 The final item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 10053 in the name of Christina McKelvie on one parent family Scotland. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I invite those members who wish to speak in this debate to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Ms McKelvie, if you are ready up to seven minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Can I take the opportunity and open in this debate to thank all colleagues across the chamber who signed the motion and supported the great work of one parent family Scotland, which allowed us to debate it today. I welcome to the gallery members of one parent family Scotland who have come through from the west to spend the afternoon with us and listened to the debate. No pressure because we need to get this right for the people who are here in the gallery today. Presiding Officer, you happen to get pregnant at 15 and your mother isn't too enam. The boyfriend has legged it and your big sister thinks you're mad to even consider having a baby. You will feel very, very alone. I was enormously impressed when, in my own constituency, I heard the stories of young single mums who'd been benefit from the mentoring of one parent family Scotland folk on its transforming lives programme. The programme really transformed lives when you meet some of the young mums at the start of the process and then you get to the award ceremony and the progress they've made, the aspirations they have, the goal-setting that they've undertaken and the really strong bonds that they've formed with the women that they have met on that journey. The young mothers that I met at Whitehill neighbourhood centre in Hamilton were a real testament to just what a difference it makes to have a really strong local support in your life. They talked about the lifelong friendships they'd formed during the programme and about how they now saw opportunities that had never crossed their minds previously. They were indeed transformed. They wanted to get out there and grab every chance they could for themselves and their children. They'd learned a whole lot about what they could do and how they could do it. They learned a lot about their own talents and their own skills and how to apply them positively. Contrary to Johann Lamont, something for nothing culture, these young women refuse to be caught in the benefit trap. They want something better than that for themselves and their children and they absolutely merit access to the agencies that can help them move forward. Their children deserve it too. Motherhood and fatherhood is hard work. Ask any of us who have been there and who have accumulated a lot of skills, resilience and problem-solving skills along the way. One Parent Family Scotland offers a whole range of advice from courses to a helpline to downloadable information packs that cover everything from separation and divorce, fuel energy advice, work, employability, education and even web safety. Their services include childcare, employability, family support and an information and advice service that can be contacted via a free phone number, which is 0808 801 0323. This Scottish Government wants every child to have the best possible start in life and an element of that is ensuring that no mum or dad is denied access to the services and support that can help them with their child to fulfil their potential. The mentoring of Margaret MacTagger, who is in the gallery tonight and she will be having a red face and I will get around for it. Her team at One Parent Family Scotland is crucial for the confidence as well as the achievement. One of the main things that I have seen at the award ceremonies that I have been at is the confidence and the trust that these young mums have developed in Margaret and her team. They absolutely trust them implicitly and take advice and guidance and support and make lifelong friendships. As Margaret MacTagger said, it is not about being smart or academic. She says that it is about real life, about having the opportunities that will allow you to make a real contribution for yourself, for your child and for your wider community too. Benefits in the UK are tightened in all the time and young mothers are an easy target for Westminster's austerity regime. The Scottish Government believes that this country's children are our future and we are proving that with our commitment to transformational childcare. That is that transformation word again, a very, very important word in this debate. Today's daily record reveals that, after speaking for the Scottish Government's input into a report and implementing the UN convention on the rights of the child, the Westminster Government then withheld the Scottish Government's position from the final report. In that final report, Westminster Government claims that welfare changes will help to reduce child poverty and completely failing to include any reference to the Scottish Government's position that Westminster's welfare cuts will only make child poverty worse. Last week, Save the Children warned that a number of children living in poverty in the UK sectorised by 41 per cent from £3.5 million to £5 million by 2020 as a result of flat wages, cuts to benefits and the rising cost of living. That is an amazing figure. That is unbelievable and you think that every single one of those £5 million is a small child. Poverty is a man-made problem, and it can be unmade too, but Westminster Government seems hell-bent in continuing its destructive policies and the children here are the biggest losers. Contrast that to the Scottish Government, already through the Children and Young People's Bill, we are increasing the available free hours to £600 a year. Come