 Can you invite all members to speak to the debate to press their request to speak buttons now?alingль presiding officer, I'm delighted to be opening the debate and to move the motion in my name at first, for me. I'm pleased too that there's broad support across the chamber for the motion, and indeed for 2018, the Hoggry, as we say in Gaelic, and I promise to learn the BSL and the Scots versions by the time we kick off in 2018. I'm happy to support the Labour amendment and to welcome the work of the awards network in recognising young people's achievements and encouraging volunteering. When I was a brownie leader, we had a number of young women help out while working towards the Duke of Edinburgh award, and their commitment to natural leadership qualities made my job as an adult volunteer much easier, not to mention much more fun. If there's one aspiration that I hope we might share for 2018, it would be to ensure that our young people feel and believe that they are valued, wanted and vital to our country's future, and that their voices are heard and listened to. Recent research suggests that young people today believe that others view them negatively simply because of their age. That is a real impact on their wellbeing and self-esteem. Changing perceptions of young people and changing the country's relationship with our young people must therefore be a key aim of 2018. They make a significant contribution to our society and our communities, and we should celebrate that contribution. Often, our young people are way ahead of us. I'll give you a way example. Since I became an MSP, one of the issues that I've been contacted most about is Marine litter. Long before Blue Planet 2 brought the country together on Sunday evenings, the children from Ulipol primary school were lobbying me about marine litter. They are a formidable force, especially when they team up with the ocean defenders from Sunnyside primary school in Glasgow. Not only have they together organised beach cleans, but they have been very effective in getting tourist businesses to give up plastic straws. It's been an absolute pleasure for me to watch the rest of the world coming round to their way of thinking. Since becoming a minister, I've really enjoyed meeting more of Scotland's young people. I was recently in Fife on a children's rights roads trip—gosh, quite hard to get that out—with members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, where I met a group of confident and articulate young people at Levenmouth academy and young parents from the gingerbread teenage parent project. It was a privilege to hear about their experiences. Sadly, not all of them are positive. The young mothers that I met are doing a fantastic job raising children in often difficult circumstances, so I was saddened to hear that some of them feel that they are not listened to by adult services. Those young mums spoke about taking their own mums along to health service appointments so that they get taken seriously. They need to be heard in their own right, not just for their own wellbeing, but also for their children's. I also went to Shetland to help to launch the Year of Young People, where I met dozens of enthusiastic and optimistic young people for whom next year is so important. I heard that their MSYPs have already started to attend council education meetings and that they are planning a big takeover of arts venues. For those of you who are aware of the Twitter banter between Shetland and Orkney libraries, it is the stuff of legends, so I particularly look forward to seeing how the youngsters get on with that. The First Minister travelled to Dumfries to officially launch the year. The year is a global first, a groundbreaking, themed year, which will celebrate all of our young people in Scotland wherever they live. Young people have been involved right from the start. Planning began in 2015 with hundreds of young people aged eight to 26, determining the issues that matter to them. Young people themselves have agreed the aims and objectives for 2018 and tasked government with creating a mechanism to let young people achieve them in 2018. They also agreed, after much debate, who we mean when we talk about young people for the purposes of 2018. It is everyone aged eight to 26, which does not mean that our younger children will not be included, but simply that the primary focus will be on this broad age group, who, as we know, have a diverse range of needs and interests. I want to thank young Scotland, children in Scotland and the Scottish Youth Parliament for the role that they have played in planning and preparations and I look forward to continuing to work with them throughout 2018. The year of young people also sets a challenge for government and Scottish ministers. They have committed to giving younger people a strong voice in policymaking and co-designing improvements to services that affect their lives. To this end, there are a group of dedicated 35 young people communicating who are our co-design leaders for the year. The inspiring group is ready and available to help everyone to ensure that young people are at the heart of everything that we do. There are now over 500 ambassadors based in every local authority area and I am pleased to advise Parliament that they will all receive certificates marking their contribution and achievement from the First Minister. You do not have to be an ambassador to receive a certificate. We will recognise contributions from nominated young people from right across the country throughout 2018. Young people have identified six key themes that will underpin the majority of the year's activities. The first theme is participation. We want Scotland's young people to have the confidence and skills to influence decisions, effectively and wider civic society, and to shape the future of Scotland that they want to live in. Alex Cole-Hamilton I am very grateful to the minister for taking intervention. I congratulate her on making her first speeches and minister to this chamber. In the programme for government, the First Minister outlined the plans of this Government to consider the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scotland's law as a means of extending that participation and enshrining it in every decision-making process in our country. That was very welcome, perhaps. Will the minister restate that commitment and tell us how that is pursuing? The First Minister You are right to identify that we committed to it in the programme for government, and it certainly will be a key theme of the year of young people. It is important that young people have the opportunity and the right to influence decisions made about their lives day-to-day. So, from 10 January 2018, eligible children who are aged 12 to 15 will be empowered by having largely the same rights as their older peers and parents under their additional support for learning act. That will be a particular benefit to look after children and young carers. It is perhaps unsurprising that education also emerged as a key theme. Raising standards in education is key to giving young people a platform to succeed, not just at school or in education but in life. The year of young people provides a prime opportunity for Scotland to lead the way internationally in its approach to giving young people a voice and their education and will include provisions in the education bill to that end. Young people also identified health and wellbeing as a priority theme, with mental health highlighted as a key issue. The Scottish Government has put in place a 10-year strategy to improve access to mental health services, back by an additional £150 million over five years, and it is also committed to preventative and early intervention approaches and investing in children and young people's health and wellbeing. We know that that makes a big difference to the risk of developing mental health problems, especially for children and young people. Last week, we announced the establishment of a youth commission on child and adolescent mental health. YoungScot and the Scottish Association for Mental Health are receiving funding to recruit young people with experience of mental health services to be young commissioners who will do their own research, identify issues and speak to experts, policy makers and service providers about solutions. Sport Scotland, active partners and young sports ambassadors are all embracing the year and planning activity to help young people to have active lives, because active lifestyles are also an important aspect of health and wellbeing. We look forward to a great year of sport in 2018, in particular with European championships here in Scotland in August. It might surprise some of the folk in the chamber that young people chose enterprise and regeneration as one of their key themes. That probably says more about us, I think, and those perceptions that we have about what motivates and interests young people. Why wouldn't young people want to stake in their economic future? Why wouldn't they want to use their curiosity and creativity and their innate ability to challenge and find solutions to influence our economy and their communities? Earlier this year, I visited Kinlach-Leven high school and I heard about their flourishing social enterprise, which is beautifully named Kinlach Loving, which has at its heart health and wellbeing, social inclusion and social justice. Just last month, they won the highly acclaimed Dragon's Glen prize from Lachaber Chamber of Commerce, so it's a pretty healthy business, too. We need to nurture enterprise, celebrate success and give young people a voice and say in their communities. Let's use the year of young people to better understand their interests and give them a platform to succeed. Ensuring that our young people emerge into adulthood with a strong sense of who they are, that they have talents that are appreciated and whose creativity will be encouraged and not curtailed is something that we can all agree is a desirable outcome for 2018 and beyond. Evidence from the Scottish household survey shows that people who engage in cultural activity in earlier years are more likely to participate and attend when as adults, and in turn report better health and life satisfaction than those who do not. Scotland's year of young people provides an opportunity to ensure that more young people can participate in culture and shape the future of the arts in Scotland. In line with our commitment to co-production, young people will also have a meaningful role in the development of the new cultural strategy for Scotland. Perhaps the single most important theme that young people identified upon which so much else follows is equality and discrimination. Currently, too many young people do not feel equal, nor do they feel that they are treated fairly. We already know that equality of opportunity is denied to some either because of their gender, because of poverty, sexual orientation and identity, because they are disabled or from a minority ethnic background or somehow different. We must change that. Difference must be recognised as a strength, not as a deficit, and we must encourage our young people to embrace and value difference and diversity. Clearly, there is a key role and responsibility for government here. On Sunday, we marked and celebrated international human rights day. As the First Minister said, we have come a long way in Scotland and achieved much, but there is much more that we need to do. That is how we will approach this fundamental issue in 2018, building on the good work that is already under way and facing up to challenges and no doubt some uncomfortable truths along the way. The year of young people provides a space in which to create intergenerational dialogue, to break down barriers between age groups and to ensure mutual respect and understanding. Crucially, it provides a space for parents and families to be recognised for their key role in the young people's lives. They are the most important resource and players in young people's lives, who shape the adults that our young people become. We need to value their contribution to celebrate their achievements and ensure that they feel supported, empowered and enabled. At the launch last month, the First Minister announced a busy and exciting events programme with 60 new or enhanced events across Scotland, all co-designed with young people. The programme is supported by a £1.2 million events fund that is administered by Visit Scotland. The nationwide programme, with young people at their heart, spans the country from a youth festival in Shetland, a science takeover at Helix Park, the home of the magnificent Kelpies and Scotland's biggest youth festival in Dumfries and Galloway, with more than 40,000 visitors expected over the weekend. Young people themselves have the opportunity to apply for funding to run their own events and activities throughout the year, developing skills and engaging their local communities. The Create 18 fund is still open for a second round, closing in January, so please do encourage young people from your own local area to apply. No doubt members will have noticed that I am very excited about Scotland's year of young people and the possibilities that it offers for our young people. We have the chance to show in 2018 that Scotland is a dynamic, welcoming, open and inclusive country, but perhaps the biggest opportunity and indeed challenge is to explore for ourselves and vitally to demonstrate those values to our young people. The year of young people gives us a unique, year-long opportunity to reset our relationship with our young people, to change their perceptions, to show that we believe in them and value the contribution that they make now and in the future. Presiding officer, there will be little point in the year of young people if we get to next December, put away the toolkits, pack away the activities with no fundamental shifts to point to and take forward. Changing attitudes is perhaps the single biggest ambition that we can have for 2018. We can do that by celebrating young people's achievements, holding events that put them front and centre by ensuring that we give them platforms to succeed. We must put young people, their voice and views at the heart of this activity. By pausing to listen to how young people perceive the world and how they are perceived by others, we can seek to create a better future for current and subsequent generations. That would make a fine legacy indeed for Scotland's year of young people. Thank you very much. I now call on Ian Gray to speak to and move amendment 94, 98.1, in his name. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and let me welcome Marie Todd to her place as minister to the first debate that she has led in that capacity. I am not sure if it is her civilising influence but I rise to support the Government motion and indeed to move the amendment in my name, perhaps this will not last but it is a good start. Speaking as someone for whom the personal highlight of the year was almost finished, he was receiving his bus pass, particularly pleased to slip in under the wire before Mr Yousaf could mess with the qualifying age. I cannot help but feel a little ill-placed to be helping to open a debate on the year of young people 2018. As the cliché of a grumpy old man, I feel that I should really be haranguing the youth of today for their general fecklessness, perhaps pointing out, for example, that when I was young I had to do my paper round, even on Christmas day, because those pre-smartphone days meant that we had real newspapers even on 25 December. Presiding Officer, I cannot do that, fun though it might have been, because, like every other member here and the minister herself alluded to this, my work as an MSP is constantly enlivened and enlightened by contact with the energy, empathy and achievement of those very youth of today. Individuals such as the incredible campaigner from Press and Pans, Grace Warnock, who aged 10 and suffering from Crohn's disease, launched a campaign that has revolutionised signage for accessible disabled toilets. Grace sometimes has to use these accessible toilets, and often she felt the disapproval of people around her who thought that she was not entitled to use them because she was not in a wheelchair nor did she have a disability that they could see. Rather than simply feel bad, Grace designed a new sign for accessible toilets, recognising that some disabilities are invisible and a wheelchair picture just does not cover it. She found a designer to produce the sign and, indeed, we installed the very first one right here in this Parliament building close to the public entrance. Now, Grace's sign can be seen everywhere, from airports to football grounds. A version of the sign can be seen in pretty well every supermarket in the country, too. Or, like Heather Cameron of Dunbar, a little older, a member of the youth Parliament for East Lothian and a global development goals ambassador, who has lobbied all the way to this Parliament and, indeed, to Downing Street 2 for those global goals to be pursued and achieved. But, not just individuals, groups, too, like the streets ahead children in Trinent, who, working with the children's Parliament, created together a visual vision, a mural of the future that they wanted to see for their hometown, and then took that mural and their vision all the way to present to the United Nations in Geneva, but, importantly, brought it back again to their own streets, which have already, indeed, begun to change in line with some of their ideas. So it goes on. The Amnesty Group in Dunbar Grammar School, campaigning for the rights of political prisoners across the world and the darkest corners of the world, started by the young people themselves, run by the young people themselves, promoted in the school by the young people themselves. A recharge in Trinent, a youth project, touching almost every young person in the town, delivered by generation after generation of young leaders paying on the support that they got to their younger brothers and sisters in turns. We all know—and I am sure that we will hear many examples—of the positive contribution young people are making to our communities and the year of young people is our opportunity to celebrate it. The truth is that I am, in fact, perfect to open this afternoon's debate because the obligation on older, supposedly influential curmrygens like me to begin to properly understand, acknowledge, support and, above all, listen to young people is exactly, I think, the purpose of the year of young people. To the credit of Government and all partners involved in planning the year, that has been in and of itself a good example, I think, of listening to young people, allowing them to determine the shape and purpose and programme of the year. The interim planning group, which was facilitated by children in Scotland, Young Scott and the Scottish Youth Parliament, clearly went to considerable lengths to ensure that the group's report was indeed driven by young people themselves and their aspirations for the year. I think that that augurs well for a Government programme or initiative, which perhaps will reach the parts that Government initiatives don't usually reach. