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It is right and correct to say that everyone in Scotland who is in poverty should be able to access support. I have no problem with that. We must rise to that imperative.

Can you comment on the particular character of poverty in the most deprived areas? Young people there will not have access to the same opportunities and facilities. Glasgow, for example, has a concentration of the most impoverished young people in Scotland. There are few resources and opportunities for them. What is the character of that poverty that creates particular barriers to learning?

We heard some pretty significant announcements yesterday regarding changes to the Scottish attainment challenge, which is one of the key mechanisms that the Government seeks to use to address the poverty-related attainment gap. You might have followed those announcements.

That is really useful, John.

Colin, do you have any comments on areas of multiple deprivation? Most of them are urban areas.

I hear that. Linda, are you aware of any substantive work that is going on in this area?

I find parts of the written evidence that we received deeply concerning. For example, we read:

“the post-lockdown effects might be reasonably predicted as profound.”

Another comment is:

“Feedback from our members points to the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had an incredibly damaging impact ... widening the educational attainment gap.”

However, a lot of it feels quite anecdotal to me. It refers to verbal discussions. Are you aware of any substantive research to determine the actual effects of the pandemic that will enable us, as politicians and policy makers, to assess the scale of the challenge and what response is required?

Mr Dornan’s criticism of the EIS for advocating for education resource is pretty ill founded—particularly in the area that we are discussing. The statistics that the convener laid out, and the evidence that we have seen and the testimony that we have heard, show that there has been a marked decrease in resource in respect of teachers who are facing children who have additional support needs. The Morgan review specifically excluded a resource assessment, but my understanding is that its recommendations have been accepted by all political parties.

We are coming out of the pandemic, but last week someone from the EIS told me that they still feel that we are in a crisis situation rather than in recovery. Will delivering on the Morgan review recommendations be more challenging post-pandemic than it previously was?

Mention has been made of the importance of the role of respite services in allowing people to continue to access educational experiences. I have constituents who are concerned about the lack of remobilisation of respite services in Dundee, for which Covid continues to be used as a justification. You will understand the frustration that they feel when they see people in nightclubs and pubs. Is that experience shared across the country or is it specific to my constituents?

Do you have any insight on that, Stephen?

Stephen, are you in the same position as Bruce Adamson and Linda O’Neill, with no awareness of any substantive work to assess the overall impact?

I thank all the respondents for their useful answers.

I find the discussion about hubs and looking back useful in some respects, but we are talking about the situation right now. Many of the young people in question are absent from our schools and our systems, and, as a set of institutions, we must have a commensurate response to that. I really worry about the use that has been made throughout the discussion of the word “anecdotal”, which means that our understanding is based on some conversations that we have had with people. We simply do not have a proper understanding of the impact.