Chamber and committees

There have certainly been some challenging questions for you about the education budget, cabinet secretary—sadly, not always expressed in the most polite way. Can you comment on the importance of the wider policies such as the Scottish child payment, which are outwith education but which are critical to our attempts to address the poverty-related attainment gap in the longer term, particularly with the UK Government reducing universal credit at the moment? It would be good to hear some assurance that you will be arguing passionately that those wider policies that impact educational achievement will be prioritised at Cabinet level and beyond.

It would be interesting to see whether a bit of work could be undertaken on the local authorities that have gone a bit further, to determine whether demand has increased hugely in those areas.

I will move on to my second question. It is good to see what you wrote in your letter, in response to the convener’s letter, about respecting

“the need for stronger national and local data”

across

“all the four capacities”

for curriculum for excellence. You also mention the

“short-life sub-group of the curriculum and assessment board ... to explore options for a sample-based survey”.

I am really interested in the stuff about the quality of data, which has come up often across the different strands that we are considering. Can you expand on that further, or can you say something about the idea of considering that more widely than just the curriculum for excellence stuff?

Good morning, cabinet secretary. First, I will quickly praise NHS Lanarkshire for all its hard work.

Moving on to mental health, I appreciate that, with NHS boards and integration joint boards delivering mental health services, tracking spending can be a bit challenging, particularly for things that are outwith the health sector itself. I have a couple of questions on that. First, what evidence is being gathered to understand the impact and effectiveness of the additional spend? Secondly, how does that influence future funding decisions—for example, the balance between adult services and child and adolescent mental health services?

During the committee’s evidence session on perinatal mental health, we heard evidence from mums about the critical role that third sector organisations are performing locally. Their expertise is a lifeline as far as mums are concerned. In that evidence session, third sector stakeholders expressed concern about the fact that they are losing some of the local specialism and expertise that makes a really positive impact on the ground in local mental health services. How can more secure long-term funding be provided to support the delivery of mental health services by third sector organisations in community settings?

That was very helpful.

Good morning, Dr Phin, and thank you for joining us this morning.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the shared work programme must be delivered within existing resources. Do you feel that that is realistic? Are existing resources adequate? Are there circumstances in which that could become challenging?

I thank the witnesses for coming along today. I was going to quote, “Nothing about us without us”, which Kaukab Stewart mentioned, because it is a very popular and pertinent saying at the moment.

My questions are about diversity, equality and untapped talent. We already have a focus on gender imbalances, which are well recognised across various sectors, and work is going on to encourage women into those sectors. As has been mentioned, work is also being done with black and minority ethnic communities, people from different socioeconomic groups and people with disabilities, including learning disabilities.

There are quite high rates of unemployment among people with neurodiversity, who often cannot make it through recruitment processes that involve interviews. Common skills that employers look for, such as communication, teamwork and networking, are challenging for those people, so, in effect, they can be screened out at the recruitment stage, but they have lots of unusual and valuable skills. In our evidence, we have heard about skills gaps in digital computing, information technology, data analytics and so on. Often, such skills can be strengths for people who are neurodiverse, including those with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and a range of other conditions.

I have a quick question for the representatives of SDS, SAAB and the SFC. What is the current representation of neurodiverse individuals on your boards?

Even with the best will in the world, if those individuals are not represented, what can seem to be really good solutions to improve accessibility for neurotypical people—or “normal” people, if we like—and people with disabilities might not always be what people need in practice. We need to ensure that we have that representation at the levels at which ideas come through.

What pathways into employment do we have for neurodiverse individuals, and are there any plans for the future? I am interested in Sharon Drysdale answering that question.

That is great. I appreciate your answer. The training is incredibly important, but representation at the highest levels is also vital.

That is great.