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, while speaking to a group from S1, from Knox academy and my constituency who were visiting the Parliament, I was surprised to be asked in the Q&A session how much money the Government was making available for the year of young people 2018—a question to which I didn't know the answer at that point, but I asked a parliamentary question and happily have been able to provide the answer, which is, I think, a creditable £3 million, rather more than that in fact. The themes that emerged from that process—participation, education, health and wellbeing, inequality and discrimination—are all the stronger for having emerged from the regional and national workshops organised by the planning group. The overarching aim of course that the planning group had was the celebration of young people's achievements. I do think that we have to consider that in the context of the underlying concern at which I think we can see in the group's report that young people's achievements are not recognised, not acknowledged and that they face discrimination just for being young, subjected to negative stereotyping as unproductive, disrespectful or even intimidating. I made light in my opening of older people's bad and ignorant attitudes to young people, but it's no laughing matter, really. It lies at the heart of those themes for the year, leaving young people feeling unrepresented and voiceless, under-invested in when it comes to education and opportunity and even undermined in ways that can damage their very health and wellbeing. The briefing provided for today's debate from the Prince's Trust reminds us that half of young people do not believe in themselves at school and more than a quarter do not feel in control of their lives. Indeed, 16 per cent go as far as to say that they think that their life will amount to nothing. The year of young people really has to be seriously about changing those negative attitudes and beginning to turn around that intergenerational discrimination, which can be so harmful to young people and their life chances. That's, as the minister said, a big change in culture and attitude, and it won't happen in one year. Barnardo Scotland, in its message to MSPs for today, makes the point that the year must have a legacy. Some of that is about redoubling our efforts on core priorities for the Government and the Parliament as a whole, whether it's raising educational attainment and cutting the attainment gap, for example. However, it is also about finding new ways to embed the recognition of young people's achievements in society more widely so that they are recognised, respected, understood and rewarded. That's the thrust of our amendment. We have a platform already for recognising young people's achievements in the awards network. That allows recognition of informal opportunity through schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards, the John Muir awards, Scouts, Boys Brigade, the Brownies, as Mr Todd brought up. All of those things can be recognised through the awards network. However, it is a work in progress, and awards need to be much more rigorously placed on the SCQF framework. The scope needs to be widened to include more schemes and good quality, but perhaps less formal achievements in volunteering and work experience, etc. Then, we need to find a way to pool every young person's achievements together—exam results, yes, but also youth awards, volunteering, work, all of it in the round—and present it in a way that employers, higher education, further education and society more generally recognise value and acknowledge. We have, for example, suggested a graduation certificate for all 18-year-olds after the ideas of ex-headteacher Danny Murphy from Stirling, but there may well be other ways. Such a mechanism would include exams that are already respected and recognised, but it would also place alongside them, with the same esteem, those other experiences and achievements, too. John Swinney. I am grateful to Mr Gray for giving way, because I agree entirely with the direction of his comments that he has made about the broader recognition of achievement. I highlight and indicate the willingness of the Government to engage constructively about how we can use the year of young people to perhaps better record and capture for the benefit of young people and society the very achievements that he has raised in the debate today. Iain Gray. I think that that is very welcome to hear from the education sector. Certainly, we did try to couch our amendment in broad terms, rather than a very particular proposal. It is an example of how we might do this. The key is that we try to find ways to celebrate young people's achievements not just next year, but every year. The minister made that point. Achievements that mark the whole breadth and diversity of young persons' activity in action and not just those who come with an exam certificate attached. For too long, those exam passes have been the only kind of young person's achievement for which they have been given respect and acknowledgement in which we have paid attention, too. The year of young people really is a good chance to change that, and not just for one year, but for the future. Thank you very much, and I call on Michelle Ballantyne to open for the Conservative Party. Presiding Officer, I am glad to be opening the debate for the Scottish Conservatives today. First of all, I welcome Marie Todd to her position as minister for children and young people. It is good to hear you speaking today. In that spirit of togetherness, we will also be supporting your motion and the amendment. The reason for that is that our young people are a talented, diverse and intelligent group who are the future of our country, and it seems only appropriate that we should celebrate their contribution to our society. Speaking as someone who has spent a large part of their career working with young people and as the mother of six children, I never fail to be surprised by their achievements and particularly by their ingenuity. Their ability to adapt and their enthusiasm to learn is never-ending in the right circumstances. That is precisely what the year of young people hopes to highlight. It provides a platform for young people to have their views heard and acted upon, and it helps to develop better understanding between the generations. It recognises the impact of teachers, youth workers and other supporting adults on young people's lives, and it creates opportunities for young people to express themselves through culture, sport and other activities. However, this is also an opportunity for young people to participate in decision making. By including young people in those choices, we encourage them to take responsibility for their actions while providing them with the skills that they need to succeed in later life. That is why I welcome the role that young people have played in the creation of their year. Designing it, promoting it and running it, the level of participation is staggering, and I have no doubt that it will prove to be a rewarding experience for all those involved. However, there is more to this year than just celebration, I think. One of the official themes, as Marie pointed out, is equality, the one that came through very strongly. Everyone in Scotland deserves the right to go about their daily life free from discrimination and abuse. Sadly, it is all too easy to still discover prejudice and bullying in our schools and communities. I would like to touch upon the story of Samina Dean, a youth worker with the grassroots organisation, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities. Speaking to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee last year, Samina highlighted the growing level of Islamophobia faced by Muslim children in Scottish schools. In her survey of 100 Muslim children, Samina found that 6 per cent of those in high school and 14 per cent of those in primary school had experienced physical Islamophobia, including being punched, kicked, pushed and having their hijabs pulled off. Whether it is sexuality, disability, gender or body image, children and young adults are routinely subject to abuse if they are perceived to be different. In Stonewall's recent school report, Scotland, the charity identified that 48 per cent of LGBT youth young people are bullied for being LGBT at school, while enthused 2016 attributes towards LGBT in Scottish education survey over a fifth of LGBT youth in Scotland attempted suicide at least once as a result of prejudice-based bullying. This is a year where we have an opportunity, as Marie Todd rightly pointed out, to change attitudes and our young people are going to lead, I hope, on doing that. I really welcome the Scottish Government's objectives laid down in the national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland's children and young people, but it is clear that there remain entrenched issues within our schools that must urgently be addressed. In a year that we intend to celebrate the confidence, diversity and equality of our young people, those numbers are more than a stilistical blip. They are indicative of a deep-rooted culture of bullying in our schools and I hope that this year we will see some change take place in that. In this year of young people there is also an emphasis on understanding and reinforcing the importance of mental health. We need to make sure that we understand the causal factors and have timely and appropriate support in place to prevent the deterioration of mental health and wellbeing. In the age of social media, where an image can be shared to an entire class in an instant, the mental health of our young people can come under attack anywhere, anytime and who better to lead us and guide us in addressing some of these issues than young people themselves. For the last 12 years I have been actively involved with charities that support young people with mental health issues and the lack of preventative and early intervention funding to support mental health and wellbeing in children and young people has been a constant source of frustration and I apologise for this in your speech of children and young people but Scotland has fallen behind England on this one with Sam H calling for leading calls for CAMHS funding to be increased threefold just to bring it in line with England. Last week I was privileged to attend the core of foundations reception everyone has a story it is those voices those young people whose lives and mental health has been blighted through circumstances beyond their control young people who have found the courage and the support to tell their stories through art through photography and through film young people who are not looking for awards not looking for acknowledgement but looking for the strength to meet the challenges that life brings we must remember in the year of young people that celebrating success does not always mean a trophy a recording contract a great job sometimes success is just about being able to meet each day with a smile sometimes success is finding your own voice and the confidence to use it the Scottish Government has made some headway in this area by introducing their mental health strategy and we must ensure that we have the resources we need to do the job properly and prevent the future crisis from growing in closing presiding officer the year of young people 2018 is a chance for us to celebrate scotland's young children and adults and to show the world the best of what they have to offer we would do well though to remember that it is also an opportunity to reflect upon the treatment of young people and to remind us that there is still a long way to go before we can claim to have a truly equal society that values and respects all our young people regardless of orientation or identity any celebration of young people will be entirely superficial if we do not work together and work hard to tackle the deep-seated inequalities that hold our young people back i look forward to doing exactly that through 2018 and beyond thank you open debate speeches of six minutes but there is some time in hand for interventions a little bit of flexibility there i call Jenny Gilruth we fall by Oliver Mundell miss Gilruth please thank you Presiding Officer and I remind members I'm the PLO to the education secretary a while back when I could possibly still have been classified as a young person myself the singer Amy McDonald wrote a song entitled the youth of today now you will be delighted that I will not be providing the chamber with a rendition today but I will read some of the lyrics my children weren't the same my children's children they're the ones to blame in my day we were better behaved but it's not your day no more or for the bulk of you who are not of my vintage just another brick in the wall so next year we mark the year of the young people good in the minister's letter to all msp's last Friday she notes that the year of young people is about celebrating their achievements valuing their contribution to communities which links nicely to Labour's amendment today and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally nationally and on the international stage I visited Thornton primary school in my constituency yesterday to present awards and assembly and as will come as no surprise I love visiting schools and speaking to pupils and I really love visiting Thornton primary school because they always bring in the nursery kids and it is always from the mouth of babes that the truest words are spoken so I told them about the year of young people and I asked them what should I say today a hand shot up tell them Thornton primary school is the best in the world due to fully done another hand tell them reading is fun now I'd just been presenting awards for the first minister's reading challenge and I met Amy who's in primary six and has read 36 books since September I actually accidentally tweeted 26 so I'd just like to get on the record it was 36 since September and I stand corrected reading is fun at Thornton primary school reading is cool everyone is involved in it too so at the back of the hall we had parents and carers at the front we had st Andrews university we had fife culture and leisure trust and we had the nursery teachers who are in charge of the book bug and the peak programme all partners in the schools drive to get more kids reading and then a voice from the corner of the room tugged at the head teacher tell her about the golden rule so he did now the golden rule means that you treat others as you'd like to be treated so there is a lesson I think for every single one of us in this place from a four-year-old Thornton primary school on that issue but the fact that we have to recognise what young people do though by setting aside an entire year speaks volumes about how their voices are so often marginalised in mainstream political discourse sure we visit their schools we get a picture we ask them to design our christmas cards we attend their prize giving but do we ever really truly listen to them and when we visit those schools are we presented with the head boy and the head girl or do we speak to me Jamie who's been removed from class because there's a politician visiting for the day we can only see as much as those that we visit are prepared to show us or that we are prepared to open our eyes and look for contrast that experience with the young people in Thornton primary school then with my next visit yesterday which was hosting kindred Scotland's children with exceptional healthcare needs event in here I'm going to tell you a wee story now about Tom Tom was born with a range of complex medical issues including noosophagus and a severe cardiac defect he needs help maintaining his airways constantly Tom is deaf his parents were told he would never be able to sign but today he does sign he can also knock out quite a good drumbeat on the table in committee room six Tom's mum describes him as her miracle his mum and dad are far better trained than anyone else in terms of meeting his needs and as a result no friends or family can ever really help with his care his mum has had to as she describes it project managed Tom's care and this is purely because services don't talk to each other now presiding officer I'm sure we've all done our homework for today and we're all recall that fourth principle of graphic ensuring joined up working but it gets worse for Tom when he went to nursery the teachers were trained and supporting him but when he went up to primary school there had to be two staff fill in from the nursery and this was despite numerous planning meetings and Tom having been immersed in the graphic paperwork since before he was even three the school knew he was coming when the staffing changed mum and dad were forced to step in to school for six weeks providing medical cover because there were not enough trained staff and they were eventually unable to continue providing that cover and then you know what happened the school said they could not provide a safe space for Tom to learn so he had to stop coming to school altogether Tom hasn't been to school since the 30th of November despite his right to an education being a legal entitlement so I felt I couldn't speak today in this debate without telling his story whether it's 2018 or not every child should have the right to learn protected as outlined in the programme for government over the next year the government will audit and embed the principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child into policy and legislation that's welcome but the government must also make sure they include the rights of children like Tom in this process children who have no voice I had a look at the the list of events planned for next year so we've got Hogmanay there's the Glasgow comedy festival and a youth TEDx event to name a few but I couldn't point to the Tom on that event list Amy in Thornton primary school blew me away yesterday imagine reading 36 books in September it is truly inspiring but then a few hours later I met Tom his story changed the way that I think about how we deliver for all young people and that is what 2018 has to be about every young person Amy and Tom because if we don't then perhaps we are destined to live out the words of that Amy McDonald song but it's not our day anymore it's their year so to 2018 let's make sure we get it right for every young person thank you thank you I call Oliver Mundell followed