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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 19 December 2024
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Displaying 595 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 1 October 2024

Gillian Mackay

Thank you—that was useful.

I will return to the idea of advocacy, which is mentioned in the bill. In your opinion, should the part about complaints be changed in order to better integrate advocacy, or should the sections of the bill that deal with advocacy be changed to better reflect expectations about how people will be helped to navigate the process? We have heard from a lot of people that the provision of information is an important part of the advocacy role and that it gives people the tools that they need to navigate what is, as you have shown, a complicated system.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 1 October 2024

Gillian Mackay

Absolutely—the culture aspect with regard to complaints is important. I suppose that there is only so much that the bill can do to get us to where we want to be on that. Other colleagues might want to cover that point.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 1 October 2024

Gillian Mackay

Yes—that would be really helpful.

I will go a wee bit further into that. The charter of rights and responsibilities is in the bill, but—as you rightly said—we need to ensure that it has some real effect. Which bodies should have responsibilities within that? Should that be made explicit in the bill in order to help people to see where the responsibilities flow and to whom they should speak? Should we demystify the structures for the people who access social care?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 1 October 2024

Gillian Mackay

We have heard from some people that, if social care was operating at the level that we would wish for—if there was no delayed discharge and nobody was waiting for assessment—provision of advocacy and information might not be needed. Will you outline why the right to advocacy and information is so integral to ensuring that people’s right to social care support can be realised?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 1 October 2024

Gillian Mackay

That is great—thank you.

11:30  

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Gillian Mackay

It answers my question to a certain extent. What I am looking for is similar to what John Mason was asking about earlier with regard to how we drive cultural change. Some of that is structural—who is on the board and so on—but it is also about the approach to engaging with learners and teachers.

I accept that there is provision for a learner interest committee, but that will be quite small compared with the spread of learners across Scotland. How can the board and other bodies within qualifications Scotland be made more accessible and welcoming to learners and teachers to ensure that on-going feedback can be taken forward?

09:45  

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Gillian Mackay

Thanks, convener—the confusion that comes with two Gillians.

This question is for Fiona Robertson. The current SQA board comprises 11 members, none of whom, as far as I am aware, is a registered teacher, and none of whom has any experience of undertaking a current SQA qualification. I welcome the bill’s provisions to add teachers and learners to the board, although I think that they should be expanded to ensure that the board has a majority of registered teachers. How should the new board enact those provisions to ensure that the new body, qualifications Scotland, is more engaged with those groups than the SQA?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Gillian Mackay

I have a very quick question. A lot of reform is going on, and the bill is only one part of it. Arguably, most of the reform that the Government wants to take forward is outwith the legislative space. Are we doing things in the right order, with legislation being introduced and then non-legislative reform work being done, or would you have liked to have seen something different?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Gillian Mackay

A huge amount of reform work is being done, and the bill is only part of that. It could be argued that most of the reform that the Government is considering sits outside legislation. Do you believe that we are undertaking the reform work in the right order? Should we start with the bill and then move on to other non-legislative reform work, or would you have preferred us to take a different approach?

I will come to Anne Keenan first, because she has touched on all the other reform work that is under way.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Gillian Mackay

I will come back to you, Graham, on the point about those jigsaw pieces. What are the dangers of potentially having to take a hammer to those jigsaw pieces to make them fit in that context of reform, rather than the whole-scale review to make sure that everything sits together neatly, as the Hayward approach might have achieved?