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You heard from representatives of ARC earlier this morning, and, no doubt, they expressed to you some of the key achievements that they feel have been made along the way. One key aspect of that is the development of a framework that can be used by all sectors. One of the key issues that we need to tackle is the requirement for something that works across sectors, despite the fact that different sectors have different assessments and different plans. That is really important, and we need to be able to adapt to specific local situations and needs. As has been said, no young people’s sets of needs and characteristics are the same. We cannae just have a blanket policy here.

ARC spoke about improved engagement with young people, and another key achievement would be to assess the outcomes both for those young people, parents and carers who have experienced good transitions and for those who have not experienced such good transitions. That bit of work is on-going.

A further key aspect is improved communication and partnership; another one is continuing to develop the data collection and sharing function within Compass. That is a key piece of work and, through each of its iterations, it has demonstrated how that function has become more important.

On top of that, we have the equality data improvement project, a piece of work done by the chief statistician that has led to consultation on data improvement plans for every part of government. The collecting, understanding, disaggregation and use of data to target key issues are really important. I know that that sounds quite dry, but we need that information to ensure that the first piece of work, the framework, works in local and specific need settings.

I view that as key progress, and there is perhaps a way to articulate that a bit more. We will have a think about that when we leave today, but I think that we have made progress. We can see that—we are being enshrined in the on-going work. We can see it, but perhaps there is a bit of work that we need to do to demonstrate that progress.

That is a great question. The initiative that you mention relates to the long-term issue of the information that follows a young person as they move through the stages of their life. I am aware of your constituent—I believe that she lodged a petition on this piece of work. Actually, there are quite a few of these sorts of passports being used: there is the MyCommPass one that you have mentioned; PAMIS has a digital passport; and, of course, there is the ARC Scotland one. Again, if you make an application to the ILF, that provides access to other services, just by dint of having the funds to do that.

We have looked at all those great opportunities and developments across various organisations. ARC Scotland has been pulling all of that together—that is where MyCommPass comes in. The information in those passports is a bit more detailed than just what the young person needs and what should be the next steps; it is actually well informed by the young person, the people around them, their parents and their carers, which is important. There could be a blanket approach to the issue, resulting in a bit of a tick-box exercise, but that is definitely not what any of these young people need. The new MyCommPass passport that your constituent is involved with is an excellent example of the right approach, as is the PAMIS one. We need to give people a choice so that they can find the one that works for them and we need to think about how informed it is, how practical and helpful it is at various stages of transition, and whether it makes the process seamless—or, at least, easier, although we would prefer it to be seamless—and enables the next group of people who are surrounding the young person to pick up that information and carry on.

For some young people, the issue of familiarity is incredibly important, and all those passports take that into account.

The Scottish Government funded the development of the communication passport scheme so that it could be available on Education Scotland’s resource hub—it is there for anybody to have a look at. It aligns with the additional support for learning duties and places duties on individualised support into the plan. That relates to the equality duty minimum, whereby people should have such supports in place.

The scheme also sits in the context of learning and support plans, co-ordinated support plans, individualised education programmes and child plans. It brings much of that together. The duties underpin all of that.

We do not have a huge amount of information about how widely the passport model is used. How it is used is a piece of work that will come out of the pathfinder.

I am also involved in the review of the public sector equality duty, how it will work alongside the new human rights bill for Scotland and how it underpins the rights of all people in Scotland, particularly young people in the settings that we have talked about, to ensure that they get what they deserve.

One of the things that we are often accused of in Government is sitting in our silos and not working across Government when it comes to issues such as the one that we are discussing. One of the great benefits of the role that I have is that I get to work across the whole of Government. It makes sense to address transitions in a joint approach, because the bill is not the only piece of work that is going on to support people with disabilities.

We have an on-going refresh of our work on a fairer Scotland for disabled people, as well as the proposals to incorporate the UNCRPD into Scots law. There are a number of areas of work, including the review of the public sector equality duty, which places specific duties on local authorities and other public authorities to ensure that people’s rights are respected. There are other key pieces of work alongside the work on transitions to underpin the rights when it comes to good transition. That is why it is important that both of us are with you today.

