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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 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 12 November 2024
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Displaying 546 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament

Education

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Ben Macpherson

All those challenges were, of course, exacerbated by the pandemic. It is right that we need to move beyond the pandemic and that we must not use it as an excuse, but the PISA results—although they are important and demonstrate the need for improvement—factually reflect the cohort of young people who experienced unprecedented disruption to their education because of school closures during the pandemic, and reflect the behavioural changes that are affecting schools throughout the UK and beyond, and across the majority of the countries participating in PISA. That is why all three countries in the UK saw reductions in their reading, maths and science scores.

I appreciate the particular challenge for Scotland, and we must take that seriously, but we have not seen a decline in the number of our young people in Scotland going on to further and higher education. We also need to keep in mind that there are positive destinations for the vast majority—around 94 per cent, as far as I can recall—of our young people.

The PISA report outlines that, for Scotland and many other comparable European countries, this is also a crucial time for reform. Colleagues have been right to raise that. To achieve the changes that we want to see, we must move on from political knockabout and the language of league tables and into a serious and collective sense of determination to reform our system, to recognise the wide array of skills and achievements of our young people, and to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Reforms that I would like to see and that we have considered at committee include moving to a position in which we are not teaching to the tests in the same way but are still achieving consistency. That is really difficult. How do we improve our primary education system? Willie Rennie emphasised that. How do we improve the situation for those with additional support needs? Pam Duncan-Glancy was right to point out that issue. How do we embrace new technologies? Michelle Thomson emphasised that. How do we enhance our teacher training and continuing professional development?

Professor Kenneth Muir wisely said:

“As a system, we genuinely need to learn lessons from the introduction of curriculum for excellence. It is questionable how successful we were in doing that. Professional learning and the engagement of all staff in the philosophy of any reform or change is critical.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 20 September 2023, c 44.]

It is about learning lessons from where we did not get it quite right in introducing curriculum for excellence. It is about sharing the philosophy, developing the understanding and, critically, ensuring that teacher education programmes in Scotland and the continuing professional development that teachers require are provided up front as part of the reform process.

That also requires reform in how we discuss the issue in Parliament. In committee, Professor Walter Humes said:

“I want a much more hard-headed kind of political discourse in which things are described as they are and ideas are engaged with at a proper intellectual level. It is not all about promotion, advertising and getting the headline in tomorrow’s press.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 8 November 2023, c 28.]

That applies to all political parties in the chamber.

Education is important. It should be about real issues, real aspirations and realistic aspirations that are not overhyped or boasted about. Let us rise to that challenge in our political discourse and in how we reform our education system by listening to experts and working together.

15:52  

Meeting of the Parliament

Education

Meeting date: 13 December 2023

Ben Macpherson

Will the member take an intervention?

Meeting of the Parliament

General Question Time

Meeting date: 7 December 2023

Ben Macpherson

Increasingly, there is evidence of links between long Covid and ME, a disease that a number of my constituents and others feel has been neglected for decades. On behalf of my constituents with ME and long Covid-related ME, I ask the minister to provide an update on specific actions that the Government plans to take to implement the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence—or NICE—guidelines on ME in Scotland, including specialist services. When will that happen?

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 7 December 2023

Ben Macpherson

Building on what the cabinet secretary has said, I ask her whether the Government agrees that, as well as men speaking with boys about gender justice and gender-based violence in school settings and teachers speaking in school settings, we need all men in positions of leadership to engage with boys, whether in youth clubs, in sports clubs or elsewhere, so that we can, together, tackle gender-based violence in Scotland.

Meeting of the Parliament

Relationships and Behaviour Policy in Schools

Meeting date: 29 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

The research pointed to worrying increases in the abuse of teachers and support staff by young people, but it also showed that the majority of abuse takes place between pupils. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on the Government’s anti-bullying guidance “Respect for All” and say how the findings of BISSR can feed in to the planned refresh of that guidance?

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure the sustainability of healthcare services in Edinburgh, in light of the significant increase in the population of the Lothian region in recent years. (S6O-02811)

Meeting of the Parliament

Gender-based Violence

Meeting date: 29 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

Together, we are talking about gender-based violence in Scotland and around the world just days after the outpouring of grief and outrage that we saw on the streets of Italy following the death of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old woman murdered by her former partner. That awful case has thrown light on reports that, on average, one woman is killed every three days in Italy. In fact, research by the UN on gender-related killings of women and girls found that, in 2022, 89,000 women and girls were killed intentionally across the globe, which is the highest yearly number of female homicides recorded in the past two decades, despite an overall fall in homicide.

Sadly, the picture here, in Scotland, is similar, with 2021-22 homicide figures reflecting that shocking and shameful reality. Although I know that good partnership work is under way in Scotland through the multi-agency taskforce that is dedicated to saving the lives of women and children, we must be clear that, although gender-based violence affects us all, men’s violence is a men’s issue and all men must do more to tackle and prevent it. Gender inequality is both a cause and a consequence of male violence against women. If destructive attitudes towards women do not change and go unchallenged by men in the home, the workplace, the gym or the pub—wherever and whenever they occur—we will never achieve the structural and cultural shift that is needed to eradicate this scourge in society.

