect a parent out of fear—whether baseless or not—that social work might remove them from the situation if, for example, the child is supporting a parent with addiction problems.

Of course, if concerns about a child’s wellbeing ring alarm bells, there is a duty on a teacher to bring those concerns to the attention of the appropriate authority. We ask a lot of our teachers, and we ask even more of them now than we did during my time in the classroom.

In my view, teachers need to have more in-class support and more non-teaching time for continuing professional development, for example. Sometimes, they are so busy that they do not have time to do anything else.

People can educate, in its broadest sense, even in a dilapidated hut—although that is not a suggestion from me to the Government. For me, it comes down in the simplest terms to the teacher, the in-class support and the size of the class.

Mr Rennie actually quoted from the part of the report from which I was going to quote. I very much agree about the presumption about mainstream education, but I feel that in some schools it is almost mandatory. That is not always in the interests of a child who has, let us say, severe behavioural difficulties, and nor is it in the interests of the other members of the class.

I thank Edward Mountain but I just wanted to clarify and say that I did not mention extra equipment, although I said that a full assessment has to be made of whether hospital at home is the right thing in the right place at the right time for that person. By implication, that might also involve equipment.

I emphasise that I fully support including glass recycling in the DRS and that I deplore interference by the UK Government in a fully devolved issue. My concern has always been about the practicalities of glass recycling. Will the minister confirm that Circularity Scotland will have those issues resolved and that glass recycling will be in place in many businesses by the launch next year?

Will the member take an intervention?

I have to admit that, until recently, when I heard a news programme about it, I was unaware that the hospital at home service existed. That was my failure. I note that the Scottish Government’s motion states that it is

“a cost effective alternative to acute care”,

but, more importantly, that it

“provides very good clinical outcomes”,

which is what we all want. It also frees up hospital beds and, of course, the staff to service them.

Hospital at home is a short-term, targeted intervention that provides acute-level hospital care in an individual’s own home or in a homely setting. So far, it has led to a 53 per cent increase in the number of patients who are being managed by such services. It has prevented more than 11,000 people from spending time in hospital during 2022-23, thereby relieving pressure on A and E and, importantly, the Scottish Ambulance Service.

What is also important is that those patients were in the comfort of their own home, surrounded by the familiar, all of which, in my view, aids better physical and mental health. I will quote one patient, who said:

“I was delighted, it was unbelievable ... It was totally different to being in hospital. One thing I haven’t mentioned is the fact that it’s the personal ... between the two of us, I wasn’t just a number. It makes a difference.”

Midlothian’s hospital at home team has the acronym MERRIT, which stands for Midlothian enhanced rapid response and intervention team. It is an acute care team, based in Midlothian community hospital, which offers an assessment of a patient’s medical needs in their own home, or in a care home, by using a holistic, multidisciplinary approach during the acute phase of their illness. The service offers an opportunity to identify a potentially unwell patient, better persuade a patient to accept hospital admission as a safer place of care or direct them to a more appropriate service.

However, it should be recognised that there might be specific circumstances in which remote triage might also be appropriate, such as when the patient has been seen within the past 24 hours by a GP or another clinician; when there is a clear indication of a known recurrent or stable condition; or when examination findings are unlikely to change the appropriate place of care. In other words, as other members have said, it is about giving the right treatment in the right place, which might be either in hospital or at home.

I will give some examples of the criteria for referral to the hospital at home service. For Midlothian’s service, the patient must be resident there. In addition, their personal care requirements must be able to be met in the community: that is to say that they will be safe at home, either caring for themselves, having an existing package of care or receiving the support of their family.

There is also strict guidance on not referring patients with, for example, chest pain, acute stroke, asthma, suspected deep vein thrombosis, a suspected fracture or another suspected acute surgical emergency or, indeed, where the patient or their family is unwilling for them to stay at home. A discussion should be had with the person in their own home about what is most suitable for them.

NHS Borders’ hospital at home service started admitting patients only in April 2023 and so is the newest such service in Scotland. Rurality is an issue, but such areas can still be covered. Borders general hospital is far away for many people.

I welcome the progress that has been made on hospital at home, which seems to me to be a plus all round—and, in particular, to patients if it is practicable for them to be assessed and treated in familiar surroundings, which must be good for them.