Seòmar agus comataidhean

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am sorry, but I could not connect. I would have voted no.

I thank my friend and colleague Daniel Johnson for bringing the debate to the chamber. I applaud his continuing drive to deliver a better pathway for those with neurodevelopmental conditions, and I applaud him for using his own experience to highlight the subject. I also thank the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland for its comprehensive report on multisystem solutions for people with ADHD and autism.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder involves differences in attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Mr Johnson gave a comprehensive overview of the system’s failings and the dire need to deliver support and a national strategy for the hugely increasing number of people who are seeking assessment and support for neurodevelopmental conditions, given all the negative impacts that are associated with lack of support.

I will not rehearse all the important issues that Mr Johnson spoke about so well, but the one that worries me the most, which has reared its head again, is the lack of coherent and consistent data collection. As I have said many times, our health service lacks a universal system that allows data collection. In one way or another, we will have to address that across the health service in general, because such a tool would be a huge help in tackling issues.

I also want to highlight prevention, which is one of my favourite topics. I have some limited experience of coaching athletes with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and what I have witnessed—

I thank Daniel Johnson for finishing my speech for me. [Laughter.] I was going to say that I witnessed young people flourishing and developing in a training environment that delivered structure and self-discipline in their lives. It was great to see, and one of them even ended up doing a college course on health and fitness.

More telling is what happened to those athletes during Covid, when they were starved of that structure in their lives. Without that framework and focus, there was a significant slide, which was much worse than that for the other athletes in the squad. One ended up not being able to control his eating and being unable to get out of the house to take part in activities. He ended up putting on so much weight that he never got back to training—and he was an international athlete.

Having access to activity, a pathway to self-expression and a route to channel their energy can be so important for some people who have neurodevelopmental conditions, because it can help to provide balance.

I spoke to the Royal Society of Psychiatrists and some autism representatives in the third sector to see whether there was any agreement on the points that I am exploring. Thankfully, there was agreement.

I take every opportunity to highlight the importance of sport and activity to the nation’s wellbeing. I suggest that, in these instances, they can be even more important. I also suggest that the continued decline in opportunities to be active in the school environment and in our communities might be a contributing factor to the exponential and unprecedented rise in the number of people who are requesting ADHD assessments. I consider those numbers to have always been there, under the surface. However, I wonder whether, as part of prevention and, as Daniel Johnson put it, the non-medicalisation of the condition, many people with neurodivergent conditions would benefit from a reversal of the decline in opportunities to channel their hyperactivity.

Again, I thank Daniel Johnson for bringing the debate to the Parliament.

I will.

I have listened intently to what the minister has said. I agree with much of it, but I caveat that getting a diagnosis involves an element of relief for many people, who then recognise that they need to deal with something. There is a relief and a mental health issue in getting a diagnosis.

I cannot pass up the opportunity to welcome you into the fold of sport, now that you have been converted to recognise the power of sport.

Are we sitting comfortably, Deputy Presiding Officer?

I congratulate Keith Brown on getting out of the traps early in lodging the motion and securing the debate. I was going to come along tonight just to listen to the debate, and then I decided, why not bask one more time in the reflected glory of the Scotland team qualifying for the world cup?

As I have said previously in the chamber—unfortunately, the member in question has just left the chamber—I watched the match in the Parliament bar, as we had all just piled out of a committee meeting, with Stuart McMillan, Liam McArthur and the indomitable, the indefatigable, the inimitable and the inflatable Kenny Gibson, who went from the mild-mannered gentleman we all know and love to a complete maniac. The fact that the four of us were jumping about crazy in the Parliament bar—four people who members might not expect to be together—and the way in which we collectively celebrated the result tells us everything about football and about sport.

The other reason why I wanted to speak in the debate was that I knew that George Adam would be speaking, and I wanted to remind him that a Scottish Tory was his childhood hero and that a Scottish Tory also coached his beloved St Mirren. I am taking some of the glory for St Mirren—that strangled route through St Mirren into the Scotland team.

Those of us who are of a certain vintage reflect back on a time when we always qualified for the world cup. The first world cup that I remember as a kid was in 1974, with Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer and so on. I got to play golf with Peter Lorimer in Montrose one day—what a gentleman he was. I always remember 1974—as has been said, we came out as the only undefeated team. I always picture, in my head, Billy Bremner sliding in at the back post and knocking the ball against the post, when we could have actually won. I also remember when we had to beat Yugoslavia. They went 1-0 up, and then Scotland gave us hope—as they always do—towards the end of the match when they equalised, but we did not go through.

With Ally’s army, in 1978, we were going to win the world cup. He convinced the whole of Scotland, me included, that we were going to win. I remember Joe Jordan scoring for us to go 1-0 up against Peru, and then they equalised. Don Masson missed a penalty and they went 2-1 up, with Scotland eventually losing 3-1.

However, 1978 gave us one of the best goals that we will ever see: Archie Gemmill’s goal against Holland. Again, Scotland gave us hope—that glimmer of hope—but they never quite get there. I remember 1982, 1986 and 1998—and, now, here we are again, on our way to lift the world cup.

I just want to say, on a serious note, that we have a fantastic summer of sport coming our way with the Commonwealth games and the world cup. I hope that we do not just grasp the opportunity to be Scotland, the passionate watchers of football, but use it to create opportunities for our youngsters, who are inspired to take part by our great athletes and footballers. We have to use these fantastic experiences to give our kids those opportunities. I ask the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport if she will tell us, in her closing remarks, how we will ensure that there is a legacy from those fantastic events.

Once again, I congratulate my friend and colleague Keith Brown on bringing the debate to the chamber.

Will the member give way?

As the cabinet secretary is aware, NHS Ayrshire and Arran is under extreme financial pressure, which is in no small part due to high levels of expensive agency staff. Given that the higher prevalence of flu cases will inevitably put greater pressure on staff numbers through sickness absence, has the cabinet secretary considered the possibility of emergency financial support to the board to prevent high levels of staff absence from making a bad situation worse?

As others have done, I record the huge debt of gratitude that we owe to our armed forces.

Those who serve want simple things. While they are serving, they want to know that their families are taken care of, that they are provided with good-quality housing, that their children will not lose their place on an NHS waiting list or their support at school due to a relocation, that there is a job opportunity for their partner and that adequate childcare is available at a new posting. After their service concludes, they want to know that their mental and physical health will be taken care of and that support is available to adjust socially.

I was very interested to hear the contribution of the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans, Graeme Dey, in which he highlighted the wait for care for servicemen and women and talked about the outcomes from those delays. I welcome his frustration that GP uptake of the armed forces and veterans recognition scheme is unacceptably low, and I welcome what he is doing to promote that scheme and formally accredit it to improve uptake.

Many of the matters that we are talking about are devolved, which is why I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to the armed forces covenant, although I have to say that I am a little dismayed that there have been no specific meetings at this stage to discuss the expansion of that covenant into social care with health and social care partnerships and councils, according to the reply to a parliamentary question that I asked a few weeks ago. Given the role that adequate social care plays in making sure that people can live their best independent lives, as was highlighted by my colleague Sandesh Gulhane, and the issues of homelessness that my colleague Edward Mountain has raised, there is more to do.