Chamber and committees

Thank you for your comments so far. You have both touched on children being overlooked and disregarded in the process and you have both talked about the role of the child welfare reporter. That approach is seen as the future method of supporting children and providing balance, but do you believe that it will do that? It is about giving individual children the opportunity to express their views, but is it possible that the required relationship will still not be there? How will child welfare reporters build the relationship?

What I have heard from both of you today is that it is about confidence—it is about the child feeling confident and that they have been given a chance to express their views. It appears that, in the past, those views have been disregarded or ignored. If we are putting a lot of emphasis on the child welfare reporter, what needs to happen to ensure that the approach is successful and that there is progress? Without that, we will be back to where we started.

The Scottish Government has talked about the need to broaden the scope of the role and try to bring in other professionals. You have touched on that. At the moment, the legal service has the lion’s share, but there has been talk about broadening it out and bringing social workers or psychologists into the role in order to tease out or embrace some of the focus that has been identified. Would taking the role into different areas and giving individuals more opportunities to participate be successful?

Sarah, do you have any other comments on bringing different professions to the process?

Good morning, minister. I am delighted to see you here.

One area that has continued to progress is improved transparency on, and public participation in, budget processes in relation to equality. It would be good to get an update from you about how things are developing.

It is important that we continue to build capacity. In the past, we have talked about capacity and about ministers and officials ensuring that Scottish budget spend advances and tackles some of the equality and human rights issues facing the Scottish population. It would be good to get a view on where we are with that. I am aware that there has been some progress, but Covid has had an impact, and it would be good to get a sense of how we are managing to capture that and whether there are areas that still require a bit more attention.

You identify that it is about trying to capture people’s lived experience and ensuring that that is fed through. The length and transparency of funding has always been, and continues to be, a slight issue for many organisations and individuals. It is important that that is captured and that a process is put in place that supports organisations and individuals to ensure that they get funding and are able to plan how to deal with the short and medium term. Are there other ways in which the Government has managed to identify lived experience and ensure that it is involved in the budget process?

As you have identified, it is about being creative. There is no one-size-fits-all in this area, and everyone has a contribution to make.

The equality budget advisory group has made some recommendations. Where are we with that? Has the Government taken them on? How are the group’s recommendations filtering through?

Thank you for your testimony in response to questions so far. How disappointed are you that the Scottish Government is not prepared to extend the inquiry? The First Minister and Deputy First Minister made comments about that in the chamber. How do you feel about the fact that they do not see the need to progress it any further?

You touched on the idea that other authorities are perceived as not being supportive, or that people are brought up in that regime to believe that they are “the devil”. Do you feel that you have been listened to by other authorities and other organisations and individuals?

Minister, you have talked about management and protection, which are vital. You have gone into detail in some of your answers. I will ask about the implementation of a number of policies that come into play. The whole idea behind protecting such woodlands is to ensure that they are sustainable and that they continue.

In our round-table session, people touched on resources—what is being spent and how that is being managed—which have implications for what can be achieved. Knowledge and enforcement are other aspects, and you have touched on enforcement issues. Resource has a massive impact on what you can achieve in the short to medium term. What is the Scottish Government doing to enhance that? How are you tackling that situation? Without the financial resource to manage the situation, it becomes unsustainable.

Given all that, I think that it is probably time to close the petition. A lot of work has already been done, as you have just described, by the Scottish Government. However, in closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, it would be useful to write to the Scottish Government to ask when it expects that a new sector-specific scheme will become available; when details of that scheme, including how to apply for it, will be published; and how the scheme will be publicised to ensure that self-employed individuals in the sector will have the opportunity to ensure that they are supported and will be given the means that they have been requesting for some time.