The work of specialist organisations such as Zero Tolerance, White Ribbon Scotland and Social, Health & Education—SHE—Scotland is invaluable in documenting the lived experience of victims/survivors and ensuring that that is placed at the heart of decision making. That is why I pledge my support to campaigns for investment in effective primary prevention and to mainstreaming gender within all Scottish policy. Moreover, male politicians and parliamentarians have a responsibility and a duty to challenge and positively influence the behaviour of other men and boys, to bring about change and instigate allyship. MSPs must ask ourselves how our work affects women and girls, and, vitally, we must actively reflect on our own behaviours, beliefs and actions in order to show the collective leadership that is so desperately needed on the issue.

For some time, I have thought that it would be helpful to have a specific set of actions to guide us, which is why I have been working in collaboration with women’s organisations that have expertise in gendered power dynamics to develop 16 tangible actions that male MSPs and others can take to help tackle and prevent violence against women and girls. We all have a meaningful role to play in creating the change that is needed to tackle the multiple drivers of men’s violence and in building a Scotland where violence against women and girls is not tolerated and no longer takes place. Those 16 actions include engaging with local sports clubs and the media about the ways that they promote gender equality, as well as with local authority colleagues and Government agencies on their work to improve the safety of our streets and public places.

In addition, the Zero Tolerance report on its future tales project identifies the specific needs of marginalised women and girls from ethnic minority communities and the importance of taking an intersectional approach. I implore members to read the report and thank all the women who took part in the project for their bravery in sharing their incredibly insightful and powerful stories.

Gender-based violence does not happen just during the 16 days of activism, and work to end it must take place all year round. We can all commit to doing and saying more. The need for action and to amplify the voices of victims/survivors as well as the changes that they are calling for has rarely been so important or more urgently required. Men and boys, in particular, need to do more. The theme of the debate is “Imagine a Scotland without gender-based violence”. All men and boys should be part of making that happen.

16:33  

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

Population growth in Edinburgh has been significant and future projections are also significant. The Granton waterfront development in my constituency is projected to bring an additional 10,000 patients to the area by 2028. As I have raised previously, there is a proposal to create a new general practitioner practice in the Ocean Terminal shopping centre, and that could be a quick, accessible and cost-effective way of meeting current demand and creating much-needed additional capacity, as the Minister for Public Health saw on a recent visit to the vaccination centre. I appreciate the current public finance pressures, but will the Scottish Government work constructively with NHS Lothian and the Edinburgh health and social care partnership to seriously consider the proposal for a GP practice at Ocean Terminal?

Meeting of the Parliament

Housing

Meeting date: 22 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

Housing is the most serious issue in my constituency and, arguably, the most serious issue for my generation and those who are younger. I speak for them today.

It is true—and it is widely recognised—that there is a housing crisis in the UK, including in parts of Scotland, among which is my constituency. It is equally true that that crisis was decades in the making. Context matters. The crisis started way before devolution. The right to buy created problems that we are still dealing with today. In a time of plenty and buoyant public finances, the new Labour Government could and should have done more. The austerity agenda of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition Government impacted on the housing challenges that we face in the here and now. It is also true that the public finance challenge that we face at the moment constrains what we can action in this serious situation.

The crisis across the UK is wide reaching and it is about quantity, quality and price. It is a complex monetary and fiscal issue and the responsibility for it rests with us all. In 2007, the SNP Scottish Government rightly committed to a significant affordable house building agenda and investment in our shared national infrastructure. In the context of a recession, an austerity agenda, a Brexit that Scotland did not vote for, a pandemic, a situation of global conflict that impacted the prices of materials and the disastrous Conservative Truss Government that plunged the public finances into turmoil, the SNP Government built around 124,000 new affordable homes, including at the Leith Fort development in my constituency and on-going works in Granton. The Government also ended the right to buy so that we are constantly topping up the quantum of affordable housing in Scotland, which is why our figures are so much higher than those in other parts of the UK, including in Labour-run Wales.

However, it is true that we need more, and that is what we are focusing on in this debate. It is also why it is excellent that, despite the challenge of the financial scenario that we are in, the Scottish Government is committed to and focused on building 110,000 affordable homes, at least 70 per cent of which will be for social rent. In that context, we are in a position in which, although we have had greater success in Scotland, we need to do more. We need to recognise that parts of Scotland face a different challenge. Edinburgh is in a housing emergency, but there is evidence that our record on tackling poverty is better in other parts of Scotland because of the investment that the Scottish Government has made in affordable housing.

I welcome the fact that we are using this time to discuss the collective challenge of what is happening in Scotland but, as Edinburgh Northern and Leith’s MSP, I am sure that members would expect me to focus on the emergency that we have in Edinburgh. Specific attention must be paid to areas that have the highest levels of challenge. In Edinburgh, we have one of the lowest proportions of social housing in Scotland, but in recent years we have experienced one of the highest rates of population growth. That is reflected in my casework week after week, and the challenge that it creates is growing ever greater. Figures supplied by Shelter Scotland show that, as of 31 March 2023, there were more than 6,000 live homelessness applications. That represents a 17 per cent increase on the figure on the same date in the previous year. Those are Scottish Government figures.

Meeting of the Parliament

Housing

Meeting date: 22 November 2023

Ben Macpherson

I will come to some of those points, briefly, in a moment.