independence, the Scottish Government will go much further. If re-elected, we will introduce 1,140 hours of free childcare for preschool children. That is the equivalent of a full-school week, and it will not only help to close the attainment gap, it will help mothers and fathers to fulfil their own ambitions with the support of our society behind them. The amazing women that I met in Hamilton are excited by that prospect. They see how it can open opportunities for both them and their children. They were amazed when I told them in Norway that the economic impact of women in the workforce is equivalent to that of the country's oil income. Scotland cares about its future generations, and we want to see every child, as well as every parent, fulfilling his or her hopes and ambitions. I have no doubt that many of my colleagues across the chamber feel the same. We may disagree on the method of achieving this aspiration and transformation for our children. With a yes vote in September, we can look forward to building upon the kinds of fantastic support services that one parent family Scotland already has in place, and truly transform the lives of mums and dads, but more importantly, transform the lives of our children. Thank you very much. I now call on Malcolm Chisholm to be followed by Claire Adamson, four minutes. I would like to congratulate Christina McKelvie on bringing forward this motion and, of course, pay tribute to the work of one parent family Scotland, which I believe was founded in 1944. I certainly know, in my own experience, what a very wide range of very important work they have been doing for decades. Christina McKelvie, obviously supported, described the work that took place in her constituency. I would certainly pay tribute to the project that she described as one example of many that we could cite throughout Scotland, and certainly there are many in red. In fact, for a long time, the headquarters of one parent family Scotland was in my constituency, but unfortunately, the boundary slipped slightly, so it is now in Marco Biagi's constituency. However, I certainly, over many years, had a very close relationship, particularly when Sue Robertson was the director of one parent family Scotland, and she certainly had a very big influence on me and my thinking on those particular matters. I think that the motion at the near the beginning describes their work pretty succinctly when it says, empower Scottish families to overcome the barriers that they encounter, because if any phrase can encapsulate their work, I think that that does. Christina McKelvie described the wide range of work that she described as a family support project in her constituency, and certainly there are very many projects throughout Scotland that support particularly women. In fact, in Edinburgh, there is an Edinburgh Dad's Club, and that is certainly an area of work that one parent in Scotland has been involved in for some time as well. Again, I should pay tribute, I think, to Ian Maxwell from the central organisation who developed a lot of that work before he moved on to another post. Christina McKelvie also mentioned employability support, because most lone parents at the time that is appropriate for them want to have the opportunity to move into work, but sometimes the route to employment can be a complex one, and it may involve personal development training and so on, and a lot of one parent family's work is focused on that. They also provide flexible and affordable childcare services, including childcare at home and mobile creches, and, crucially, they provide information and advice, including their lone parent helbline. I think that I can claim a slight connection with that, because I was, believe it or not, supposed to launch this in March 2002 with J.K. Rowling. I suppose J.K. Rowling was supposed to launch it with me. She did not turn up. I was told that she was ill, so I ended up having to launch that in Scotland myself, but I am certainly pleased that it still carries on and does its excellent work. Of course, that side of information and advice has led one parent family in Scotland to get very involved in campaigning issues as well, because they know better than anyone the problems that lone parents face in clearly Christiana McElvie has highlighted at the moment the welfare changes and the child poverty, which is such an unfortunate feature of the caseload that one parent family Scotland has at present. A lot of issues, of course, have arisen because of the recent change about lone parents having to go into work and find work when they are five. Again, it is fine that some lone parents will want to find work before that if it is appropriate for them, but I think that that has caused difficulties and pressures for some parents, and it has perhaps been implemented differentially. We have had the issue of sanctions, which I have certainly come across in my constituency, sometimes in quite appalling circumstances, where a lone parent has been sanctioned for no very good reason at all. There are lots of particular issues at present, most of which, as Christina McElvie pointed out, are the responsibility of the Westminster Government. However, if I can just repeat one point that I made in the childcare debate last week, obviously because lone parents have to go into work, look for work at five, there are many lone parents who may be 25 there to even older who need to have support. The childcare academy in my constituency has drawn attention to the fact that Skills Development Scotland is providing places in that academy primarily for parents under 25, so I think that there is an issue there for Skills Development Scotland. However, the last point that I would make is also a point from the childcare centre, and that takes us back to Jobcentre Plus, because clearly when parents are in training, Jobcentre Plus needs to provide childcare support. They provide £35 a day, which is absolutely standard, but in Edinburgh, in fact, that is sometimes difficult to find childcare. Again, that is a problem for some of the lone parents who are attending the childcare academy and no doubt other training places throughout Scotland. There is a range of issues there, but I am certainly very happy to endorse the motion and pay tribute once again to one parent family in Scotland. Any thanks. I will now call on Clare Adamson to be followed by Liz Smith. