Seòmar agus comataidhean

As members have no further comments or contributions, I invite the cabinet secretary to sum up and respond to the debate.

A very good morning, and welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2023 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

We have received apologies from Paul O’Kane and James Dornan.

Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take agenda item 6 in private. Are we agreed to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. Our questions will be directed to you, but you are welcome to invite any of your officials to respond. Jeremy Balfour is first, with questions on carers in education.

I will bring in Bob Doris and then Roz McCall.

I invite contributions from members.

The question is, that motion S6M-10324, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, be agreed to.

Motion agreed to.

We have until 10:50, but a lot of members still want to ask questions, so I ask for concise and succinct answers.

On funding and how it is allocated, reducing child poverty is, obviously, a Scottish Government priority. How does the funding of the voluntary sector support tackling child poverty? Does that have any implications at all for how funding is allocated within your own budgets?

No—it is fine. Carry on.

The final questions come from Roz McCall.