Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is exactly what I am doing.

One of my other questions is about the organisations that we had in front of us last week. The difference in attitudes among them was stark.

Historic Environment Scotland, for example, said that it is working in very difficult times and has many challenges, but has a plan with the Government on how it can release funding streams from elsewhere. Other organisations, as colleagues have mentioned, went down the route of saying, “Well, I just need the power to sack people and cut my wages bill”, rather than looking at different ways of working.

One individual in particular, when asked about commercial funding, said, “Well, I don’t think there’s much chance of us being able to get that”. I do not believe in double-jobbing as an MSP, but I felt like saying that I would quite happily take an afternoon off and get them the commercial funding that they are looking for.

Surely, in current times, organisations should be looking at other ways of getting funding. Historic Environment Scotland is a perfect example of an organisation that has found a different way of doing business.

That is important. Creatives in Scotland will always complain about Creative Scotland, but it is a grant-awarding organisation. There will be those who get their grants and those who do not, so someone will always complain about it.

There are issues with Creative Scotland. I was perhaps a bit harsh when Robert Wilson was here and I asked him what the point of him was, which was because I could not really see what Creative Scotland was delivering for many creatives. There is a need for an organisation like Creative Scotland, however, whatever we call it. Back in my day, it was the Scottish Arts Council.

We can look at the success of Screen Scotland, as part of Creative Scotland. It is working on a commercial basis and is able to generate some funding itself. How could we make that model part of Creative Scotland and get that dynamism into the organisation?

Surely it is a case of having a level of maturity in the debate about the Scottish Government’s budget. Surely they should up their game a bit in this situation.

It is a budget-related matter as well.

Good morning, everyone. Each project and area has specific needs and ways of delivering services. How do you balance the flexibility to be able to do what you want to do with the recommendations of the Promise? How do you manage to square that circle? I ask Linda Richards to answer that, because Perth and Kinross Council has gone down a particular route.

We have always used Scottish index of multiple deprivation figures, which are a blunt instrument. In my constituency, the SIMD figures talk about Ferguslie Park being an area of multiple deprivation, but that is only the case for two or three streets. The SIMD figures have a red mark that says that right outside the Parliament building is an area of multiple deprivation. There are patches of deprivation everywhere, throughout the country. I am more interested in how you are going to get that detail and that data, because that is the important part of making the policy work.

This question is on the same theme and is probably for Mr Dey. When we talk about going into higher education and universities, it has historically been the modern institutions like—dare I say it?—the University of the West of Scotland that have been making sure that they have hit the Government targets on university attendance by people from poorer backgrounds. However, since coming back to the committee, I have heard from stakeholders that the ancient universities have now come to the party and that they are also starting to do something.

Where are we with that? Is there flexibility in the budget for you to give further support to institutions? We all know that university students from certain backgrounds might do well in year 1, but in year 2 they just drop out. It was always the case that the expensive year for institutions was year 2, when quite a few young people would leave. Is there still flexibility to support them in that scenario?

All of us in this place have probably heard the criticism that we have focused a lot on higher education and access to it. At the end of the day, we might have lawyers, doctors and everything else, but no plumbers and electricians, so there is a need for us to go down the vocational route as well, to ensure that we get that provision. Where do you see that going?

Good morning and happy new year to everyone. I have said that to members already, I think.

As everyone knows, I have been in and out of this committee over the past 10 or 15 years, during which time much of our debate has been about the poverty-related attainment gap. The convener was right to bring up yesterday’s debate about child poverty, and how education is part of the solution, as you have said, cabinet secretary. However, in constituencies such as mine—Paisley—that is a challenge.

Drama goes on in this place. Hyperbole has been applied even to some of the questions that we have heard today. Given all the challenges that the Government faces, where are we on dealing with the attainment gap—in plain and simple terms, cabinet secretary—and how does the budget help?