Chamber and committees

I am mindful that we do not have much time left. We tend to design for the default male, because of who is in position. I am interested in the fact that the countries that I mentioned have a gender mainstreaming policy, which means that all government departments have to use it in their strategic plans. Wider inequalities also need to be included. Is that something that you think we should be focusing on, and could it be helpful?

That is good to hear.

I thank the witnesses for coming along.

I am interested in the key performance standards. To what extent do they drive service delivery?

I suppose my question ties in with what was said earlier about innovation. We hear a lot about how critical early intervention and preventative care are and how performance targets and priority targets can drive providers away from that. Could early intervention and prevention be made higher priorities?

That was really helpful. I am keen to hear from Laura Skaife-Knight or Gordon Jamieson on this, too.

North Lanarkshire Council is taking a community approach and is looking at having community hubs that are located alongside schools or early learning and childcare settings, or, possibly, libraries and cafes, as a way of keeping mums there, bringing them in and getting them involved in new activities that are based on their interests.

Ewelina Chin mentioned developing a roller-skating session that grew out of people’s interests. At one of our previous meetings, Rudi Urbach from Scottish Rugby talked about changing the rules of the game to suit women and what they want to do. Is that something that should start in schools? How do we stop women and girls—particularly those who are affected by other inequalities—dropping out of sport early in secondary school?

I thank the witnesses for being here. I will touch on the examples that Robert Nesbitt talked about of working with people to design spaces, which I am interested in hearing more about. Training and education can take us so far, but to have walked in someone’s shoes is entirely different and can tackle poor design and inaccessible infrastructure. Do you have examples of projects where people have been involved in co-design and that has increased the numbers who use and access spaces?

I will be very brief, minister. The committee has previously agreed that the purpose and principles statement is critical and central. I understand that there are loads of complexities in that respect and loads of things that have to fit together, but what is the likely timescale for publishing it?

Thank you, convener, and good morning, minister. Being realistic—and with inflation being so high—I think that it is very possible that some of our colleges and universities are going to face serious financial difficulties. If that is the case, what support will be available to them?

I suppose that that takes us back to your earlier comment that transition funding is actually about making those kinds of changes. I would be interested in hearing more detail on that.

Newbattle Abbey College, which has written to us, has been involved in some commercialisation, with its heritage centre, weddings and so on. Obviously that sort of thing is quite unique to that college, but are those kinds of commercial aspects being considered? Are you exploring such issues and working with universities and colleges on them?