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also congratulate my colleague Christina McKelvie on securing this member's debate. I apologise in advance if I do have to leave the chamber earlier as a previous commitment this evening. I may not hear the closing speeches. We all know that families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and that the make-up of families can be from a myriad of circumstances, including bereavement. However, we know that, without fear or favour, they all have a home at One Parent Family Scotland. I am particularly glad to speak about the work of One Parent Family Scotland because of the work that it does across my whole region as a central Scotland MSP. Ms McKelvie has already highlighted the work in South Lanarkshire, particularly in the Whitehill neighbourhood centre with young mothers, but I would also like to highlight a project in North Lanarkshire, the Us Together project. It is particularly aimed at single fathers who organise free activities and outings for single fathers and their children, including men who only have a part-time role in caring and may only say that their children are part of the time. I have been very moved in other debates in this chamber, and I know that my colleague Christian Allard is speaking in this debate this evening. He has highlighted some of the challenges that he has experienced as a single father, and I should be very interested in the project. It takes families off to soft play centres, swimming centre, play parks. They get a chance to meet and bond with other men who are bringing up children on their own and share their experiences. They can get, and I think that that is one of the key strengths of one parent family, is that they not only nurture the family and the emotional needs of the family, but they also help in a range of issues that affect single parents, including housing, parenting benefits, education and training, and accessing other support areas for their family. They particularly mention that that is available to fathers of all ages, because I have said that families come in all shapes and sizes. I was particularly pleased that Ms McKelvie mentioned the one-parent families helpline, which is 0808 801 0323. I mentioned it again, which is very important, because it also gives legal advice for unmarried fathers about welfare and child support issues. I think that that is an extremely important part of what the organisation does. I would also like to highlight a project in the north of my Central Scotland constituency, the Brees family support centre in Falkirk, where they have support workers there to offer one-to-one group support for single parents. Again, they are looking at issues such as setting boundaries in families, parenting skills, but also debt benefits advice and supporting mental health of the families that are involved in that centre. I use it to extremely important projects that the one-parent families Scotland are involved in in my area. I would also like to highlight the support that they give in the area of employability, because they recognise that, for young people who find themselves in a caring role for their children and circumstances that maybe weren't planned out and unexpected to them, that that can close an awful lot of doors in their lives. However, what one-parent families Scotland do is support people in employability, working close with partner agencies to get an integrated package of support for families in their local communities, giving them an opportunity to have realistic work and life choices that benefit their family in their long run. If I could just finish, I am talking about the campaigning work that one-parent families Scotland do on behalf of their members and the people in which they support, including in the area of childcare, which is, of course, very pertinent to the debate about the Scotland's future and how important they recognise the accessible, affordable, flexible childcare to be the heart of supporting families in those areas. I thank Christina McKelvie for proposing this very important motion. The work that one-parent families Scotland has been doing in its long history is commendable. It is very good that they are in the gallery this evening. As Christina McKelvie has rightly said, being a single parent inevitably comes with a whole host of challenges, that parent may be young and still trying to find his or her way in the world. He or she may lack confidence as to the best way to bring up their child, they may struggle to balance work commitments with childcare, they may face astigmatic attitudes towards them in society, most especially if they are facing poverty or issues related to abuse. Of course, if the parent or his or her child suffers also from health problems, that makes it doubly difficult. Over the years, OPFS has brought to our attention the great number of one-parent families in Scotland, I think, now estimating somewhere in the region of 165,500 one-parent families in Scotland. Obviously, that involves, I think, 