by Ruth McGuire Mr Mundell please thank you deputy Presiding Officer I'd like to start by making a point that I feel is very important to this debate and that is that young people are not that different from anyone else they share the same hopes and ambitions for their future and the same hopes and ambitions for the future of our country as everyone else as we celebrate the year of the young people then we must place it in its context and that means recognising that it comes for many young people across Scotland on the back of 10 years of SNP failure it might not suit the government to hear it but if we are really going to recognise the issues that face young people in Scotland then we must confront those failures head on under the SNP education in Scotland has gone backwards standards have fallen and we've fallen behind many other countries from around the world yes Gillian Martin Mr Mundell I appreciate that for teachers listening to his speech you are making them feel demoralised by that kind of language Mr Mundell I thank the member for that intervention but being in this chamber through debates and hearing debates like this I start to wonder how many teachers I'm going to have to meet who raise very legitimate concerns about education that this government's going to hide behind before we get on with the job of improving education in Scotland and we mustn't forget the important role that education plays in levelling the playing field and raising aspiration for all this is a government that has decimated our college sector yet another opportunity to level the playing field and raise aspiration and attainment it's a government that has ignored the challenges in our university sector and has sat back as talented young people from across Scotland have been turned away from Scotland's best universities Cabinet Secretary is the member aware that not only have we provided free university tuition in this country we have also seen a record level of Scots attending our universities for goodness sake celebrate a success Mr Mundell I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer but I think it shows a certain arrogance because this is a government that seems content and relaxed about the fact that the number of young people from deprived backgrounds going to university in Scotland is lower than it is across the rest of the United Kingdom in terms of my own constituency I continue to be shocked by the number of young people who denied their basic human right to education through poor provision of additional support for learning young people who as we've heard from in other debates in this chamber who are informally excluded from mainstream education equally within my own dimfresher constituency I remain concerned about the number of young people who experience a lack of opportunities both in terms of employment and wider social opportunities it's not good enough to say that unemployment is low in Dumfries and Galloway because we're seeing hundreds of young people every year forced to leave the region young people who don't have the chance to raise their own family or choose to continue to live in the area they're from young people forced to head from the central forced to head to the central belt or south of the border in order to find employment opportunities I don't think anyone can pat themselves on the back when we live in a country where challenges like this exist for our young people minister taken the intervention in the highlands and islands we face very similar challenges and one of the ways that we've risen to meet those challenges and to regenerate and reverse centuries of depopulation is land reform which is not simply about land ownership but about providing opportunities for young people in the future in the carlaway state young people are members of the board planning for the future of that part of the world would you support land reform Mr Mundell I think there's obviously a wide range of issues around land reform but I think anyone who's trying to suggest that that's the biggest single issue facing young people in the south of Scotland is kidding themselves because the young people I speak to are interested in the chance to raise their own family they're interested in finding housing they're interested in finding long term meaningful skilled employment we hear time and time again that education is a top priority for this government but I think there are very few people who would acknowledge that we see that in practice instead when it comes to the year of the young people what we see is Nicholas Durgeon popping down to Dumfries for a quick photo opportunity piggybacking on the success of young people and organisations who've been working hard on some of these most difficult issues for years it's not good enough and she shouldn't get away with it deputy presiding officer the year of the young people must be more than a PR opportunity for this SNP government on a more positive note I do wish to I do wish to I do wish to play tribute to councillor Adam Wilson who was elected to Dumfries and Galloway council in May 2017 and whilst he might not be a representative from my party I do recognise the outstanding contribution he has made locally in that time not only is it important to see young faces involved in every level of our politics in pushing for and fulfilling the role of the young people's champion on the council he's ensured that some of the issues affecting young people and young voters have certainly moved up the political agenda equally I believe at the same time it's important that we recognise the efforts of all volunteers across Scotland and particularly in my case in my Dumfriesshire constituency who makes such an important contribution to the lives of young people they weren't waiting around for a special year to come before they threw themselves into youth work nor were they waiting for or looking for a pat on the back those are the people and the activities that need to be pushed to the fore and whilst one-off events are welcome there's no denying that when it comes to helping the most vulnerable young people the young people who need the most support it's the work of these third sector organisations and volunteers that makes the difference so while I recognise the sentiment behind the year of young people and the tremendous work that many do the real question for the government is will this year be about delivering real action and change it cannot and must not be allowed to be a smokescreen for the failures of this SNP government thank you thank you I call Ruth Maguire to be followed by Elaine Smith miss Maguire please thank you Presiding Officer it's going to be quite hard to follow that inspirational and uplifting six minutes but I'll give it a bash I'm really pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate as we look forward or most of us look forward to the first ever year of the young people in 2018 today's motion for debate on year of the young people offers up many different themes and things to speak about and there are quite a few different points that I'd like to contribute today firstly I wholeheartedly agree with the motion about ensuring that the views of young people are heard and acted on but it's really important here that we do actually act on what young people say they want not just on what we might want them to say their agenda won't always be the same as ours or the organisation asking for their views and that has to be okay there's no point saying that we're listening to young people's views if we only hear what we want to when I was the youth champion for North Ayrshire council and for example a topic that came up came up most when we spoke to young folk was school toilets now that might not have been what many officers and some of the councils wanted counselors wanted to champion for young people but that's what was important for them so it was important that we acted on it we have to listen to all young people as Jenny Gilruth said not just the shiny prefects and the people already engaged in the structures and organisations that allow them to share their views but those on the outside too because for any listening exercise to be truly meaningful it has to include the views of and engage with all our young people including those who some might deem hard to engage with I have to say that when I hear that phrase I ask myself and I would ask others to reflect on whether these young people are really hard to engage with or if they're just easy to ignore we have to make sure that nobody's ignored because this is going to be the year of all young people not just some of them moving on Bernardo's in their briefing paper state that one of their main hopes for 2018 is equal protection for children I share this hope and I'm pleased to reiterate my support for John Finnie's members bill to ensure equal protection for children because any nation serious about the rights and wellbeing of its children and young people simply can't condone the use of violence against them I would question the view of any adult who would defend or condone the use of violence in children not only is violence wrong it's also an utterly ineffective way of either encouraging or stopping behaviour in children so I look forward to supporting that bill when it comes before Parliament there really couldn't be a more perfect year for it to become law than during the year of the first ever year of the young people. If I may touch as well on corporate parenting our own children leave home and then come back again for longer or shorter periods as they find their feet in the world and work out what they wanted to do perhaps between finishing college and finding their first job or if relationships break down or for any other reason the point is that children with families have the safety net and the security of their parental home to fall back on when they need it and looked after children need that security too. In October the First Minister announced that care experience young people will be exempt from playing council tax that was a big step forward which has been welcomed by care leavers and charities across Scotland as it recognises the huge financial pressures faced by those young people who don't have the fall back net of a family support that we can sometimes take for granted. Of course there's still much more that we can do to be better corporate parents so I strongly welcome the wider route and branch review of the care system in Scotland that's currently underway which crucially is being driven by the voices of those who have actually experienced care. The First Minister has pledged to listen to the views of 1,000 care experienced young people over the next two years one of which will appropriately be the year of the young people. Yes, I will. Gillian Martin. Would the member agree that the taking way of housing benefit from young people has had a particular impact on care experienced young people trying to make their own way in the world? Ruth Maguire. Absolutely and I would expect anyone giving a speech that mentioned housing issues for younger people to acknowledge that as well. The year of the young people is also a good opportunity for us to remember that our communities belong to children and young people as much as they do to adults, that children and young people should be out and about, they should be seen hanging about being in their space because their community is their space as much as it is ours. Growing up in the 1980s or the olden days as my daughter calls them, the opportunity to be playing outside was something that my friends and I and my brother took for granted. Nowadays I think our tolerance has gone a bit skew if to seeing children out playing and that should concern us all. Play is what children and young people do when they follow their own ideas and interests and their own way and for their own reason. It's also frequently described as what children and young people do when they're not being told what to do by adults. It's an essential part of every child's life and it's vital for the enjoyment of childhood as well as for children's social, emotional and physical development. Reflecting its importance, a child's right to play is enshrined in the UN convention on the rights of the child, so I was pleased to read in the recent programme for government, the Scottish Government, is to undertake a comprehensive audit on how we can further embed the principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child into policy and legislation, which will include the right to play. In conclusion, children and young people are not just our future, they are present too. Next year, the first year of young people provides an excellent opportunity to reflect just on that, to celebrate what our children and young people are doing right now, to listen to their needs and views and to support them to be all they can be. I congratulate the minister on her first speech in her role and commend the Scottish Government for making 2018 the year of young people, which, as we've heard, will allow young people to showcase their many talents on a local, national and global stage. I know that we will all agree across the chamber that young Scots should be empowered to fulfil their potential, and the initiative to switch and encourage young people to come forward with their own ideas is very welcome. I think that the approaching year of young people initiative has already had a positive impact, and perhaps this is because it was designed and agreed by young people themselves across Scotland over 500. Young people have signed up to be ambassadors, and that's a great sign of their determination to make a difference in their areas, promote their ideas, and I'm pleased that many of those ambassadors have come from the central Scotland region. MSYPs, youth councils, year of young people ambassadors and hundreds of other young people will, of course, be arranging events in different areas within each local authority, and, meanwhile, each youth council, including North Lanarkshire Youth Council, is planning a specific campaign for the year ahead to run alongside the year of young people. I recently met the two MSYPs for Co-Bridge and Christen, Jack Campbell and Ryan Kelly, to discuss their priorities. One of those was the Scottish Youth Parliament's annual campaign, which this year is right here, right now, encouraging young people to learn about their rights. The minister mentioned that in her opening remarks. That campaign also hopes to inspire schools, local authorities and this Parliament to respect and promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in doing so, we can all play a part in hearing and acting upon the voices of young people, supporting them in whatever path they choose to follow and ensuring that they know that decision-making bodies in Scotland are backing them. I believe that, given the right here, right now campaign, a higher profile will fit in well with the focus of the year of young people. I was particularly pleased to learn that some primary schools in central region have won awards as rights-respecting schools, and I want to extend congratulations to them today. However, Jack Campbell did specifically raise with me the fact that it is expensive to undertake the training for that, so some schools might miss out, particularly those in more deprived areas, so I am hoping that that is perhaps something that the Scottish Government could look at helping with. Overall, the year of young people is based its ideas around six key themes, designed by young people, culture, education, participation, equality, health and wellbeing and enterprise and regeneration. Another important aim, which was mentioned by my colleague Ian Gray, is to tackle the generational gap between young people and older generations, particularly tackling the stereotypes that exist around young people. A survey recently carried out for the year of young people, which involved 1,000 adults and looked at their attitudes to 13 to 19-year-olds, and, worryingly, one of the findings reinforced the stereotype of young people being seen as lazy, irresponsible and lacking in communication skills, while that has definitely not been my experience when meeting and working with young people across central region. However, tackling those sort of attitudes is an important part of the work next year, and developing intergenerational projects will also help young people to bridge a gap in their own understanding of the challenges that are facing older generations. It is important to commend the work of the Scottish Youth Parliament and other partners of the year of young people. In particular, I think that young Scots should be applauded for facilitating the preparation of events and providing resources time, money and staff. Youth workers across the country also deserve credit for the work that they have done in getting people signed up and also making sure that information about the year of young people was made widely available to those who might be interested. That is a mainly consensual debate, so it should be. Nonetheless, we must also recognise the challenges that those working with young people are facing. At the local government committee of this Parliament last week, unison's Mark Ferguson said that cuts to local government funding have meant that youth services have been amongst the hardest hit. He went on to say that, and I am quoting him from the official report. The aspirations of children in our communities have been taken away from them because we do not have services at the level that we had before. That might have been informed by the survey of youth workers carried out last year by unison, which showed that 79 per cent have seen cuts or severe cuts to their budget as a result of cuts to council funding. Unison reports that there have been redundancies from teams that were already very small to start with, and youth workers also mentioned the standard of service that they want to deliver has been falling because the funding is not there, and 70 per cent said that their workload has increased. Those are issues that we need to take on board. We received an email yesterday from the Scottish Children's Services Coalition calling for a tripling of the budget for children and young people's mental health services. They point out that 10 per cent of young people aged between 5 to 16 have a clinically diagnosable mental health problem. They remind us that the consequences of not addressing child mental health including unemployment, homelessness and being caught up in the criminal justice system. Both of those examples remind us that cuts are impacting on services that young people rely on. I hope that we can work together to ensure that resources can better support and develop our young people so that the year of young people really can make a difference. The