I can come in on that particular point.

You heard Ms Haughey say in her opening remarks that there are two areas of the bill that we are currently working with. We absolutely welcome the intention. I think that we are all on the same page in that we want to make life better.

There is already a bit of a cluttered landscape when it comes to other pieces of legislation. We have the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 as well as the refreshed GIRFEC. We have a bit of a cluttered landscape. The bill has allowed us to step back, look at that landscape and see the areas where we need to do some work to pull everything together into one tangible process. I think that a plan would be too siloed, if I can use that term.

We were already working on two areas of the bill that we picked up on. We can see the merit of all that, but the landscape is a bit cluttered, and we need to tidy it up.

That point is spot on. We know of a lot of things that are available across the whole of Scotland, but we will always talk to somebody who will say, “I didn’t know about that.” The pathfinder work that we are doing, and the work that we and this committee—and, indeed, the bill—are doing to raise awareness, is really important in all this.

Your own work in that regard is also important, because you have just raised the issue of independent living fund grants on the public record, so a lot of folk will now realise that those are available. There is obviously a role for Government as well in ensuring that people know that the fund is available and what types of things they can use it for, which can be diverse and exciting. That can add extra diversity to someone’s life, which may have previously been more prescripted because of their disability. It can give them a bit of freedom.

I will take that point away and have a look at how we can incorporate raising awareness of funds and other such support as part of the next steps.

I have a quick update on the work around the Equality Act 2010, which presents nine protected characteristics. I work closely on the intersections of all those characteristics, because people generally have not one defined characteristic but a collection of them. It is about where those characteristics intersect and where we find the deepest inequalities. That is one aspect of the act’s provisions that we are considering as we move the work forward.

One of the issues that we are tackling is that the definition of disabilities in the 2010 act is pretty wide, and it is pretty wide in the transitions bill as well. Some people will be happy to self-identify in the characteristic that they have, but others will not—young people sometimes do not want to do that. Pam Duncan-Glancy has a bit of work to do in the bill to define a bit more closely who would be accessing the plans, services and so on.

You will know from your professional background, Ms Stewart, that teachers generally do not wait for a diagnosis or a self-declaration to understand that a young person is struggling and therefore to put support measures in place—that excellent work is already going on in schools—but we need to ensure that there is a better definition that is understandable to all professionals.

It comes back to the point that I made to Ross Greer earlier about how important the plan is. It can be used across multiple sectors, and the young person is then supported through their whole journey instead of just through one part of it.

The definition of disabilities in the Equality Act 2010 is pretty wide.

Yes. We have seen the issue of a professional in one local authority saying, “Well, I’ve got this”, and another in another local authority or in an organisation saying, “Well, I’ve got something different.” It was really important to fund the development work so that the passport could go on to the resources hub because that standardises it, in a way; in particular, it makes it available to all professionals in educational settings, so that it can address some of those needs.

That is obviously a key aspect, including in further and higher education. The Scottish Funding Council, in particular, has developed a national equality outcomes framework to address some of the most persistent inequalities, especially in further and higher education institutions. Those institutions were asked to consider and report on that as part of the 2021 to 2025 public sector equality duty reporting cycle; we have asked them to do that piece of work and come back to us.

Disability is a protected characteristic, so whatever organisation or public authority someone is liaising or working with, it should be ensuring that that work is being done. The protected characteristics duty should always be included in that work, so that, rather than it being a tick-box exercise at the end of a process, it is an intrinsic part of the process. That is where the national equality outcomes come into play, particularly around disabled students.

Institutions need to give us some indication of both intention and success in terms of how they are improving mental health outcomes and general conditions, as well as other aspects. That is one key area for a young person transitioning into the adult world, whether into further or higher education, where there is a specific duty in place and a reporting cycle on which institutions have to report back to us. We use all of that data to look at where the key inequalities are in order to tackle those directly.

We would be happy to look at that.