Seòmar agus comataidhean

I understand that a review of the adult disability payment in Scotland is on-going and that it will issue its report this autumn. Does the cabinet secretary think that that is an opportunity for us to have a whole look at the ADP, its criteria and how it could work better for disabled people in Scotland?

Many vulnerable groups are negatively impacted by the cuts, including families living with Huntington’s disease, which is a hereditary and currently incurable neurological condition. Edinburgh is served by Huntington’s disease specialists employed by the Scottish Huntington’s Association, who proactively support patients and carers in the community with a view to preventing crisis situations from arising. That service might go.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that cutting preventative spending such as that is short sighted and a false economy? Will she work with me and all stakeholders to ensure that that extremely worrying prospect does not come to pass?

I appreciate that the minister had a tough appearance at the Education, Children and Young People Committee this morning, where she was repeatedly unable to provide a timescale for the introduction to Parliament of the Promise bill. I give her another opportunity to redeem herself by stating simply when a bill on the Promise will be laid before the Scottish Parliament, so that the Education, Children and Young People Committee can finally scrutinise the detail.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the allocation of additional funding for health and social care, in light of the Edinburgh integration joint board’s reported plans to end funding for its third sector grant programme. (S6O-04494)

Research by Young Lives vs Cancer shows that children with cancer wait an average of six months for disability benefits in Scotland, leaving struggling families without support. Will the First Minister remove the three-month qualifying period for children with clear medical evidence, ensuring that financial aid starts at diagnosis, so that no child in Scotland faces additional hardship at an already overwhelming time for them and their family?

Shelter Scotland’s report can be summed up in one sentence: the SNP has failed Scottish children. Our country is gripped by a housing crisis, which is forcing thousands of vulnerable people out of their homes and into a system that is unable to handle the workload.

As has already been mentioned this afternoon, more than 33,619 households were assessed as homeless in 2023-24, including 15,000 children. Take a moment to think about that: there are 15,000 children without a safe place to call home. In the past 15 minutes of this debate, we have heard not one practical solution from the Government or its members for how that is going to change. That number should shame all 129 of us and it should shame the Scottish Government even more.

In my region, here in Lothian, the picture is as bleak as it is on the national level. There were 3,600 children in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh in 2023-24. As Mr Simpson pointed out, that figure is larger than the total number of children in temporary accommodation in the whole of Wales during the same time.

The Government must stop talking and start acting to protect the most vulnerable in our society. For too many years, it has continued to oversee a worsening situation. Make no mistake, what we see in Scotland today is a modern-day scandal.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has the right

“to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”

As Mr Rennie pointed out, the Government has not sought to amend, only to add to, the Labour motion before us. It is happy to accept that it is in breach of the convention, not just once but over and over again.

Not only is the number of children in temporary accommodation unacceptable, but, as we have heard from other speakers, the conditions in the accommodation are often unacceptable: mould, damp and heating systems that do not work during winter months. That is unacceptable.

We have a housing bill, which we will debate tomorrow in the Social Justice and Social Security Committee but which will bring almost no benefit to those children. The Government has refused to look at amendments that would improve the bill. It wants to discourage people from renting accommodation; we will see fewer properties being put up for rent in the next years because of what is in the bill.

It is even worse than that. The only way to solve the problem is to build more houses, yet what have we seen under this Scottish Government administration? There has been a fall in house building in Scotland. Unsuitable accommodation, a lack of house building, and no willingness to listen to experts and change the housing bill—the Government should go away and think again, not for my sake, but for the sake of the children here in Lothian and across Scotland.

It is a real privilege to take part in the debate, and I thank the member for lodging the motion. I, too, welcome all the people in the public gallery. They have brought the average age of this Parliament down dramatically in the past half an hour.

I will just make one negative point at the start: it is disappointing that not all parties are in the chamber for this debate. If we truly respect young carers, there should be total cross-party support.

I, along with other members, have had the privilege of attending the Scottish young carers festival on a number of occasions. For me, it has been interesting to listen to their experiences and hear what happens in their part of Scotland. It is important that we give people a break, whether it be through weekends away, a summer holiday or a pizza on a Tuesday night. However, we have to go further and recognise that school is often a difficult place for carers.

On my last visit to the carers festival, I was struck most by the different practices in different local authorities. There does not seem to be a co-ordinated approach to how children who care for another sibling, a parent or someone else in the family are treated. I appreciate that this goes beyond the minister’s portfolio, but I think that it would be helpful to get guidance on what should be in a school statement. Are we putting enough emphasis on this sort of thing in job applications? Young carers often do have empathy, compassion and resilience beyond their years, but it comes with challenges that are not often recognised by schools, employers or society in general.

I want to briefly reflect on two points from my personal experience. When people provide care or are being cared for, it has an effect on the whole family. Whether it be a sibling or a parent, the effect does not just stop with them. Having spoken to my siblings, I know that, because of the time that my parents had to give me, they sometimes felt short-changed or that they could not have the same experiences. They are fairly resilient and have come through that, but we must look at this in a holistic way and recognise that caring for somebody in a family affects the whole family.

Secondly, we must recognise the number of unpaid carers who are simply not recognised. It brings us back to the point made in the opening speech in the debate that we do not really know how many unpaid carers there are in Scotland. Indeed, I suspect that we will never find out that number.

This morning, at breakfast, I told my two daughters that I would be speaking in this debate and that I might mention them. When they asked, “Why are you mentioning us?”, I said, “Well, you go far beyond what your colleagues at school do, whether that’s helping me untie my laces, putting on my coat or doing other things.” They do not recognise themselves as young carers, and I suspect that there are lots of people in our communities who provide care but who perhaps do not appreciate what they are doing and are not looking for recognition.

Finally, I thank all young unpaid carers for what they do. Without them, our society would not function. We in the Parliament and across Scotland need to respect them, not just with words on a Thursday afternoon but with action that makes a difference for them.

The cabinet secretary will appreciate that it has been two years since the Scottish Government brought forward such a debate. There are so many issues that need to be debated, including those around fishing deals, the end of the United Kingdom’s trade and co-operation agreement with the European Union, inshore fisheries and the national maritime plan, and other views need to be heard. When will the Government schedule a debate? Will it be before the Easter recess or not?

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to propose scheduling time for a parliamentary debate on the fishing industry. (S6O-04410)

The minister will appreciate that the bill will be moving to stage 2 next month. The pilot projects are meant to help us identify what changes have to be made. Will he tell the chamber in which month the pilots will start and for how long they will last?