main objective of the year of young people is to showcase what they can do to support and empower and enable them and create more opportunities for young people to flourish and meet their full potential. It is appropriate to celebrate remarkable young people. I want to specifically mention Gemma Skelding, who came to be my guest to deliver time for reflection. Gemma was 12 years old in May when she delivered that time for reflection. A pupil at Falkirk High and her first language is BSL. She is a great example of a young person showcasing her talent. I am sure that our young Scots will all rise to the challenges of next year and enjoy their participation. I want to finish by wishing all young people taking part in the event every success for the year of young people. I also add my congratulations and best wishes to my colleague Mary Todd on her inaugural debate as a minister for childcare in early years. Some debates in the chamber are harrowing, contentious and not pleasant to take part in. This debate celebrating our future Scotland's year of young people is certainly not one of those, and I am delighted to be taking part in it. I guess the clues and the title celebrating our future, because to use a cliche, children are our future and, as Ruth Maguire said, are present too. I believe that it is our responsibility not just to selected members but as adults to do everything that we can to help them to grow up in a society that enables them to reach their full potential. Like everyone else in the chamber, I am regularly invited to visit schools to talk to the children, sometimes to tell them about the job of being an MSP and sometimes to answer pretty tricky questions from modern studies or politics students. Whether it is a primary school or high school, without exception, I have found the children to be polite, well-mannered and exceptionally knowledgeable about the world that they live in, and I am always impressed at their confidence and ability to ask mature questions. I mark contrast to my school days when talking to adults was done as little as possible and always staring at their shoes. However, I also know that life today for young people is not a bed of roses, far from it in many cases. Young people today have more pressures than previous generations in so many ways. Social media is dealing with horrendous world events such as the threat of terrorism, pressure to conform in a material world that, to some extent, robs them of a large part of their childhood. It is our responsibility to create a society for our young people to thrive and to protect our environment, such as letting them live in a frack-free Scotland, which, thankfully, we have done, and reducing air pollution and our carbon footprint. However, we must also ensure that access to mental health counselling is available quickly for those who need it. It is not an option to compromise on this, and I welcome the minister's comments on the progress in this area that has been planned. The Scottish Government is determined to make Scotland the best place in the world for children to grow up. We have started by undertaking transformational change in early years provision and attempting to close the educational attainment gap. However, there are still too many children living in poverty, and that must be tackled head on if we are to make a difference to children's lives. The child poverty bill sets out a series of targets that we must reach over the next decade, and we have established a poverty and inequality commission to provide advice to Scottish Government ministers and monitor progress on tackling poverty and inequality. We are also blessed in Scotland to have amazing children's charities such as Children First, Children in Scotland, Barnardo's, Aberlour and many more who do amazing groundbreaking work with children and families. However, I find that, very often, young people are way ahead of the game when it comes to organising and self-support, and it just takes one inspirational leader to make a huge difference to many lives. I met one of those leaders at an event that I hosted for Arthritis Research UK in Parliament last week. Her name is Charlotte Bamford, and she was diagnosed with acute arthritis at the age of 24 after years of painful tests and examinations. Charlotte was unassuming down to earth and, in a moving speech, totally devoid of self-pity, told us that, as arthritis was always perceived to be an old person's condition, she decided to start a blog to engage fellow young sufferers. There are more than 2,000 children in Scotland who suffer from arthritis, and Charlotte has become a peer mentor to many of them, despite dealing with the devastating effects that the condition has had on her life. We cannot forget the army of young carers who are a lifeline for their parents and selflessly sacrifice their own enjoyment and much of their childhood to help family members. They are simply awesome and inspiring, and we could never thank them enough for what they do in society. The speeches today have demonstrated the amazing potential of every young person, even those who have had the worst possible start in life. Early next year, I am hosting an event in Parliament to screen a film called Resilience, which highlights the ACEs initiative, ACEs standing for Adverse Childhood Experiences and the way a person's future is mapped out by them. My colleague Gail Ross is also hoping to hold a member's debate on the subject, and I urge everyone to sit up and take notice of the evidence and research that has been done on the subject. It is truly revolutionary and could shape the way we deal with disadvantaged young people for generations to come. In conclusion, Scotland's Year of Young People is a celebration of all the amazing contributions that our young people make to society. It must create a legacy where young people are listened to so that, in effect, every year becomes the year of the young person. We have heard the amazing line-up of events scheduled for their special year, which covers a fantastic variety of cultural education and sporting events. I hope that everyone who takes part absolutely has the time of their life. I wish every young person the very best of years, next year and every year, because their time is now. I would like to congratulate the minister for making such a positive first contribution in her new role. For reasons that are probably obvious, I am quite excited about Scotland's Year of Young People in 2018. Campaigning for enhanced rights and a greater role for young people in our society is something that I have been involved with for almost a decade now, which signals to me that perhaps my time as a young person is far closer to coming to an end than when it started. I am going to make the most of being the youngest member of this Parliament in our national year of young people. My personal journey in Scottish politics and public life has been shaped significantly by some of the organisations that work every day to make this a better country for children and young people to live in, none more so than the Scottish Youth Parliament. When I was elected there in 2011, we did not have votes at 16. We did not have equal marriage or a commitment to the living wage across the public sector, regardless of a worker's age. Now, in no small part down to the work of the youth Parliament, those are all a reality. In the last few days, the SNP has launched its Right Here, Right Now campaign, which other members have mentioned, focusing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and on the aim of seeing it embedded into Scotland's law. I am in no doubt that the work of the youth Parliament across the 18 years of devolution also played a role in convincing voters in the west of Scotland that they could place their trust in me as a 21-year-old to be their voice here in Parliament. Although my age is not my only defined feature, I am quite sure that it is not the one that frustrates my colleagues the most. I would hope that, when I speak for my generation, others will listen and appreciate the reality for young people in Scotland across Europe and globally in 2018. We are right today to celebrate the progress that we have made, but tonight, nearly one in four children in Scotland will go to bed in poverty. This week across the UK, over a million people will go to work on a zero-hours contract. That is up from less than 170,000 in 2010, and it is disproportionately affecting young people. Over one third of that million are aged between 16 and 24. I know many of them. With 8,000 people sleeping out in Edinburgh this weekend, including the Deputy First Minister and a number of other MSPs, to raise the issue of rough sleeping and homelessness in plummeting temperatures, Centrepoint, a leading homelessness charity, has pointed out the link between zero-hours contracts and young people becoming homeless, often due to landlords refusing to accept anyone who is working on zero-hours, but it is not just zero-hours exploitation. More than one in five people, young people have been paid below the minimum wage, which itself is a poverty wage and, of course, is scandalously lower for the youngest workers. Colleagues working side by side can be paid significantly less for doing the same work simply because they are young. Millennials in the UK are likely to be the first generation since the war to earn less over the course of our lives than our parents did. The Resolution Foundation estimates that a typical 20-something today earns £8,000 less than a person of the generation before us. Elaine Smith I thank the member for taking intervention. I wonder if the member would commend the young people's trade union organisation better than zero, as I would wish to. Absolutely. I am grateful for that intervention from Elaine Smith. I think that better than zero has been an inspiring example of where young people can come together collectively and fight and win for their rights. Winning significant achievements for young people being exploited across Scotland, particularly in the hospitality sector. Not at this moment, but I will a little bit later, thank you. However, if you add to that the average house price being six times the average wage, which is much higher than the average young person's wage and the explosion in the price of private rents, we have a generation priced out of independent living. That is one in four, 18 to 13-year-olds have been forced to move back in with their family. I will take an intervention from Michelle Ballantyne at this point. Michelle Ballantyne I was listening to that with interest. I am wondering about what you are going to say to all the students at university who use flexible working either through zero-hours contracts, particularly in the hospitality trade, to help to pay the way through university, including, I have to say, three of my own children who benefited enormously from it. Ross Greer Zero hours work is exploitation. Poverty pay is exploitation. This is taking advantage of young people who are forced into those circumstances. If Ms Ballantyne wants to continue speaking, she should do the standard intervention— Ms Ballantyne, intervention is not heckling, thank you. Generational inequality isn't unique to the UK, though. The single greatest act of generational inequality is playing out across the world today. The climate crisis was not long ago something that we talked about in terms of the world left to my generation's grandchildren. Then it was our children and now it's to us today, watching our world start to slip away. Every tax cut for oil companies, every extension to the life of creaking fossil fuel power stations, every new capital project that drives private car use rather than public transport infrastructure—those are acts of generational betrayal, and we will not have the time to pick up the pieces of mistakes made by those who came before us. The climate science is now very clear. If we do not solve this crisis now, in the next five years, in the lifetime of this Parliament, it will not be solved. The feedback groups of global warming causing melting ice in permafrost, which in turn themselves caused more melting ice in permafrost, releasing more CO2 or burning rainforests, losing as valuable carbon sinks, are examples not only of abstract theory of planetary peril but of a live occurring event whose consequences we feel now in which my generation will feel throughout our adult lives. Whether it's the Hollywood stars of Los Angeles whose houses are burning as we speak or the young climate refugee from Ghana that I met at the door to Europe in Lampedusa, the climate crisis affects us all, but it affects the poorest and the youngest the most. What my generation and those who follow need and deserve is a new martial plan, not to rebuild a continent after war but to save the world from a level of devastation we will not be able to repair. Experience has taught us that real change is rarely given from above. It has to be seized, so whether you're a young person thinking of running for office, of going to your first rally or of taking part in direct action, please do not hesitate. You're powerful and your voice and your actions add weight to the thousands of others in this country and the millions of others across the world fighting for justice, social, economic, environmental, racial, gender, generational and the many other struggles that we must fight before our time is out, so please join this fight and help us win. Let 2018 be the year that we reclaimed our future. It's often easy to forget Ross Greer's relatively junior years given the consistent quality of excellence in his speeches that he often brings to this chamber. I'd like to start by reminding the chamber of my previous role as convener of the Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights. I'm also very grateful to Marie Todd for using her inaugural debate today as Minister for Children and Young People to allow this Parliament to consider that important reality of the year of young people, which will commence in January. I'm also grateful, too, for the consensual tone that they've sought to adopt in the motion before us, which has been mirrored in much of the debate today. Emotions such as this one can really bring out the best in this Parliament. They remind us of our common values and our shared objectives. They provide a sense of purpose, which picks up the challenge of Nelson Mandela when he stated that there can be no keener reflection of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its young. I don't think that there is a soul among us who does not share this Government's ambition to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up. That intent has been manifest in the many times that this chamber has put aside the discord of party lines to move mountains in pursuit of that aim. In recognition of that, I would like to put on record my thanks to colleagues from across this chamber who have worked in unison to bring forward meaningful change in our communities for our most vulnerable young people through the increase in the age of leaving care to 21, in lifting the age of criminal responsibility and ending indiscriminate use of stop and search, in the extension of the franchise to 16-year-olds, in additional provision to Scotland's young carers and in the common ground established around John Finnie's private member's bill to end the physical punishment of children in our society. That is a powerful index of progressive change that represents the best that this Parliament can achieve when we put our differences aside. Presiding Officer, the year of young people that lies ahead should also serve to focus our attention on those many frontiers against whom all of us are still coming up short. Although the tenor of this debate is such that, on this occasion, I shall not ascribe particular blame in this regard, we all do well to remember those young people in health boards across this country, in some cases waiting two years and more for first-line treatment in child and adolescent mental health services, to those subjected to online exploitation, abuse and bullying, those victims of child trafficking forced to work in cannabis cultivation, nail bars and the sex industry, sometimes in slave-like conditions, those dispelled from areas in our communities through the use of high-frequency yet still legal mosquito devices, and those young people with additional support needs who, after waiting a long time for diagnosis, are still met with inadequate provision. However, it is for our young people in and on the edge of Scotland's care system that I will concentrate the remainder of my remarks. The life outcomes of the 15,000 children and young people who, on any given day, will find themselves in this country's care are demonstrably the worst of nearly any demographic in our society. So much so that I would go so far as to say that it is high time that this Parliament considers them for treatment in the context of other protected characteristics. That guarantee of after-care support at the age of 25 and the extension of continuing care to 21 has been an excellent start, but we need to do more. It is certainly my hope that the review that we are currently undertaking will see those who teach them, treat them and interact with them in any way are aware of the very specific realities that trauma, attachment disorder and loss can do to stalk their progress and development. One of the most significant recommendations in the recent review that was published by Sir Harry Burns into the targets that we employ in the health service was that we should be routinely capturing the extent and nature of adverse childhood events, and so to form a holistic response to that reality. Armed with that knowledge, when it comes, we need to ensure that we have a network of trauma recovery services and a trauma-informed approach that supports young people throughout their development. I welcome the distance that is travelled by this Parliament. I offer my co-operation and that of those benches to join efforts to address those frontiers without precondition. I recognise the will that exists across this chamber. If I may say so, Presiding Officer, to hear the First Minister make space in her speech on the programme for government to actively give voice to the possibility of incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scottish Law, which had been dismissed out of hand in the last session, is a measure of the progress that our nation is making in bringing us closer to realising the rights of young people and in giving them a meaningful voice in the life of this country. I thank her for it, and that is why I sought the minister to restate that commitment in her opening remarks. In shrining in law, the need for decision makers to actively listen to the voices of young people will help