Chamber and committees

Good morning. I picked up the same point as Emma Harper, which is that affordability relates directly to consumption, which relates directly to harm. That is an important point.

We have heard quite a lot of figures; clearly, the pandemic has created an issue around evidence. That said, I ask Lucie Giles this: how effective has the minimum unit pricing policy been in addressing alcohol harms and how strong is the case for continuing it beyond the five-year period?

Thank you. It was great to hear Alison Douglas talk about the longer-term effects of the policy over 20 years or so, as well as all the ripples from it, such as the impact on children and their lifestyles.

I have a question on data for Lucie Giles. Will we have a strong enough evidence base for the policy? Will it be difficult to ascribe improvements to minimum unit pricing because of everything that has happened, or are you expecting that levels of hospitalisation and the number of deaths next year will support the policy?

Thank you, convener, and I thank all the witnesses for being here this morning. I have three questions to ask, but, before I start, I want to say that it is important to be clear that our teachers are trained as educators to work within large classrooms full of pupils, which I hope remains their priority. However, third sector organisations get children who are struggling to a point at which they are ready to learn, and it is really good to be hearing about that today.

It is also great to see that tackling poverty is being put front and centre in the work; we call it the poverty-related attainment gap for a very good reason. The impact of poverty on our children and their families is devastating.

The first of my three question is for Sara Spencer, on parental mental health. How important is parental mental wellbeing, and how big an impact does the practical and financial support that families get have on children’s learning? I know that it can be quite difficult to measure that impact; it is not always easy to work it out. Have you seen a substantial improvement in children’s learning, progress, behaviour and so on?

It would be good if you could keep us posted on that.

That brings me to my next question, which is about wider support. In previous evidence sessions we have been told that the wider wraparound support from third sector organisations and from health, social work, youth work, autism and justice services is absolutely crucial to ensuring that children achieve their potential and do as well as possible.

We also have the early years work. There has been a huge investment in early years education and in work on things such as attachment—I know that Barnardo’s does quite a lot of work on that.

How important is it to have wraparound care and interagency work? How can that work better? For example, could there be funding for joint teams, or something like that? Do you have any innovative ideas that have worked?

You touched on lots of big and important issues. Certainly, in other evidence, it has been suggested that we should be focusing mainly on the 30 per cent of our children who have additional support needs and that all children will benefit from that, which was interesting to hear.

To go back to what you said earlier, there has been a focus on wellbeing and on people in their places. There is a drive to co-locate services in communities. For example, North Lanarkshire Council is looking at having hubs where lone parents can drop their child at nursery and then not go home and be isolated but get involved in education, exercise or a cafe and social events. Is that the right way forward? Should we be looking at that, to complement and support the work that is going on with schools and third sector organisations?

I am sorry—I was just looking at you, Maureen, but I did not name you.

I have a question for Jim Wallace. I had a look at the planning and monitoring paperwork that you use to move young people forward. That work is quite similar to work that I have done in the past in co-ordinating education initiative projects. Will you tell us a wee bit more about co-production—about the impact of giving the young person power and control over their learning, how well that is helping you to start to measure things, and how that can be improved?

That is great. I have no more questions but I will make a point. The pandemic has shown that the rug can be ripped from under the feet of any of us at any time and that we should not blame people but should hold out our hand to help them.

That is great. Those are really interesting points and they answer a lot of the follow-up questions that I had.

Donald, will you expand a wee bit on what evidence we have on the relative cost effectiveness of investing in preventative care, as opposed to waiting until things come to crisis and spending a lot at that point?

We have spoken a lot about terms and conditions and culture. I am currently a councillor on South Lanarkshire Council. I know that one of the things that families want most is one front door for all services. However, that can be problematic when staff have different pay and conditions. Do the witnesses have examples of success? What does it look like? Is it about shared budgets, responsibilities and decision making? I am interested in things that we can do now, instead of waiting for the national care service to come along.