280,000, 81,000 children, which in both cases is a very significant rise on the statistics that we might have seen for 20, 30 years ago. As Malcolm Chisholm rightly said in his speech, the range and support that OPFS provides is therefore even more important so too is the concern that we have for those who provide the front-line services, often sometimes in very difficult circumstances. As we all know from several recent debates in this Parliament, one of the biggest challenges that single parents face at the moment is finding affordable and reliable childcare. It is made doubly difficult for single parents operating on low incomes, as they know that that can often be an additional barrier to finding employment and being able to support themselves on the channel. Again, I thought that Malcolm Chisholm raised some very important points about some of the work that is being done in his Edinburgh constituency in that. I think that the OPFS's care inspectorate registered childcare at home service provides that quality, the real quality of the family home that can be the great security for these families and that is provided on a seven days a week with a mobile crash as well. I think that that is an excellent service and it is obviously very much appreciated by all those involved. As parliamentarians, we are also always receiving very strong messages about the policy measures that we could adopt to support low-income parents and their childcare, most especially the facility to book childcare assistant, perhaps by the hour rather than by the block, thus minimising some of the unnecessary expenditure and the need to work with employers to help them to be as accommodating as they possibly can when it comes to supporting parents' childcare needs. There is an important need, I think, to encourage flexible working times to allow parents to be able to have their children at home at the time that they want. That is obviously particularly relevant for low-income parents who do not have any support at all from other family members. That flexibility would help to break down some of the barriers that prevent low-income parents from entering the workplace. The 2011 census was a very stark reminder of just the work that we have to do to ensure that those single parents can be helped. I think that, as it has been noted in the motion and I know that Christina McKelvie said that Margaret McTaggart would be embarrassed at this, but I think that she does deserve great credit, the shiny example of the help in the area of employability, which I think is so important. Her wise counsel about the awareness and the support that can be given is absolutely crucial when it comes to the major positive influence that can be provided. I would not in any way be embarrassed. I think that we owe you a great debt when it comes to that. Once again, Deputy Presiding Officer, I thank Christina McKelvie and, indeed, the OPFS for the work that they do. I would like to congratulate Christina McKelvie to bring this motion to Parliament. A very important motion to recognise what one parent family Scotland have brought to us in Scotland for the last 65 years of advocacy and service delivery expertise with a 200-plus staff now, when it turned over over £2 million. I particularly enjoy Christina McKelvie's opening speech when she really made the point of mothers and fathers and others follow behind it. Malcolm Chisholm talked about the great services for fathers now we have in Edinburgh and he talked about the opportunity of being a single parent as well. Something I recognise very much, I know that JK Rowling is a great example for single mothers. We need to have a kind of example for single fathers as well. I think it's very, very important to have a kind of role model, people understanding what opportunities there are for single parents after their children are grown up. During the time they are raising their children as well. Of course, Clare Adamson did point out that I was a single father myself for more than 10 years. That's part of myself as well. The reason why I'm in Parliament today is one of the reasons why I'm in Parliament today. I think it's the struggling of being a single and single parent makes you realise how challenging it is, how challenging it is to be a single mother or to be a single father, challenging it is for the children, challenging it is for the parents. I do recognise a fantastic work one parent family Scotland's do. In my region, in the north east of Scotland, I know how much they are encouraging and helping long parents to believe in themselves. That's what I was talking about, that kind of belief. Of course, discover new talents and how single parents can untowl, enter education, training or work and take up new interests. Particularly in Dundee, we've got the community family support project. There's us together in Dundee supporting Scotland's children and their fathers and of a father's group. I know particularly in the report today that contributors like STV have made great contributions to enable one parent family Scotland to develop innovative services such as a new family's house in Dundee, which I would love to go and visit. A very flexible childcare services in Dundee as well, which are the same kind of services that are replicated in rural Scotland. Sometimes we forget about rural Scotland, which is not all about the services deployed in towns in the central belt. It's in the north, in the north east and particularly in rural Scotland, where you could have more challenges for single parents. We've got this flexible childcare services in Aberdynchai, in Angus, home based childcare, which is very important, which offers a high quality registered child minder