us to go some way to answering the challenge that was described by American futurist Alvin Toffler when he said that the secret message that is communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, but that society will run itself quite nicely until they, at some distant point in the future, will take over the reins. The fact is that the society is not running itself nicely because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. I leave you with those powerful words and assure both the Government and the Labour Party of our support tonight. I am pleased to contribute to today's debate to celebrating the contributions of young people to their communities throughout Scotland. I also congratulate Minister Marie Todd on her first debate this afternoon. In De Friesen Galloway, the difference our young people make to the region is so important. It is supporting their communities by helping others and organising cultural events. As an MSP, I am lucky to spend a significant amount of time of my time with young folk. One of the best parts of my job is visiting schools across the region or welcoming school kids to Parliament to talk to them about what I do. This year, I visited Hoddon primary at Echo Fecan and I participated in the daily mile. We were promoting active travel, which is one of our Scottish Government commitments. I wish out for Lockerbie academy as well. The kids there are quite bright in the modern studies advanced class, and I have also been able to visit Douglas York, Carginbridge and Kirkcwbryd primary schools. I met the modern studies class to pick my brains about the political processes in Scotland. On Friday, I encountered the boys brigade group at Traqueer to say that they were excited is a complete understatement. I am consistently impressed by the quality of the questions, the knowledge and the insight of those young students. They are quite clever, and I look forward to having them in the chamber in the future, as MSPs represent our country. I always come away from those visits with optimism about Scotland's future in the capable hands of this generation of young people. In rural areas, it can be difficult for young people to find opportunities for employment, so it is vital that we empower them to explore career opportunities on their doorstep. The partnership between a local forestry company, Jaspy Wilson and Delbeaty High School is a positive example of how local businesses can help to do that. Last year, I joined employability and training minister Jamie Hepburn to visit the Delbeaty firm and look at their machinery business and learn about apprenticeships and training and the provision of education in rural areas. Mr Hepburn met apprentices and we found out more about the company's partnership with Delbeaty High School, which has allowed the local young people to gain practical experience of forestry engineering business and remain in the area. Offering our young people meaningful training opportunities in local businesses is vital to our region's economy and will address national skills shortages in some important areas of activity, particularly engineering. I am pleased to have Scotland's rural college campus in my area as well, providing vital training opportunities as well. The SRUC was recently awarded the Queen's Anniversary prize for higher and further education for a world-leading research into genetics of the dairy kai at the Crichton campus site in Dumfries. The work was supported by the Scottish Government throughout the environment, agriculture and food strategic research programme. With the study today estimated to have benefited the British dairy industry by more than £400 million. The arts, culture and heritage also play a vital role in the region and young people are the driving force behind many of our big cultural events. Almost a month ago, the First Minister visited the Oasis Youth Centre in Dumfries to formally launch the Government's year of young people 2018. Minister Todd has mentioned that already. The launch in Dumfries was in tribute to the fantastic job that the young people and youth workers did putting together the programme of events, which I understand will contribute significantly to the year's overall programme of activities. Part of the First Minister's visit, and it was not just a photo op, was to be able to look at the hard-hitting interactive youth information experience called the tune. It is designed and delivered by the young people, for the young people. The visit was a genuine experience by the First Minister. The youth engagement element of the youth festival brings a new twist on dealing with issues that affect young people's lives. Topics addressed have included domestic abuse, poverty, alcohol and sectarianism. More than 50 local young people volunteered to be involved and will be working all year to put together the award-winning educational experience. Youth Beats is Scotland's largest free youth music event and is back in 2018 to celebrate the festival's 10th anniversary and the year of young people. Running over two days with six different fringe events, the 2018 festival will focus on encouraging as many young people as possible to participate. The festival is so exceptional because it is organised and shaped by the volunteers. In Dumfries, we are also privileged to have the home of the new national centre for children's literature and storytelling at Montbray. It is the birthplace of Peter Pan. In September, I joined Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop to visit the site and work began to transform the house where J.M. Barry's inspiration for Peter Pan occurred, and the house will be opening at the end of 2018, as marked in the year of young people. Montbray will contribute to the economic regeneration of Dumfries by directly creating new jobs and providing cultural and employment opportunities for young people. It is a global first. The year of young people will give our nation's young people a stronger voice on issues that affect their lives and will recognise the important contribution that they make to our country. Vitally, it is the young people themselves who have decided upon the aims, objectives and outcomes for the year and are at the very heart of planning and decision making. So I wish every young person success for next year and for the future and look forward to next year, 2018, as the year of young people. Thank you. I know that you referred to the minister as Minister Todd. I wouldn't want that to become the conventional way of addressing the year as Cabinet Secretary Hyslop and so on. I think that it was a slip of the tongue. Brian Whittle will be followed by Stuart Stevenson, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. First, I would like to bring members' attention to my declaration of interest, and I am a board member of the West of Scotland NSPCC. I would also like to welcome Marie Todd to her ministerial role. In her time in here, I have always enjoyed our interactions and sometimes robust discussions, although we do not necessarily agree on everything. I have genuine respect for the passion that you bring to this role. Finally, I would like to remind the minister when we are having those interactions in the chamber. Just remember who looks after you on the parliamentary rugby pitch. I am delighted to be able to contribute to this debate to the Deputy Presiding Officer, although I would suggest that every year should be the year of young people. I think that it is a great idea to bring a focus to their challenges and opportunities that they face in today's society. You will not be surprised to hear that I want to focus my contribution today on the importance of access to opportunity—oportunity to participate, to find an interest, a passion, whether that be in school time or otherwise—access to art, culture, drama, sport and activity. I have always thought that, when we were young, the world was full of opportunity. Anything is possible, and it is only when we grow a bit older that the adults get in the way of that ambition. They start to curtail that free thinking that we start to think about the limitations. While I was sitting here, I have to say what popped into my mind. My youngest grandson, five years old at school, was a visit by a placement, and he was asked—I don't know what the class was asked—what animals the police use in their day-to-day life. Very confidently, he threw his hand up in the air and said, giraffe. That kind of thinking that I like should be part of the police big cause, and his explanation was that they could see in through the top window. That is the kind of thinking that I like. Ambitions are shaped by the experience that we are exposed to and the opportunities that are available to our youth to interact and develop with their peers and learn together through trial and error, learn aspiration and self-worth, self-motivation, confidence and resilience. I have been very lucky in my life in that I have witnessed this as a coach over the past 30 years or so. I have had the pleasure of watching youngsters develop from young enthusiastic novices right through to international competitors. Much more than that, I have seen how taking part in sharing that journey with a group of like-minded people, travelling and meeting new people, learning to lose and striving to win, has shaped them as people. The vast majority of those who participate, of course, do not get to the headaches of international sport, but their drive to improving their ultimate success and improving their own performance helps to embed that confidence and resilience, that inspiration and that work ethic and aspiration that provides to the rest of their lives on and on going. That outcome is, of course, true for whatever activity they find a passion for, be it in academia, art, drama, sport or activity, and that is that they foster that kind of can-do attitude. It is all the more important when we hear, as Ian Gray has mentioned, from the Prince's Trust, who tells us that about half of young people say that they did not believe in themselves at school and that more than a quarter do not feel in control of their lives. That is exactly what activity such as the Prince's Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh programme does, which is why I was particularly dismayed, to hear that the South Ayrshire Council's plan to dump the Duke of Edinburgh programme in cut outdoor learning, increase playing field fees and close more activity centres. In my view, it is ripping the heart out of communities and exacerbating the healthy qualities that we want to tackle in feeding the attainment gap. To participate these days, it is more likely that a young person will need to travel, which excludes far too many. To be successful in this, we need to address the barriers to participation, not flipping that on its head to make access easier. For example, we need to look at the cost of participation to which travelling to venues is related. It used to be that an impromptu game of football—I have to say that Ruth Maguire walks back into the chamber here, saying to me that the 80s were the olden days. You have made a happy man very old, because I go back much further than that. It used to be that an impromptu game of football took a ball, jumpers for goalposts and a bit of open ground. Now, the no-ball game signs prevail, and it is now so often the case to play an ultramodern 4G pitch that must be booked in advance and paid for. Twenty-a-side football in the playground with a tennis ball is a thing of the past, now that health and safety, in my view, has gone mad. Extra-curricular activities have never recovered from their decimation in the mid-80s, for the options available to participate were wide and varied. I would advocate that the best assets we currently have to offer opportunity for all lies in the school estate. I have always thought that it is counterintuitive to have children leave school at the end of the day, where many of the great facilities are, only to have to get somewhere else in order to take part. Why not keep the school facilities open after school and before school for that matter? That is where the youth are after all. Stop waiting for the mountain to come to Mohammed or organise an opportunity where the audience is. In my experience, if the opportunity to participate exists, there will be no shortage of takers investing in them and you will get it back tenfold. Moreover, if we can get our youth more active, we will have a direct impact on the health of our nation and the future nation. Part of any mental health strategy, obesity and diet strategy has to be in allowing our youth to live an active healthy life. Sam H and Mental Health Scotland and even the Sam marathons have advocated inclusivity and physical activities having a hugely positive impact on poor mental health. Add-in physical health issues such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal conditions, cardiovascular disease, stroke, drug and alcohol addiction, and we see a huge implication for the health service, not to mention welfare and justice. The earlier opportunities to participate are offered, the better the potential outcomes. If there are children from less affluent backgrounds already two years behind by the time they reach primary school age, why are we waiting until they get to school age before attempting to redress the situation? In conclusion, I welcome this debate and designating 2018 as the year of the young people. It gives us the opportunity to focus thoughts and ideas that are developing the very best opportunities for those in our society who will go into shape of our society. As always, I will take just a little bit more forethought and bravery from this place to implement this type of politics. It is time that we properly invested in our youth to open their eyes to the opportunity rather than stifle their ambition to give them the courage of their conviction and allow them to spread their wings and fly. I call Stuart Stevenson to be followed by Daniel Johnson. Presiding Officer, it is one of the great paradoxes of life that when you are a youngster, you cannot wait to grow up. When you get to my age, you wish you were a youngster. Of course, I am a member of SNP youth, admittedly an honorary member of SNP youth, but I still think, I hope, like a young person. Therefore, I am stepping up to the plate to thoroughly enjoy the year of young people. It is a wonderful initiative for people like me and, for that matter, like the ever-young Ian Gray, who is doing himself far too far down by referring to his bus pass. I have had four of them so far. The key point is—the serious point is—that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Ross Greer has said that. Alex Cole-Hamilton has said that. People around the chamber have said that. The campaign that we are embarking on for 2018 is an opportunity for young people to be heard and for their achievements to be recognised throughout Scotland. The events will be in all parts of our country, provide opportunities for people—yes, let's revert to type—adults like me and youngsters. We will see ingenuity of a character that we often don't suspect is there. Brian Whittle referred to using giraffes as police aids, police animals. I visited King Edward school. I, like others, love visiting schools, particularly primary schools, I must say. The headteacher in this quite small school, the whole school sitting there in one gymnasium, said that Mr Stevenson is here to answer all your questions. I said, I know all the answers. So what immediately happened? Somebody puts their hand up at the back of the class and says, what's my brother's name? So the youngsters will always beat the oldsters, every opportunity that comes along. Stuart Stevenson has put back in his box where he properly deserves to be. Ingenuity, intelligence. I do love it when the Tories applaud something. I've said, could the other benches please do it too on a cross-party basis? Thank you very much, Mr Cole-Hamilton. However, the reality is that our young people are a tremendous investment that we're making in our future and with good reason. I want to say a few words about the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. It's one of the north-east's superb cultural events. It's a yearly occurrence in the north-east that brings together youth from around the world to perform, showcase their talents and build bridges between nations. It includes dance, theatre, musical and other performances. It's been going since 1973, so it's not something that's just appeared. The minister appears to be suggesting even before she was born, and I believe her. It's hosted over 30,000 young people from across the globe. This year's festival includes performers from Italy, Jamaica, Ukraine, Morocco, Spain, Cuba and Russia, the Ivory Coast, Iceland, India, China, Norway, Brazil, Zimbabwe and even that distant outpost of civilisation at the USA. Of course, there will be a few locals from the north-east and across Scotland coming as well. It also provides, besides pure entertainment, educational opportunities, classes and workshops to allow people to learn. It's been a vibrant part of north-east life for a very long time. Last nine days, so it's a substantial event, and historically it's been funded in a large part by the Aberdeen Council. It's been supported throughout its history by the former Conservative member of the Parliament, Dr Dynette Milne, and properly so. In the present circumstance, I hope that she will speak to her colleagues in Aberdeen Council who are looking at withdrawing the finance from them. I'm disappointed that Oliver Mundell is not here because he could take a real action. He gave us none whatsoever to his complaints by talking to his colleagues in Aberdeen. I'm sure that we'll get to the right place and this debate and perhaps what we are saying here should be part of encouraging the council to have another thing. They've not formally made the decision yet, but I understand that they've made it in private. Now, there's been a survey that shows that what us wrinklies think of young people is not that favourable. 25 per cent are lazy, a third are responsible and 40 per cent are poor communicators. I must say that I don't see that at all. When I was a youngster at primary school, my communication skills were almost zero compared to the generation that now can speak and engage with us in a tremendous way. The young people of skills with the modern technologies that us older people lack can be quite scary and almost quite threatening, but it's absolutely necessary for the modern world. The power of the young to lead in schools across Scotland was seeing the climate change challenge being picked up by youngsters at school who got home and persuaded their parents and other adults they meet. That is an inspiration that we should recognise. I myself love spending time with young people. I'll be having lunch with my six-year-old goddaughter, Darcy, on Friday. On Tuesday in the Parliament here, my Danish part of my family, my great niece, Selma and her brother, Scott, will be here to brief me on what goes on in Danish politics and show that we can probably do things better. Jennifer Ruth is half my age, twice my brains. She is young, not old. She, like all young people, is the future. Daniel Johnson is followed by Gillian Martin. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The challenge has gone up from the ranks to follow that. I never could follow Stuart Stevenson. Let me add my congratulations to Marie Todd. There can be no better debate for the ministerial position than this one. The year of young people is clearly an important opportunity. In preparing for this speech, I was remarking to myself that the toughest political grilling that I have had since becoming an MSP was not anything that has happened in this chamber. It was not parliamentary hustings. It was being faced by the combined ranks of the primary sevens from South Morningside primary. When I met them six months ago, they were asking questions such as, how does the council decide how and where to build schools? What steps are the Government taking to achieve a zero-carbon economy and will they achieve it? Most importantly, how can school dinners be improved? I think that, based on the remarks from a number of people across the chamber this evening, I am not the only one who is very thankful that the school visit rooms and the lobby out there are not televised. I do not think that we would come off well at all. However, there are two realisations that I make from this. First of all, the potential and promise of young people is enormous. When I am faced with those questions and the insights, it strikes me that these young people could become anything, but they need the opportunity to do so. There are also the opinions and insights that we do well to make better use of. Those are some of the key things that I think this year provides us with the challenge and the opportunity to discuss. Indeed, Retard described that as being a year to change things for young people. I think that the insight that I will provide is that we need to ensure that that change happens in three key ways. First of all, it is ensuring that young people have a voice, that, secondly, they have the opportunities that they need, and, finally, that they have the support that they need to take those opportunities. On that first point, Michelle Ballantyne earlier remarked on the reception last week that was hosted by the Cora Foundation. She remarked on the powerful stories that we heard at that reception. However, I would go further, that the Cora Foundation's project on everyone has a story. I think that service is a very useful model about what we need to do, not just listening to those stories but embedding them into policy. The project is one where it interviewed practitioners and young people who had experienced issues in their families with addiction and how they recovered and then sought to make policy recommendations not based on statistics, not based on called policy analysis but on those experiences themselves. It strikes me that we have come a long way. We have provided votes for 16, we have the Scottish Youth Parliament, we have the Children's Commissioner, we have done a lot in terms of providing structures and platforms for young people, but we need to take that next step of embedding that experience of young people into our policy making and making sure that our policy making is relevant to those experiences in town. We also need to make sure that young people have opportunity, because the potential in and of itself is not enough. Opportunity is required in order to fulfil that potential. I think that very often our education system qualifications do not go far enough. They do not provide that broad range of experience and opportunity that Brian Whittle has outlined and indeed it does not recognise the broad range of achievements that, as we have set out in our amendment this afternoon. I think that we need to challenge ourselves to make sure that that broad range of opportunities are provided to our young people, that they are also recognised. I think that the work of the Prince's Trust is worthy of remark at this point. A number of members have mentioned them, but they are an organisation focused on making sure that young people are equipped to take opportunity and that there is a full range of opportunities at their disposal. I think that there are two programmes in particular that I have had experience of. First of all, they get into programmes that are there to help young people who might have slipped off the academic or vocational tracks through education, making sure that they have the opportunities to experience work and also develop the skills that they need to take work, and also the achieve programme, which again, of course— Gillian Martin. I thank you, Mr Johnson, for taking the intervention. Do you agree that it is important that we communicate with parents who might think that university or, indeed, colleges should be all and end all when it might be more suitable for their children to go into the modern apprenticeships? Daniel Johnson. I absolutely agree with that sentiment. The other key thing is understanding that we need to have a broad range of tracks through and through these different opportunities. I will just briefly round off what I was saying in terms of the achieve programme, which is about providing practical approaches to learning, learning in small groups for children who might otherwise struggle in a classroom environment. I think that it is these sorts of approaches that provide additional opportunities and different sorts of opportunities that are vital for young people. We also need to support young people because there are some fundamental barriers for many young people in terms of their ability to learn, ability to take opportunities. The health and wellbeing theme of the year of young people is hugely important, because, as other members have pointed out, one in four children in this country are living in poverty. That fundamental barrier is one that needs to be tackled. We are absolutely right to focus relentlessly on closing the attainment gap, but, truly, if we are going to eliminate that attainment gap, we have to eliminate poverty itself. We also have to eliminate the other issues and barriers that children have to learning. When many members have mentioned mental health, we need to make sure that there are adequate mental health provision counsellors in schools. In particular, I would like to highlight neurodevelopmental disorders. The specific additional support need that many children have is one that creates a fundamental barrier to children learning. Every classroom will have a child with autistic spectrum disorder, dyslexia, ADHD and maybe a combination of all those three things. The fact that we have lost additional support teachers and support staff is something that we need to tackle. This year has to be both about what we need to change, but it must also be about being unflinching about recognising the gaps that we currently have and making sure that we address them. I will close at that point. I am very pleased to be speaking today on the year of young people. As young people have been the focus of my work as a former lecturer at North East Scotland College, where I worked training many young people for over 14 years, I experienced that informs a lot of what I campaign on as an MSP in this Parliament. I could give 100 speeches on that theme, but I want to use my time to highlight three current issues impacting on young people, particularly in my area. My colleague Stuart Stevenson has given a very thorough overview of the importance of the Aberdeen international youth festival to the north-east of Scotland. I, too, am deeply concerned about Aberdeen City Council's proposals to defund this important festival that has, for as long as I can remember, given so much to the young people of Aberdeen City and Shire and beyond. I am dismayed that the council has delayed the decision further, causing further anxiety to the hard-working team behind it and the other organisations who work closely with them. That delay causes unnecessary and unfair uncertainty for the festival and the young people who will be involved. I am pleased that the SNP group in Aberdeen has made a prudent decision that funding has been made available for the next two years. I am hoping that their forward thinking attitude to the festival influences those in opposition, who I think have been enormously short-sighted in that. I echo Mr Stevenson's call for Tory members to press upon their city colleagues that the festival has saved and the deed to the Labour members to speak to their former colleagues who now act as independence for now. The value of the Aberdeen international youth festival cannot be contained in a business case. Getting young people involved in culture with like-minded people from across the world is of immeasurable value. I would like to touch on the effects of the festival and the young people who live in my constituency and around the north-east. In 2017, the AIYF performers expanded work further into Aberdeenshire and Murray to expand the cultural exchange. The festival's artistic director, Stuart Aitken, is committed to broader engagement in the region. I have also experienced that personally when I worked at station house media, or SHMU, as it is known in Woodside in Aberdeen, where we engaged with young people from across Aberdeen city's regeneration areas who worked with AIYF. The students that I had were involved in filming and broadcasting festival performances. They were local young people who could see how their work could reach broad audiences and international connections of their work gave them a sense of pride and possibility for the future. Opportunities to engage with the arts and other young people from across the globe are not often available to kids from the area that SHMU engage with. AIYF offered them that experience every single year. Another example of the wider effect of AIYF is the ACE Voices, a network of creative projects, partnerships and communities involving over 6,000 people of all ages in the north-east of Scotland, UK and further afield. It is heartening to hear the positive impact of AIYF on ACE Voices. For example, the ACE Voices Youth Choir is composed of 35 to 50 young people aged 11 to 18, and they are planning to tour the USA in July 2019. The children involved come across Aberdeen city and the trip to the US has come to fruition through a long-standing partnership with the festival. The leader of ACE Voices told me that moments like these often engender. That is what he said, a wider, often invisible ripple effect across people's lives. One young person wrote a testament of her experiences with ACE and AIYF, and she said that she would give her pride and achievement, and another wrote how getting involved in ACE Voices helped her overcome bullying, which made her feel lonely, sad and without friends. As a result of being involved in ACE Voices, the young person feels better, more active and creative. The year of young people is focused on providing an opportunity to showcase the talents of all young people, including those who may be more inclined to the arts or creative industries. However, and this is my second theme, the Tory-led Aberdeenshire Council has plans to cut visiting specialist teachers. Those are teachers who often deliver subjects such as music, art, languages and sport. That will come as a blow to rural schools who may depend on outside visitors to enhance the educational opportunities for their students. I am concerned about the work of both those councils that have an impact on my area, because they are putting at risk the work of this Parliament and Government in promoting the voices of young people. Finally, I want to mention a third thing that affects all children in Scotland, young people in Scotland. I am pleased that my work in encouraging online resilience for young people will happen during the year of young people. I am working in collaboration with Young Scot and North East Scotland College. Together, we are making films that encourage young people to protect themselves from online bullying, particularly of a sexual nature, such as news for news sharing, sexting and sharing intimate images that they might later on regret in their adult lives. I am proud to be working with college students on this project. The films that they are producing are aimed at raising awareness around the dangers of sharing those types of images on social media. They include important messages around consent, sexuality and coercion. Those films can only be effective if they are made by young people for young people. That is a very strong theme that comes out in a lot of the speeches today, that things around young people are only going to work if they are driven by young people rather than dictated by people like us as to what they should do. I hope that members will speak in my members' debate on the issue in February and come and see the films that Nescal students have created afterwards in an event that I am hosting in the Parliament. Finally, I hope that all of us, as parliamentarians, can use this year to prioritise the important work of magnifying the voices of young people in Scotland. I urge everyone to support youth-grounded initiatives such as AIYF whenever they see them and put politicking aside and just let things flourish and play the important part that they do in our culture. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I take this opportunity, the first opportunity, to welcome my Highlands and Islands colleague, Marie Todd, to her ministerial position. I welcome this opportunity to debate the year of young people. In many ways, the experience of young people in Scotland is a difficult subject to try and capitulate. There are certain common issues, opportunities, problems and barriers that young people in particular face, but in speaking on these topics, we should not forget that we are talking about hundreds of thousands of individuals, young people with different experiences, different objectives and many who have a very different path through life. Our approach to young people collectively will be best judged by how much attention we are able to give them individually, and it is therefore welcome that young people have been included in the development of the year of young people. Their participation is key, and we ought to recognise that it is not always straightforward. Obstacles exist and a quick glance at the Scottish Government's own public attitudes to young people polling demonstrates that negative stereotypes are still a challenge for many young people across Scotland. One of the primary objectives of the year is to provide a platform for young people to have their views heard and acted upon. I recently had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Scottish Youth Parliament. They had many positive things to say, and they also raised a number of challenges that were widely agreed on, because, while they have perhaps the greatest range of opportunities of any generation before them, young people are also very conscious of the barriers and restrictions that they face too. In my region of the Highlands and Islands, young people are increasingly held back by issues around access, especially in rural and remote communities. The basics, such as transport, remain problematic. Public transport can be expensive and unreliable, restricting opportunities to training jobs, services and other issues. Barriers of experience can be just as oppressive. Asking a group of bright young MSYPs about whether they would consider setting up a business, their reaction was largely negative. Many saw the challenges and they should not be dismissed glibly, but few had positive experience of the opportunities. In Scotland, we still lag behind other parts of the UK in creating business startups, and the views of those MSPs suggest that we still have further to go to create a truly entrepreneurial society. I welcome that this is gaining some focus through what Scotland can do, which will be using the year to promote youth enterprise. Young people should have the confidence from an early stage to go out into the world and use their skills in business. That is also a generation where modern technology-led skills will be central to success. My party has campaigned in particular around STEM education, and we will continue to do so, recognising its huge importance for the future. It is also a generation where technology will become increasingly embedded in the lives of everyone from personal to professional use. Communication will be the underpinning of economic growth and development. Again, in my region, there are some of the worst parts of the UK for broadband infrastructure. Improvements are desperately needed to retain younger population in these remote and rural communities. The common thread in all of this is that Scotland's young people, regardless of where they are from or where their aspirations are, should not find Scotland a restrictive place in which to grow and develop. Governments should be able to help to support that development, where at all possible, and to make young people aware of all the opportunities available to them. Gillian Martin mentioned—I just caught it as I came in—that for some university will be their preferred destination, for others it will be college or apprenticeship. Whatever their path, many will feel pressure from parents, teachers or peers to make the right decision. That is why services such as careers guidance must deliver a personalised service where possible, which considers the real strengths of individuals, where their ambitions lie and how best to support them achieve their ambitions. There are many other areas where we can touch on today, but I would also like to consider where young people can make a difference in our democracy. With the voting age of the Scottish Parliament elections now at 16, engagement with young people has never been more important. I recall participating in several excellent events in schools earlier this year at Bray High School in Shetland, at the Scottish independence referendum at Kirkwall Grammar School and Stromnes academy, and at previous elections in Inverness and Murray. It is perhaps a cliché to say that young people often ask better questions at these events than their elders, but there is a good deal of truth in it. They ask questions because they want to know the answer, not because they are trying to make a political point. Despite the hunger for information and engagement, citizen and