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I will come in at the end, convener.

Of course. I sprung that on you.

Yes.

Does anybody else want to pick up on that?

We hear you. Thank you.

Good morning. If nothing else, the bill has brought all the issues that we are discussing into sharp focus. That is hugely important, but is the bill the answer? There are criticisms that the draft legislation replicates existing duties. Are we not in danger of simply further congesting the landscape when we need to make real change? If we accept that premise, the question is: if the bill was not in front of us, could we fix the problems effectively and, if we could, what would be the priorities?

I will take the questions in a slightly different direction. We have helpfully touched on the gap between the implementation of current policies, duties and intent and the experience of young people and their families. If the witnesses have other examples, we will be delighted to hear them, but I wonder whether we can look at the matter from a slightly different perspective.

I ask the witnesses to imagine that we did not have the bill in front of us and that, after I asked the questions that I have just covered, I asked what could be done to address the matter. What could we do if we did not have the bill? For example, could we ring fence the allocation of funds to support young people through transition? Could we address in some way the point that the transition planning process does not become mandatory until six months before the event? Would it help if we changed the language in legislation from “may” and “shall” to “must”?

Those are just three ideas that I mention for you to think about. I hope that you have many others. Let us imagine that we do not have the bill and are just trying to address some of the horrendous issues that we are hearing about. What would you do?

I accept that argument to an extent, but, with respect, the NHS and other entities will always say that, if we gave them more money, they could fix the problem. From what we have heard throughout the meeting, there are some cultural and systemic problems that need to be addressed outwith purely financial resource and what flows from that. Is that not the case?

Apologies, convener.

At any stage during the budget process, did any MSPs or parties who have been asking for money for education make such suggestions to you? If they did, how did you assess those suggestions?

You chose your words very carefully there—you used phrases such as “I hope to see an improvement”. I take it that you expect progress to be made in the coming year.