in your own home. That's very, very important. When I was a single parent, I started very early in the morning and I needed that childcare to keep working very early in the morning. You don't find that easily in rural Scotland or across Scotland and Crescia provided now and all across Aberdynchai. I do think it's a fantastic time to be a single parent at last. At last he's recognized not only at parliament, but out there people are recognizing more and more our valuable families with single parents. I would like to talk briefly as well about what work we did in the Equal Opportunities Committee and the reason we did that work on parenting and one parent parenting is because 8% of Scotland 165,000 single parents are fathers. This means presenting officer that approximately 13,000 families in Scotland are added by a single dad and the Equal Opportunities Committee took evidence on father and parenting and of course one parent family Scotland brought to us fantastic evidence to help us in our work. Some of the recommendations they said if I've got time was about nursery staff about health visitors and about how does it feel to be excluded and that exclusion you can find in single mothers is particularly acute regarding single fathers. One single father did say in one of the survey that society puts too many unnecessary barriers in our way. Loan parents and their children deserve better. Becoming a loan father family is difficult enough. In conclusion, President Officer, one parent family Scotland said that fathers, they spoke to wanting to be treated as parents who have the same skills and challenges than mothers do and of course in 21st century in modern Scotland single parents must be treated equally to couples whatever the skills or challenges. Families are not just about numbers, the numbers of parents or the number of children in the family should not matter. Many thanks. I will now call on the minister, Aileen Campbell, seven minutes or thereby please minister. Also thank you to Christina McKelvie for bringing this debate to the chamber. And thanks also to the members who have stayed here this evening to show their support for one parent families Scotland. I'd also like to add my welcome to one parent family Scotland who are here tonight in the Parliament and in the gallery this evening. I'm really pleased and delighted to see that this organisation has been recognised for their passionate work to further develop its innovative approach to family support through projects such as transforming lives that Christina spoke about, the Edinburgh Dads club that Malcolm Chisholm spoke about and also the us together project that has been recently launched as well, I think, mentioned by Claire Adamson in her remarks today. Now we want as a government to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up and to allow every child to have the opportunities to flourish. We want to be a more child-friendly country and to have a culture which supports all parents and carers and which values their role, whatever shape their families take. Organisations like one parent family Scotland are absolutely helping us to achieve on that ambition. And I'm pleased and proud to recognise this work by one parent family Scotland. Through my time as Minister, I've really enjoyed getting to know this organisation a bit better and I've seen the work that they do through visits to Falkirk. I've also attended a recent conference where the speakers who absolutely stole the show that day were the young mums who spoke passionately about what they want to do and their aspirations, their hopes for their children and what they had received in terms of the support through one parent family Scotland. Unlike Christina, I found those individuals' stories to be so inspiring and showed the real difference, the real tangible difference that this organisation makes to individual lives and individual families as well. I also want to pay particular thanks to one parent family Scotland because they also sit on a number of boards and groups that the Government has as well and provide really valuable input into the work and policy development that we take forward as a Government, particularly on the ministerial advisory group for child poverty. As we've heard this evening, one parent family Scotland do a number of wonderful things focusing on key areas that make real differences to the lives of one parent families. One area is the support that they provide to lone parents in getting into employment. Employment, as many have said this evening, is seen as a gateway that serves as the means to provide for our families, but for some lone parents, finding suitable, flexible and weighed well-paid work can be a real challenge. That complexity was particularly noted by Malcolm Chisholm's contribution. An integrated package of support provided by one parent family Scotland gives lone parents the training, the information and advice that they need to be able to make informed choices on how, where and when they work. The Scottish Government recognises the important role that flexible working pay plays in helping lone parents to manage the twin responsibilities of work and parenting, so that we can help all parents to thrive at home and act work. We are funding a collaboration with Fathers Network Scotland, parenting across Scotland and working families to try and change the way Scotland's parents live and work. We are also working with employers to support them in creating workplaces that encourage a better work-life balance for everyone. That is of particular relevance to the contribution that Christian Allard spoke, because it has a particular focus on fathers. I really appreciate the candidness by