democracy retain that small part of the formal curriculum. Another of the year's objectives is to recognise the impact of those who work with young people, whether teachers, youth workers or significantly the army of volunteers who support community groups from sports to the arts. The value of their time and their efforts should not be underestimated. Working with young people often has far-reaching benefits. Given my very limited work with Citadel Youth Centre in Leith, I was delighted to meet a young person who is hosting up in Orkney, a young man who had attended the centre himself, and now, although he had moved to Orkney, his partner and daughter were regulars at that centre. With the events scheduled for next year, including welcome numbers outside of the Central Scotland, there will be opportunities to showcase talent, to build on skills, to engage, to create interests and to broaden horizons. We have a duty to future generations that cannot be taken lightly, so I look forward to the year of young people and hope that positive legacy is left behind after it has passed. The last of the open debate contributions is Joan McAlpin. Thank you, Presiding Officer. So many members across the chamber have taken the opportunity today to share stories of talented and selfless young people from their constituencies. Today we've crammed so many achievements into a few hours of debate, but 2018 gives Scotland a whole year to tell those stories and celebrate tens of thousands more. The Scottish Government's theme years have been extremely successful in promoting Scotland as a great place to visit with its focus on sectors and policy areas, such as our environment, food and drink and the built heritage, but the year of young people is, I would argue, even more significant than those milestones. It focuses on the most important national asset of all—the young people who will shape our country in the future. As several other members have pointed out, the year offers an opportunity to challenge stereotypes, and the Government research, quoted by others and published to Coen's side with the launch of the year, shows that most adults have positive perceptions of young people, with most finding them trustworthy and helpful, and only a minority of adults, one in four, nurse more negative. I would venture to say out-of-date perceptions. I would suggest that those adults are perhaps adults who do not have as much contact with our young people as we are privileged to have in the chamber. Still, those unrepresentative attitudes have an adverse impact on our young people, and teenagers reportedly feel that negative views based simply on their age have a detrimental effect on their self-esteem. According to a report by the Princess Trust, 28 per cent of young people do not feel in control of their lives, with 16 per cent going as far as to say that they do not believe that their lives will amount to anything, no matter how hard they have tried. We have heard today examples of initiatives right across Scotland that help young people to raise their self-esteem and challenge those perceptions, not least as Emma Harper has already described in Dumfries and Galloway, when I am told that youth groups were absolutely delighted to be picked out of all of Scotland to launch the year of young people. There are challenges, of course, as the minister has said in all rural areas, but, as well as the Oasis Centre in Dumfries, I would point to the Stove network that was funded by Creative Scotland, which has brought young people into Dumfries and Galloway and Dumfries, in particular, into redesigning their town centre and, indeed, running many of the cultural activities such as music workshops, spoken word and artistic project. Next month, the big burn supper in Dumfries will be the culmination of Scotland's winter festival programme and will involve many young people. I wanted to make this whole speech a positive and non-political one, but I feel that the sour note struck by Oliver Mundell cannot go unchallenged. Poverty and low self-esteem and limited opportunities for young people are glued together, and it is absolutely impossible to celebrate or separate the Conservative Government's welfare cuts from the challenges that young people face. I noticed that Mr Mundell's speech did not mention last month's joint statement by the Children's Commissioners for Scotland, England and Wales, asking for an urgent review of the benefits freeze and pointing to the Institute of Fiscal Studies' projection that absolute child poverty will rise four points by 2021 and relative child poverty will rise seven per cent by 2021 because of the policies of Oliver Mundell's Government, which has sanctioned the benefits of many young people, including single parents, and has cut housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds. By contrast, the Scottish Government has not only maintained educational maintenance allowance for the poorest young children, which was abolished by the Tory Government in England. We have extended it as well as creating 30,000 apprenticeships and, of course, making education free for university, including in Dumfries and Galloway, where we not only saved the Crichton campus but have expanded the numbers of young people through the Scottish funding council places. Mary Todd I thank the member for taking the intervention. I am sure that the member is absolutely well aware that the UNCRC, which Alex Cole-Hamilton talked about when he intervened on my speech, asking the Scottish Government to enshrine it in Scots law, contains article 26, which is that you have the right to help from the Government if you are poor or in need. That is not caveated by your birth order in your family. The two-child cap, which is part of the welfare reform brought in by your Government, absolutely contravenes the UNCRC. Emma Harper talked about the success of young volunteers in the region. I want to go back to the substance of the debate of praising young people by highlighting a couple of young volunteers in the region that have crossed my path. I would like to mention everyone, but you cannot do that. The first one was David Patterson, a young carer from a low-income area of Dumfries, who suffered from severe epilepsy and childhood and was bullied at school. He fundraised to go to Malawi with latitude global volunteering. He spent three months, including his 21st birthday, as a youth worker there, sharing peer-to-peer experience with African counterparts and mentoring the children there. He is back in Dumfries now, and the experience has given him so much confidence. He is now working in the care centre and has developed a successful career there. David has never once used the fact that he had a tough time as an excuse to feel sorry for himself, and instead his experiences have developed empathy and a desire to help others. The second story that I would like to tell is that of 19-year-old Shelby Watson, a wheelchair racer who was born with cerebral palsy. She is from Anandale, and she has already broken international records and collected gold medals for Scotland last year in Barcelona. She has brought world records in her class and, indeed, out with her class, as well as conducting her training. She also finds time to volunteer, and she coaches younger children and disabled children on the track in all the others that I can attest to as I attended the open day this summer. These are just two examples. There are thousands more of young people who have all over Scotland who have overcome challenges to give something back. More than anything else, I hope that 2018 will be an opportunity for us adults to say thank you to those young people for the immense contribution that they make to our national life. We now move to the closing speeches, and I call Ian Gray. Seven minutes, please, Mr Gray. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The debate today has been, as we predicted, consensual—mostly consensual, I think—probably achieved the greatest moment of consensus when the youth emeritus Stuart Stevenson announced that he was going back into his box where he deserves to be, uniting the chamber in their pleasure. I was intrigued by Mr Stevenson's confession that he has four bus passes. I don't understand if that means that he is 240 years old or that there is some small print on the bus pass that I have yet to read. However, one theme has been that we all want to use the year of young people to congratulate young people and have done much of that this afternoon. In fairness, members have taken some care not to congratulate ourselves too much. Indeed, a number of members have pointed out that we sometimes sell young people short. Alex Cole-Hamilton summed it up rather neatly, I thought, when he talked about the frontiers against which we fall short. That is true indeed. Today, we have seen education figures come out that show us that attainment gap between the richest and the rest in our schools remains very significant and has hardly changed. Mr Mundell talked a lot about some of the failings in our school and education system. I know that those on the SNP benches in particular felt that he was striking a sour note, but I remind him that he was preceded by Jenny Gilruth, who told us Tom's story about how the public services for which we are responsible had failed a young person. Ms Ballantyne talked about the lack of mental health funding for young people for CAMHS services. Again, we have seen today that one in four young people wait longer than the target time to access those services. Alex Cole-Hamilton again talked of some who wait as long as two years. Elaine Smith talked about cuts to youth work services. She is right, because for all our fine words here this afternoon, we must own up to the fact that in local government, when it comes to cuts, those services are often in the firing line, often seen as a soft option, non-statutory services that can suffer from cuts. Stuart Stevenson, would the member agree with me that today is an opportunity for us all to shoulder the burden of improving children's services across Scotland? I think that there is a recognition across the Parliament that there is more to do. Ian Gray I think that it absolutely is not truly as part of the consensus that we have struck today, and that is to everyone's credit. The other theme that has come across in the examples that members have presented to Parliament today is that sometimes the greatest achievements are in overcoming the greatest adversity. Elaine Smith talked about Gemma, whose first language is British Sign Language, who came and gave time for reflection here. Joan McAlpine just told us the story of David, who overcame bullying to work in Malawi. A number of members have talked about care-experienced young people and the very poor outcomes that they have. How much more then must we admire those such as Ashley Cameron, who's story was told in the Rapploch stories TV documentary not so long ago and who works with Kezia Dugdale in this Parliament? She turned her experience of care into a cause and a campaign for what she calls a revolution of care and love. Daniel Johnson talked about embedding young people's experience in policy-making, and you don't have to spend long with Ashley to realise that that is exactly what she is about. She doesn't just want her achievement celebrated, she wants them to change the world, and she is making that happen. Young people in my constituency in East Lothian Youth Council too undertook a documentary investigation of poverty in my county and then took that evidence that they had gained to the poverty commission set up by East Lothian Council, which is developing policy to address poverty. Young people want to change the world. Isn't that the truth that we'll be celebrating next year? That these young people are already making our world better? I confess in one moment of the debate when I was distracted by Twitter. I noticed that children in Scotland were tweeting that their LGBT ambassadors were on their way to visit Llythgo academy to meet the Gay Straight Alliance in that school and to hear about their work. I tell you, Presiding Officer, when I was at high school, the idea of a Gay Straight Alliance working to overcome discrimination would have been just unimaginable. Young people have already made our world today a better and more enlightened place. Yes, it's a good thing that we gave today's youth the chance to design their year. We have to understand that what they want is the chance to design their society. In truth, the more we let them do that, the better it will be for all of us. I call Rachael Hamilton. Around nine minutes, please, Ms Hamilton. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Whilst we're being all young and funky like cursed, I suppose that we ought to say stay social and spread the word. Hashtag Y-O-Y-P 2018. Today, I attended the cross-party group on tourism and it was regarding today's debate, which is on young people 2018. Apparently, that has never been done before. It's a world first, I believe. In a nutshell, the year of young people 2018 is an opportunity to celebrate the amazing young personalities, talents and achievers that make up Scotland. It's about inspiring our nation through its young people's ideas, attitudes and ambitions. The year-long programme events, activities and ideas will give young people in Scotland the opportunity to show the world what they're made of. The year of young people is something everyone can support young or young at hearted, as again Stevenson is, and be immensely proud. Activities will be held throughout the year, such as the university 7s being held in Melrose, or the Youth Beats Festival that Emma Harper talked about. I wish Joan McAlpine luck with the Big Burns event that's coming up in Dumfries and Galloway. Codesign is a driving principle of all the activity that we're talking about. Ian Gray spoke of the positive contribution that young people are making, using examples of many individuals and groups throughout East Lothian who are willing and active to get involved on a voluntary basis. Today, we agree that we all have a stake in reaching out and making it a success for UK millennials and young Scots to achieve the objectives that this Government has set to provide a platform for young people to have their views heard upon and acted upon, to showcase the amazing talents of our young people through events and media, to develop better understanding and co-operation and respect between generations, which Elaine Smith spoke about, which I think is very important, because getting that balance between the generations is something that would benefit older people as well. We've seen it in other countries working really well. We also recognise the impact of teachers, youth workers and other supporting adults on young people's lives and providing opportunities for young people to express themselves through culture, sport and other activities. I'd like at this point to congratulate Marie Todd on her first speech as junior minister, and she set out the key themes that were developed by young people and will guide everything that we do in this Parliament across the year. If Daniel Johnson is right, we may find that our young people do a better job than we and maybe the Government do currently. The themes that Marie Todd talked about are participation, giving young people a chance to influence decisions that affect their lives. Perhaps young people in care will tell us how we can support them throughout their development, as highlighted by Alex Cole-Hamilton. Equality and discrimination, of which I'll talk a little bit about later, education, allowing young people to have more say in their education and learning. Culture, sharing and celebrating young people's talents and contribution to Scottish culture and arts. Enterprise and generation, celebrating young people's roles in innovation, entrepreneurship and the Scottish economy, as well as making Scotland a greener and more pleasant place to live. Finally, health and wellbeing, which I will talk about in a bit, and Brian Whittle's contribution. Children are our future and we must invest in them. Children are the foundation in which we build upon. Therefore, we must never question what we can do to invest in them. We mustn't lose sight of this. Whatever may come and seek to obscure our focus. The primary focus must be our legacy as politicians to leave a good future behind for our young people. Certainly, that is my goal. We all want to help to make Scotland a better place for young people to live and work. In my constituency in the Scottish Borders, we have an issue right now in which young borders are leaving to seek opportunities and not returning. Oliver Mundell, although many of you were critical of his speech, highlighted a number of issues and frustrations about living in Dumfriesia. He talked about the lack of opportunities that he spoke of his constituents who move away and able to bring up their own families in the area that they were born and bred in. Oliver Mundell called on improvements in education and attainment. I do not think that we should be critical of Oliver Mundell doing that, because what we want is all the same. We want improved lives for young people. I will just quickly. John McAmban. We should not at least credit the fact that the Creighton campus, which was saved from closure by the SNP Government in Dumfriesia and which has expanded, is giving young people from Dumfriesia and Galloway an opportunity to study there if they wish. I thank John McAmban for that intervention. I think that it was a collaborative campaigning to save Creighton campus along with the other politicians involved. I have visited the Creighton campus myself, and it is a fantastic facility. Just going back to rural regions, it means that we are losing innovative, fresh thinking brains and talent. It means that places such as Borders and Dumfriesia are always playing catch-up. As the national records indicate, a solution has not yet been found. Jamie Halcro Johnston also spoke of problems that young people have getting around because of transport costs in rural areas. Today, there is much consensus that we should address challenges that young people face, and the Labour amendment that we support today recognises barriers in society that prevent some people from being able to fully participate in volunteering opportunities. My colleague Brian Whittle talked about his involvement as a sports coach for young people. I, too, when I can get involved in umpiring and coaching in Erlston Network Club, an extracurricular activity that relies on volunteers and gives young people confidence by teaching a skill. Brian Whittle is passionate about creating a healthy and active nation, and I support his sentiments. I recently met with Leonard Cheshire, and although he is not in the Borders