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Absolutely, and I can speak from many years of personal experience. Youngsters can see a teacher—such as me—not always getting things right, and they learn from that experience. They can also see us getting things right most of the time, which they learn from, too. We learn about our own professional expertise and how to handle different youngsters.

I could quote many youngsters whom I taught at George Watson’s college. Some of them were pupils who were not flourishing in the classroom, and some were perhaps not too keen on school, but they absolutely flourished in the outdoors. There were other youngsters who you thought would be an absolute star in the outdoors, but they were not quite as good as they thought they would be.

The educational and social experience is vital. It enhances the relationships that you have with your peers and it definitely enhances the teacher-pupil relationship in both directions. You learn so much as a teacher from that. I was a teacher for 16 years and I still contribute to a lot of outdoor education, and I learn so much from just watching youngsters who might have thought that they would never be able to do something and yet they did it. They come away a different person.

You are right that it is about the long term. Pupils perhaps do better in their exams and in their attainment. They take part in extracurricular activity. That swings it for me. If we are going to be concerned—as we have to be—about our young people and the outcomes that we can deliver, we should recognise that outdoor education contributes to that. It is not the only thing, but it does contribute.

I have spent an awful lot of time on bringing the bill to Parliament. I have welcomed in particular the engagement from this committee and from the Finance and Public Administration Committee, and I credit the Scottish Government for its engagement.

I will finish on this point. If we want all young people in Scotland to experience the kind of education that society believes they deserve and we want to see, the bill can make a huge difference through inspiring confidence, self-esteem and resilience, and by giving children an extra dimension that too many of them are missing out on.

Good morning. I have a question for Andy Witty on the growth of the college sector, which, 10 or 15 years ago, was very successful. Part of that success was about its responsiveness to the local economy in each area. However, that has been put under pressure, not least because of funding issues, but also because of various college mergers and so on. To what extent is the college sector as responsive as it could be to local demand for skills, which is obviously very different in the north-east compared to in the south-west or Glasgow, for example?

Thank you.

Are there shackles, other than the funding issue, that you would like to see removed?

I, too, put on record my utter admiration for CHAS, which is a wonderful group that does extraordinary work. Inherent in its submission is a concern that the staff involved would need sufficient depth of training to be able to deal with what are exceptionally difficult circumstances surrounding the support for a person who has opted for assisted dying, including family decision making. It is about the level of support. CHAS’s written submission states that the estimates do not appear to take account of the fact that the guidance development processes have to be undertaken by

“practitioners and other non-Governmental stakeholders”.

The submission flags up that the estimates might not quite match the costs that CHAS feels might have to be applied. Could you respond to that?

Do you foresee any circumstances where opportunity costs will come into play? Some staff, especially experienced staff, may have to be taken away from treating other patients to help in these difficult circumstances, whether that is in hospitals with older people, or with younger people.

Good morning, Mr McArthur. I will follow on from the question about support, particularly in relation to the voice of young people, following on from some of the comments in the CHAS submission. Naturally, the decision that we are discussing is often a very difficult one to make, particularly if the family involved has conflicting views on what should happen. When it comes to younger people, it is even more difficult. On what evidence have you based your costings on the extra support network that would be required for such situations?

When you say “shackles”, are there specific issues other than the funding problem that you would like to see changed that would free up the college sector to be more responsive?

You indicate that, on 7 January, you will publish a policy document entitled “Mitigating the two-child limit and the Scottish budget”. I assume that that prediction is based on the data that the Scottish Government would need to have from the Department for Work and Pensions being available by that time.