which Christian Allard spoke of his own experience as a single father and recognise the particular interest that he takes through the work and the committee of making sure that we do more to support fathers to contribute to their lives of their children. As everyone else has also recognised this evening, there is no such thing as a nuclear family any more. In 2011, there were 236,000 lone-parent households in Scotland, which equates to 11 per cent of all households in our country. It is clear that families come in all shapes and sizes, and that many will need to juggle multiple responsibilities. High-quality, flexible childcare that parents can afford, as well as family-friendly working practices, are crucial to Scotland's families, whatever form those families take. I particularly applaud the childcare services that one parent family Scotland provides across the country, be that their home-based service, their mobile crush or their personalised care for children with additional needs. Providing that kind of flexible support is vital for Scotland's families, and that is why, as a Government, we are building on our previous increase in annually funded early learning and childcare provision from 412.5 hours to 475 hours in 2007, with a further expansion to 600 hours from this August. That represents a 45 per cent increase in provision in place for three and four-year-olds since this Government came to office and is worth up to £707 per child per year. It is also important to recognise that, in the legislation, this further embeds flexibility, which I know is so important to families, particularly to one-parent families, but also to all families across Scotland. It is also important to recognise that those policy developments often take contribution, real meaningful contribution, from the parents themselves. I know that one-parent families Scotland has also fed in to the development of our childcare policy. However, the type of support that one-parent families Scotland provides across Scotland does not just stop at employability and childcare. The specialised services that they offer to parents to help to ensure that children are given the best possible chances in life is also worthy of note. Support for parents is absolutely key to improving outcomes for our children. We want to build the knowledge, the skills and the confidence of all parents so that they can be and do the best that they can for their kids. Parenting skills, advocacy, mentoring, signposting and support groups are provided by one-parent families Scotland to help parents to overcome barriers and to take positive steps towards their family's future, and innovative projects such as transforming lives are invaluable and can nurture and encourage lone parents to form new relationships, friendships and networks of support. The national parenting strategy launched 18 months ago is for all of Scotland's parents and acknowledges that being a mum or dad, I think that Christina McKelvie noted that this is one of the hardest and most important jobs that anyone can take on. Certainly, when you come back from the maternity unit, you don't get a handbook with that, we bundle off joy, although it could be useful indeed. The challenges are even greater for families in difficult situations. Almost one in four children now live in lone-parent households, a figure that is projected to rise further in the future. We want to be certain that the right type of support and services exist to meet the particular needs of lone-parent families. We also want to be certain that no parent or family ever feels isolated. We want to ensure that they can access information, advice and support whenever they need it most. With an investment of £18 million, we are in the process of doing this by promoting access to and participation in a comprehensive range of activities and services and by making the best use of all the resources available in order to improve community wellbeing. We want parents to recognise their strength and to be all they can be. That is what is so good about transforming lives. It is revealing the skills that parents have to themselves. The term that is used so often to describe that approach is an asset-based approach. I really like the way our former chief medical officer, Sir Harry Burns, describes this as moving people from being passive recipients of services towards being active agents in their own lives. That is particularly good for the children, who, of course, will go on and potentially be the parents of the future. I think that it is clear that one parent family Scotland also offers single parents the help through their strong relationships that are developed. We have heard about those working in transforming lives, particularly Margaret MacTaggart, who goes above and beyond the call of duty and shows how passionate she is to help those parents in her care. That was a point made by Christina Smith and Elizabeth Smith. I thank Christina McKelvie and the others who have contributed to tonight's debate. I warmly thank one parent family Scotland for their commitment to children and their parents across Scotland. I wish them every success for the future. Challenges remain tackling poverty, welfare reforms and all post-significant challenge to not only our working government but to the work that is done by one parent family Scotland and others across the country. However, we will continue to work together in partnership to ensure, using the powers that we have, that we can ensure that children get the very best start in life and that all parents are respected and valued for the very important role that they fulfil. I thank Christina McKelvie for bringing this important topic to debate this evening.