Chamber and committees

As we are on the theme of housing, now is an appropriate time to bring in the deputy convener, Maggie Chapman.

In previous sessions, we have heard a lot of evidence on the experiences of children in the system. I want to kick off by talking about unaccompanied children. Caroline, will you give us a quick overview of unaccompanied children’s experience of the system here?

John, in your opening statement, you mentioned that you support 16 schools. What is the nature of that support?

So, it is not specifically for—

Caroline O’Connor, I want to ask you again about the children’s situation. I do not think that you got a chance to respond to the question about when there are tensions in the system and things have not worked out well. How well do you think things are resolved at the moment? Are children listened to empathetically? How quickly are things resolved? What could be done to support either your organisation or Mears? Obviously, we will be making recommendations at the end of this inquiry, so how can things be improved?

Agenda item 3 is consideration of further evidence as part of our inquiry into asylum seekers in Scotland. We will hear from John Taylor, the chief operating officer at Mears Housing Management, who joins us in person. Good morning, John. We will also hear from Caroline O’Connor, who is the chief executive officer of Migrant Help and who joins us virtually. Welcome, Caroline.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I invite each of our witnesses to make short opening remarks, starting with John Taylor.

Okay—I am glad that we have got that cleared up.

You talked a little about the mother and baby unit that Mears used in Glasgow and the lessons that were learned there. However, recently, another hotel has been mentioned in the press where about 10 rooms are being used for mothers—and mothers-to-be, I suppose. I will not name the hotel, but I am aware of it. I know that the size is quite limiting and that there are no kitchen facilities for mothers to have some kind of autonomy. Can you give us a bit of insight into why that particular hotel was chosen? I am bearing in mind that you have already said that it is not ideal to have mothers and babies in hotels.

I interject to say that my colleague Pam Gosal will drill down into the issue of the third sector. Feel free to answer the question, John, but perhaps you could leave the part of it about the third sector, because we have a separate line of questioning on that.

With regard to slightly older children—I am thinking of primary school-age children but, actually, this applies all the way through the system—children need to be with other children. What facilities or provisions do you put in place so that people, and children in particular, can be connected to each other? I am thinking of playrooms and places where they can have access to toys and books.

I think that my colleague Ben Macpherson would like to come in.