yet across Scotland, he aims to help young disabled persons' skills through opportunities in their local communities that may otherwise not be afforded. Hopefully, in 2018, we will see Leonard Cheshire come to the Borders. I cannot draw attention to the work of youth Borders. Youth Borders' collaborative partnership approach to working with children and young people was recognised as best practice example in the recent joint inspection for children and young people's services. The model ensures local youth clubs are available and all of the Scottish Borders' major settlements. The model was identified as unique by the joint inspection team. I am delighted that the Scottish Government will promote the model across Scotland's community learning, development and education sectors. It is fantastic that it is overarching aim to support alternative environments where young people can thrive, grow and evolve as individuals will be spread nationally. Iain Gray and Brian Whittle mentioned the Princess Trust. It was the brief highlighting the issues that youth have finding a voice. In many ways, it has never been easier for young people to share their view, but it has become clear that some understand their voice not to be heard. Either that is because it has been drowned out or ignored, as Ruth McQuire spoke passionately about. I want, as I am sure we all do, a platform other than social media for young persons to engage on. It is our job to encourage political debate from all sides and to make sure what we do benefits young people. Michelle Ballantyne spoke about the importance of equality and the pressures on young people who are bullied. For in a world of fake news and aggressive trolls, that space is no longer the birth of great ideas. It can be a platform of abuse and bullying, indeed one that cannot really be considered safe at all. The wellbeing and mental health of our young people is absolutely essential, so 2018 may require help to find a place of safe and lively debate—a place where nobody feels threatened or intimidated. Gillian Martin talked about work that she is doing through education and through film to communicate issues that affect young people. I cannot finish with not addressing Ross Greer's comment about the hospitality industry. I feel that the Greens have never supported business. The people who provide jobs and opportunities for people, I think that hospitality offers a flexibility. It is not a nine-to-five job. It is a growing industry. It is rewarding. Training and skills are offered. It opens doors. I think that it is not a great thing to do to talk hospitality industry down, Ross Greer. I am just in my last minute of break. I do have some spare time, if you wish to. Ross Greer. Does the member support workers in the hospitality industry being paid a wage that would put them below the poverty line as almost all those on-zero hours contracts are? Rachael Hamilton I am not, Ross Greer. I am not. Could you just repeat the last bit that you said? Ross Greer. As many, most of those on-zero hours contracts are. Rachael Hamilton I absolutely do not agree with Ross Greer about the hospitality industry offering lower than minimum wage. I, as you know, own a hospitality business and I absolutely cannot understand where Ross Greer is getting this information, but if you can provide that information to me and write to me about that, it would be something that I would be happy to support because I do not believe that people should be paid lower than the minimum wage. Deputy Presiding Officer, we have heard many different passionate speeches. If the same passion is carried into 2018 and the same optimism for our young people, 2018 will be a fantastic year. There will of course be hurdles to overcome, but we must build upon the good work already done. Good work by Leonard Cheshire to skill up younger persons with disabilities, good work by youth borders that aims to help young people thrive. I am sure that we all want to accomplish many of the suggestions given today and our responsibility to make sure that we do those lies with us. I would finally like to call upon ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to share with us what they hope to achieve in the year of young people. Perhaps give us some ideas of the measurements that will show us how the objectives have been achieved. Give us some reassurances about the educational attainment, the skills shortage, creating opportunities for young people to live and work in and to stay in the area that they grew up in. Perhaps we do not always get it right and it is time to work collaboratively with young people and ensure that their voices are heard. I might be incorrect, but I believe that Rachael Hamilton omitted to declare an interest when discussing the hospitality industry. I apologise. I will check the official report just to make sure that everyone is concerned. I call in Fiona Hyslop if you would take us up to decision time, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to thank members for their contributions this afternoon. Clearly, there is a lot of support across the chamber for Scotland's year of young people and a lot of goodwill to Marie Todd in her new role. Of course, the year of young people is a global first. There is also support right across the Scottish Government. I recently led a discussion with my Cabinet colleagues about the year and focused on how we can promote engagement right across policy, including climate change and digital, to change the attitude, the culture and engagement with young people not just for one year but permanently. I was pleased to take part in last month's launch of the year. I had the pleasure of meeting with some inspiring young people at the Prince's Trust Wilson Centre in Glasgow, as well as meeting the TEDx youth who will be part of the signature event for the year, funded by event Scotland. All that build-up leads to a new way of approaching the year. It is only right that we welcome the different ethos that the year will bring. It has been developed by young people for young people. As we have heard, young people have agreed the six themes for the year, which will ensure that their views are developed as part of that year—culture, education, health and wellbeing, enterprise and regeneration, equality, diversity and participation. The activities that are currently planned are extensive, covering the entire country, but I hope that many more events will come to fruition over the next 12 months. The very first event will herald the new year, on 30 December. Events Scotland are funding a signature event. It is called hashtag scott word. It is a campaign that has involved young people discussing words that best describe what makes them proud of Scotland. Thousands will take part in the annual torchlight procession through the streets of Edinburgh on 30 December. At the end of the procession, torchbearers will spell out that one word on a huge scale, and it will symbolise how young people of Scotland feel about their country to herald in this very special year. Other cultural activities during the year include the Creator of Scotland's Year of Young People's Creative Traineeship programme, the National Theatre of Scotland is staging a Scotland-wide festival of theatre and performance that is created by young people. Jackie Kay, Scotland's national poet, Maca, is to take up residency at YoungScot. While culture is one of the six themes for the year, another key theme that many people talked about in the debate was participation. It is very important that Jenny Gilruth referred to this in her contribution that all young people have a chance to participate as part of getting it right for every child ethos that we have in the country. I want to reassure Jenny that she talked passionately about the young man whom she met, Tom. Some of the events that we talked about may be some high-profile events, but there are events throughout the year that I want to bring people's attention to. Perth and Conross have a diversity festival taking place. City of Edinburgh is working with Leonard Cheshire Disability Scotland. North Lanarkshire has hope for autism as an event. Bernardus is taking a participation group involvement in Inverclyde, and Sterling is focusing on young carers. I want to give a sense to everybody that there is something that I hope for everybody, but it is up to us to help to support them. We want young people to participate and engage, but we also want them to participate and engage in the democratic process to influence decisions that affect them. I am aware that this Parliament is planning a programme of public engagement activities that is aligned to the year to promote participation and to increase the number of young people that it engages with. I hope that members will wholeheartedly support the Parliament's year of young people activities wherever possible, and to help to ensure that young voices are heard and acted upon in all relevant aspects of committee work. What happens locally is equally as important as what is happening on a national level. All of us should endeavour to work with our young ambassadors in our own areas to support local year of young people activity, achievement and successes. It is also important that we engage with local authorities, youth work organisations, the voluntary sector, volunteers and community youth groups. All of them have a crucial role to play in delivering the aims and outcomes for the year. In my own area, we currently have 11 trades young ambassadors in West Lothian. I have applied further three to become ambassadors, two of the co-design leaders that are communicating are also from West Lothian, and I am looking forward to supporting the events that they are organising. However, it is also about challenges, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and support Alice Ferguson, the NYSP for Linlithgow, in her campaign to save instrumental music tuition in West Lothian. Her mobilisation of young people, I hope, will make sure that her voice can be heard. Of course, councils make their own decisions about culture, but we have heard from Stuart Stevenson and Gillian Martin about the international youth festival. Before I leave Linlithgow, Iain Gray talked about the Linlithgow academy, and I look forward to relaying to the previous head boy who initiated the LGBT rights issues in that academy to make sure that he is aware of the celebrations and the events that are happening today as part of that campaign. If any member wants advice about how to get involved with the year, or if he wants to know about activities, please contact the year of young people's project team in the Scottish Government to provide further information and guidance. Referring to a number of contributions, there are a number of contributions, particularly about mental health. Health and wellbeing has been one of the themes chosen by young people. Michelle Ballantyne and Elaine Smith talked about that issue in particular. Ross Greer made a very powerful case about austerity and climate change and how young people are paying the price. That was also a theme that was reflected by Joan McAlpine. I want to mention the amendment. We are very happy to support it. Iain Gray is quite right that we should make sure that we celebrate young people's wider achievements as if at all possible. We can make a point of doing that during this year. He heard the response from the Cabinet Secretary for Education in that regard in relation to his contribution. Jamie Halcro Johnston talked about enterprise. I thought that it was a very important contribution. Again, enterprise is a key opportunity during the year to encourage young people. The fact that they have identified the issue shows that there really is an appetite for young people to make sure that they can participate in that area. One of the points that came across very powerfully was the telling of the individual stories by individual MSPs. Joan McAlpine started her contribution by the point that we should be telling the stories. Perhaps that might be one of the legacies from this debate is that we could try and work with the media in particular to make sure that throughout the year individual stories of individual young people who have succeeded perhaps in facing adversity have succeeded. However, as we have heard from so many, we managed to change things by campaigning in their own area, in their own rights, some of them local and some of them global. Indeed? Rachel Hamilton Would the cabinet secretary commit to that idea and work out a strategy of maybe being able to deliver what you have just suggested? I think that I have just said that it is a good idea and that is why I am suggesting that we do that. We can do that on a national basis, but that can also happen locally. Imagine every local newspaper championing the stories of young people as well as, obviously, our nationals as well. We want to aim to create a legacy from each of our few years. As previously mentioned, we are currently engaging young people in policy-making decisions right across Government. As Brian Whittle said, every year should be a year of young people. The experiences of young people should be embedded. I think that that was a point that Daniel Johnson made. Daniel Johnson reflected on how far we have come and our votes were 16 so much we have done. However, that is part of a journey and the year of young people should be what next steps can we take as well. We need to make sure that we are achieving a long-lasting legacy beyond 2018. We want to demonstrate to young people that we are working together to support them. Collectively, we need to continue to ask what their ambitions are. How do we help to achieve them? That is their year, of course. We must actively give young people the confidence that their voices might be heard. There was so much positivity in the debate, but I am afraid that Mr Mundell made one of the most miserable contributions. So miserly was his reference to the year of young people. The ebonyzers screwed at this Christmas time and looked generous in comparison. I would point out to the Conservatives that it was the other Mr Mundell who said that it would be a miracle if the Crichton campus would be saved. As the minister who was responsible for that action, I helped to solve that miracle. However, he also ducked and dived. Oliver Mundell for highlighting the immense effort that our local Conservative MP in Dumfrieshire made in campaigning to get the Scottish Government to get serious about keeping the Crichton campus open. It is a very cheap political remark when she accuses me of politicking in this type of debate. Cabinet Secretary. But he ducked and dived and was challenged by Marie Todd about land reform and how it can yet help young people to stay in their local areas. I thought that one of the most powerful speeches was by Ruth Maguire. She said that it is not just about listening to what you want to hear. It is also about being challenged as well. Although a number of people talked about young people being our future, I think that we have to change our mindset. Young people are our present. This year is to be celebrated. We want young people to be present in our approach to Government, to Parliament, to society. As the minister said, we want young people to be front and centre in our thinking, and their time is now. Let's celebrate our young people. The young people, as Ian Gray said, enlighten and enliven us. Yes, they challenge us on a local basis and also on global issues, but this is their year. This will be their time. Their time is now. Thank you, cabinet secretary. That concludes our debate on celebrating our future. Point of order, Liam McArthur. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I wish to raise a point of order earlier this afternoon in response to my topical question about a recent audit Scotland report into Police Scotland and the SPA, and specifically the so-called Golden Goodbye received by the former SPA chief executive John Foley. The justice secretary informed the chamber that, and I quote, the SPA former chief executive retired under the terms of the SPA's early retirement scheme that covers all SPA staff rather than through any individual settlement agreement. However, I understand that the SPA has since confirmed that while 43,470 pounds of Mr Foley's payment was under the early retirement scheme, a further 56,666 was indeed a discretionary amount paid as a result of an individual agreement. It was the latter that was criticised by Audit Scotland as being in substantial part unnecessary. In light of that discrepancy, I wonder if you could advise whether the justice secretary might be invited to clarify his comments on the payments made to chief executive. Thank you very much, Mr MacArthur. As all members will know, that does not qualify as a point of order. However, it is a point that the member wishes to make. It is now on the record. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will have heard it. If the member wishes to pursue it, he can do so either in writing to the cabinet minister or in a written question, as other members would do, Mr Rumbles. It would be helpful if the Presiding Officer could explain why such a statement is not a point of order according to the chair, because I cannot see any other issue where a minister who comes before Parliament makes a statement that has clearly now been identified as not accurate. My colleague is simply asking whether the Presiding Officer would be able to invite at the earliest convenience of the minister to clarify his comments to the Parliament. I will explain to all members in case they are unaware of those matters. They are not matters for me to adjudicate on. If the member wishes to clarify an issue, there are many, many opportunities in Parliament to do so. He can intervene in a debate, he can put it in a written question, he can ask an oral question, he can put the matter in writing to a minister. If, on the other hand, the member wishes to make a complaint on an allegation, which the member did not do, he would do so under the Code of Conduct for Ministers, the ministerial code, not under the Code of Conduct for Members. I hope that that is clear. If we can now move to decision time, there are two questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that amendment 9498.1, in the name of Ian Gray, who seeks to amend motion 9498, in the name of Marie Todd, on celebrating our future Scotland's year of young people be agreed. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. The final question is that motion 9498, in the name of Marie Todd, as amended, is agreed. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. That concludes decision time and we will move to members' business, in the name of Rhoda Grant, and we will just take a few moments for members to change seats.