Chamber and committees

Thank you all for coming along today. I want to ask you about advocacy services, which Ramon Hutchingson brought up. Fergus Ewing talked about the struggles that parents can have, and, as a parent myself, I have seen the parent-carer stuff coming through. The Morgan report backs that up as well, identifying that everything can be an on-going battle. Sometimes, parents can be seen as aggressive or demanding when they are actually at the end of their tether and are just trying to get something to happen for their child. Also, some parents suffer some of the anxiety and communication issues that their children have, but they are undiagnosed.

The Morgan report said that, quite often, the children with the most disruptive behaviours get the attention at school and the other children get ignored. There is often a situation in which the strengths of children with complex needs are not recognised but there are difficulties with the struggles and challenges of children who are very high functioning being recognised as well. They are quite often minimised.

For those reasons, advocacy seems to be an important factor. Ramon, do you have any evidence of that happening locally? I also wonder whether the other panel members support advocacy and agree that it should play a big part.

Do the other panel members agree that advocacy should play a big part in that regard?

Thank you. That was really helpful.

I am also interested in the balance of risks, because crisis is often very much a part of life for the children we are talking about. Existing distressed behaviours and anxieties have been exacerbated by the situation. We have had to balance risks to children’s mental health and wellbeing against the threat to life and to their physical health from spreading infection. Did we strike the balance somewhere in the middle or was it way off?

I am thinking about the positive things that were mentioned—some young people being able to engage better, red tape being cut for those who perhaps struggle with mainstream school, digital access being provided for non-attenders, and the opening of doors to creativity. Linda O’Neill talked about the doorstep arts sessions. Balanced against that is the idea that it was a bit of a lottery, depending on where people live, but cutting red tape opened the door to opportunities. I am interested to hear about any other positive things.

What do you see as being the priorities going forward, with regard to learning from experience and incorporating that in policy? That is quite a big question that goes first to Linda O’Neill.

I am just writing down little important points that Linda O’Neill made, or they will go out of my head—including targeted support for children in the area that she mentioned. I declare that I am a councillor on South Lanarkshire Council. I am also a parent to autistics.

This might be in the committee papers, so I apologise if I have missed it. What proportion of the children who went to hubs were vulnerable? The hubs also provided childcare for the children of emergency workers and key workers, such as our national health service workers, because they and their partners were not at home to look after their children. What are the statistics on that? I am not sure which witness might know the answer to that.

I ask the other witnesses to say whether they support advocacy, and I ask Ramon whether there is evidence of it happening on the ground, either locally or more widely, including internationally.

Convener, do you want me to mention the Morgan report while we are discussing this topic, or do you want to pick that up later on?

That is fine. Important points have been made about poverty and its impacts.

I think that we can all agree that unpaid carers such as family, friends and neighbours are the backbone of looking after people. There has already been talk about the ethos and the culture and how they have to change. It is time that we started valuing caring roles much more.

You spoke about the pressure on unpaid carers and how they cannot wait, and I agree strongly with that. You also talked about how professionals in the front line are shattered and tired. Carers are also in that position because they had to pick up when services closed. That is not a criticism—we had to prevent the spread of the infection and save lives—but that burden fell on carers, and it was a physical burden as well as a mental one. What practical, hands-on support is there for carers, bearing in mind that they cannot wait? What can they expect to see on the ground right now and over the next few weeks? Some of them are reaching the point at which they cannot cope and they will not be able to continue in their caring role if they do not get that support.

I have a couple of wee questions. Thank you for being here this morning, minister. I want to ask you a little bit more about prevention. Earlier, you mentioned school counsellors and mental health link workers in general practices. We have heard quite a lot of evidence on various topics about how it can be quite difficult for professionals to focus on prevention. What measures are you looking to put in place to ensure that prevention is prioritised on the ground, and that it has an impact?

I remind members that I am a councillor on South Lanarkshire Council. Just as Sandesh Gulhane has done, I will mention NHS Lanarkshire. I was at the health board briefing last Friday, where we were told that there was a 30 per cent to 35 per cent increase in demand for supported discharge from hospital. So, despite a 30 per cent improvement in discharges from hospital, the situation there is standing still.

The third sector is critical to that situation. What further support could be offered to it?