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Good morning. It is 10 years since Maureen McGonigle, Alison Walker and I began Scottish Women in Sport under Maureen’s leadership. One thing that was of real interest to us at that point was how girls’ physical activity dropped off at a certain age, but I see that the current position is pretty much the same. How do you address that? What action can you take to ensure that girls feel safe and welcome to participate in physical activity and school play areas?

Can I just come back in to ask a question of Caroline?

I get your answer: you have named some of the issues, but I wonder why there is variation in respect of some of those issues. You talked about elderly people thankfully living longer—he says, as a 70-year-old—but why does that vary so much from one area to the other? That is probably the main question for me.

I apologise.

Thank you, convener. I was just making sure that my microphone was off “mute”.

First of all, good morning to the panel. Why do some boards struggle more than others to achieve financial sustainability? All boards are facing significant pressures and costs, so why is there variation?

It would be good to start with one of the witnesses who is not from NHS Lothian, which has kindly explained why it thinks it has greater costs.

Thank you. Does someone else want to come in on that?

Yes. Being a grandfather—my granddaughter is now beyond that stage, thankfully, and is not having to go through all those worries—I understand what it is like at that age.

The issue came up for us 10 years ago but, 10 years on, we have almost exactly the same issues. What do society, the Government and those who are involved in sport and education need to do to try to ease the burden for young women at those ages?

This question touches on financial sustainability as well as performance. Do you think that there is a need to fundamentally transform the way in which services are delivered, or is how they are currently delivered is just fine but there is a need for some of the innovation that you have already mentioned?

Some people are saying that they will have to close their businesses; others are saying that they cannot keep staff if they cannot pay them the living wage. How do we square that circle? I would like to hear from Matthew Sweeney and then from others.

Would anyone else like to come in?

I will move on to the thorny subjects of expansion, recruitment, retention and salaries. Given the reported problems in recruitment and retention, how feasible is it to expand childcare provision at this time? That is what is going to happen, so how can the issues be addressed? Perhaps Matthew Sweeney could answer first.