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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 3 October 2025
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Displaying 3048 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

Ms O’Brien, you said that you wanted to talk about profit, and now is your chance. Your submission says a few things. It says:

“organisations should not profiteer from children’s care”.

It also says:

“The ability for a Minister to put a profit limitation requirement on services could have catastrophic impact on our ability to deliver high quality ... care”.

Do you want to expand on that?

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

Do you accept that we cannot do that in legislation? That comes down to the culture and the relationships that you were talking about earlier, but the committee is looking at legislation.

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

Do you see the fact that we are dealing with fostering agencies differently from residential care as a problem, or is that okay?

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

You wanted to come back in, Mr Dunlop.

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

I think that we are in danger of going over the same ground of discussing the culture as opposed to the legislation.

I want to come back to fostering. Ms Williams, you say in your submission that the average payment is £13,579 and that it varies by £34,696. It sounds as if, at the top end, it is quite a lot, but the average is—

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 17 September 2025

John Mason

The payments vary a lot and you would like there to be a standard rate.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

You have covered some of the things that I was going to ask about with that line of questioning about aligning economic growth spending with skills gaps. Andy Witty has given the example of welders, which also came up when we visited the advanced manufacturing district. Are we clear where the skills gaps are and are young people clear about that? It is all very well for us—or for universities and colleges to know—but young people need to know in order to go for the right places for the jobs.

That takes me on to universities. Scottish Enterprise talked about graduates who are in non-graduate jobs, which says to me that we are sending too many young people to university—we should be sending some of them to train as welders instead of to do degrees. I will ask Andy Witty to respond.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

Do the schools know where the gaps are?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

Do you accept that some young people choose a university subject that they quite like the idea of, although they have no idea whether there will be a job at the end of it?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

It might be unfair to ask you too much about that sector. We got the impression earlier that planning is resistant to modern techniques. Some planning departments like to keep houses looking like they have always looked. Have you picked up on that at all?