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That is a hugely important point.

The committee heard from an academic who gave very helpful and specific reasons with regard to the challenges. There was one sentence about the human cost of this. I think that we all want to have those with expertise at the table, but we must never forget the people who are affected. Everybody dealing with the topic needs to be looking in the eyes of the families who are affected. I seek assurance from the minister on that matter.

I will leave my remarks there for now.

I move amendment 124.

Our processes are the vehicle that we have in order to legislate. I draw members’ attention to the letter from Victim Support, which was signed by 65 families. It is a small number of families—thankfully—who are affected, but that letter provides access to direct lived experience, and we can see the impact. I do not think that there needs to be a whole fresh consultation. We know what the problem is, and there is access to people with lived experience. We just need a bit of urgency to get folk round the table and work our way through the issue. It is not beyond us—it cannot be beyond us.

Amendment 124, by agreement, withdrawn.

I absolutely understand what the minister is saying. Given that the children’s hearings system is a welfare system, I wonder whether restorative justice would play a part in understanding the impact that actions had had on the other child who had been harmed.

It could be said that the amendments are completely at odds with the principle of the bill and with keeping the Promise. How would you respond to that?

Minister, you laid out in detail what is available, which was certainly helpful to hear. However, the committee heard about a potential issue with children accepting referral on offence grounds without understanding what repercussions that could have for later life. The example was given that, if a child was in trouble, they could accept a referral on offence grounds, as they would be given support and intervention. It can feel like the best thing to do, and often it will be. I am not making a judgment on that, but a potential issue has been identified.

Although the answer might not be in the blanket approach of offering legal aid, would you commit to having a further look at the problem that has been highlighted to the committee? It may be that something in the existing system could be tweaked that would make it better for children who are accepting offence grounds.

Good morning to you, cabinet secretary, and your officials. I will go back to questions about colleges.

In your opening statement, you acknowledged that this is not the only financially challenging year for the public sector. We have had a decade of challenge, and that has had an impact on organisations’ resilience. Our committee has been keen to explore how arrangements could be made more flexible for colleges to help them to manage challenges. Colleges have had some financial flexibilities around the allocation and delivery of credits. At last week’s committee meeting, Graeme Dey told the committee that colleges had not made the full use of those flexibilities that was expected. Will you tell the committee a little bit more about what benefits have been seen and any issues that you are aware of colleges having faced in implementing those changes and taking advantage of those flexibilities?

That is helpful to hear. In particular, the word “urgency” will reassure the committee. Cabinet secretary, notwithstanding your previous answers about what assistance can be provided, the SFC highlighted its recent report on college finances to the committee, which said that a number of colleges will struggle to remain operational. Is the work on flexibility that is described in the report the main form of assistance that the Government and the SFC will be able to give, or can other things be done to assist?

I particularly recognise the point about the connection between schools and colleges. That has certainly been the case in North Ayrshire, with Ayrshire College and Irvine royal academy previously running some excellent programmes, although they have not necessarily been continued. I know that the approach has not been uniform across the country, but there is certainly good work that can be learned from.

Finally, on the issue of staffing, staff costs make up more than 70 per cent of college expenditure. Colleges have been running voluntary redundancy schemes, and the committee has heard that some are planning compulsory redundancies. Audit Scotland has stated that

“further ... staffing reductions ... could severely erode”

colleges’

“ability to deliver a viable curriculum.”

What is the Scottish Government’s response to the SFC’s forecast of the potential removal of 21 per cent of full-time-equivalent staff employed in the college sector?

Thank you.

Chemistry.