 Yn y cydwyr, maen nhw'n ei fawr, mae'r cydwyr yn gallu'r galori. Nid yn gwneud gael i gael i gael i gael, mwy oherwydd yna i gael i gael i gael i gael'r cydwyr. Yn y cydwyr yna, mae'n gweithio yn y cydwyr ar y maen nhw, o'r mwy o'r 8-9-9, yn yny o'r in the name of Jeremy Balfour, on ensuring that Lothian, late diagnosed deaf children, get the support that they need. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons. I would also take this opportunity to advise members that there is, for obvious reasons, a lot of interest in members participating in the debate. We will be resuming our business this afternoon in the chamber at 2pm and therefore there is no time in hand and members must stick to the speaking allocation that they have been given in their contributions. Thank you very much indeed and with that I call on Jeremy Balfour to open the debate up to seven minutes please Mr Balfour. Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer. I want to thank colleagues from across the chamber for coming today to make and supporting the motion for members' business. There is often a lot of focus on the areas in which we disagree in this Parliament and it makes for better spectatorsport and grabs more headlines. However, I am encouraged that over the past months a group of cross-party MSPs have managed to come together and find a solution to the issue. I think that our Parliament is the best when we represent work together for the sake of our constituents. In 2021, an order of NHS Lothian Pediatric Audiology Service revealed that a great number of children have been missed in diagnosed and serious hearing problems. This has led to many children under the age of 12 growing up without any support to deal with an auditory disability. Can you imagine how difficult that must be for a parent and a child alike? Presiding Officer, today's debate is significant. We are talking about real families and real lives. The family represented by the flag group have been through a real ordeal and have had to fight hard to be heard. I hope that this debate can be a catalyst for change and prompt for answers. It is good to see a number of the families here in the gallery this afternoon, and I am sure that colleagues across the chamber will join me in working on them. Those families deserve answers, and there are so many questions that are still left unanswered. Looking forward, Presiding Officer, we have to do better. We must ensure that the support that those families get is better, and it has so far been woefully lacking. Time and again, we hear from them about the massive gaps in the care that has been provided, basic things such as British language, and the speech and language purpose are not providing. This is care, not luxury. It is fundamental to the development of those children. It is already the care of those children who should be given top priority. The number of families affected by this issue in Malovians is estimated at around 150. However, the truth is that we do not know the true number, and the audit carried out by the British Academy of Audiology did not include children that were seen later in 2018. There could be a number of additional cases in Malovians that have been missed. It must be a priority to identify all those cases in short order and ensure that they are provided with the top level of support that they require. I pay tribute to the countries that he has made. What he has just highlighted is central to the issue. I think that there is a question whether or not the 800 or so cases that were taken part in that audit are comprehensive. I do not doubt the work that has been undertaken, but there have been a number of triage steps that have meant that only 155 cases were identified of serious concern and that only six additional cases of hearing loss were identified. Does he agree with me that we need to re-examine both that initial sample and the triage steps to ensure that every individual is identified? Ultimately, it is difficult to reconcile what the health board says with the experiences that we have heard from families. Absolutely. I might come on to that and develop that slightly in a moment if that is okay with the member. It is clear that we are not addressing this issue correctly. With the gaps mentioned and the unknown number of unidentified cases, it has become increasingly clear that carrying on as we have will not cut it. We are in desperate need of progress and progress will not come without oversight. Having had a number of meetings, we, as a cross-party group of MSPs of NHS Llorian, are not capable of organising and providing such needed support without some kind of accountability. Therefore, along with a number of my colleagues and the flag families, we are calling the Scottish Government to do two things. First, for the minister to meet with the cross-party group of MSPs to discuss what can be done at the Government level to address the situation. I hope that the minister, in her summon-up, will agree to that meeting as urgently as possible. Secondly, we are calling for the minister to commission a third-party audit to review the whole process over the past number of years and monitor whether families are getting the support that they need. They would have all the necessary powers to investigate and present their findings to the Parliament and to the Government after nine months. Based on those findings, we can move forward and ensure that adequate clear is provided. I hope that the minister will confirm in her rounding up that her willingness to work with us in this way. We have to get this right. The children's families that are represented by the flag cannot afford to continue to be failed. Finally, I want to come to the issue of trust. Trust takes a long time to build up and can be lost in an instant. There has been a breakdown between flag families and the institutions that were supposed to look after them. We need to make every effort to assure them that we do care, we are sorry and we are motivated to rewrite all wrongs that have occurred in this matter. That is not something that will be achieved passively. It will take focused efforts to make amends and allow our families to regain their trust. Once again, that is not an abstract or non-important issue. That is serious, life-watering and those families have experienced something that no family in Scotland should have to experience. We owe it to them to make sure that it is fixed and I hope that today we will be another step in that process. We now move to the open part of the debate, our mind members' contributions of up to four minutes. I call Fiona Hyslop to be followed by Oliver Mundell. I am also one of the cross-party group of Lothian's MSPs pursuing this issue, and I appreciate the minister's new and post, but I hope to reflect on why we have got to where we are and I am impressed that the issue is as much for the education authorities as it is for the health authorities. The seriousness of the issue when it first arose was taken very seriously by the health service and I recall by the then health secretary, Humza Yousaf, when I was First Minister. Clearly, I recognised what NHS did at the time and what the Government did in examining what had come to pass and how we had got to the situation where there were misdiagnosis. At that time, when we were told as a group of MSPs that the families had been identified and were being supported, we perhaps made some assumptions. Those assumptions were not just being told about what had happened in the diagnosis period, but the support that they were getting would be specific, additional and on-going. We might have pursued that more at that time and I think that we can all acknowledge that. The processes to rectify what had happened were very internal to the NHS, to NHS Lothian. They wanted to make sure that they understood what had gone wrong and fixed their services for the future and that lessons that were learned would then be shared and procedures checked nationally. I think that that has happened. However, it leaves us in the situation where we have had some doubts because of the flag families coming to us and saying that some of us, our families and our children, have not been identified. That has begged the question actually, did they ever identify all those affected? Then, pursuing the issue on a cross-party basis, we have had a number of meetings and we have tried to understand what those issues have been. The issues that we think are outstanding is that have all children affected been identified? We know that there are 150 families that have been identified from the 1,007 patients that have been identified as part of the sample, but it was a sample basis. I understand that that will be a common procedure for NHS when issues are trying to be pursued. They take samples, but that does not necessarily identify everybody. Now, there was a lot of high-profile media at that time. People might have thought that my child was affected, but I also think that there was an issue around the transfer of information. What happened when there was an understanding of the problem? Why were not education authorities even told specifically about the 155 children? Why were education authorities not informed specifically about those children? We have also been told by NHS Lothian when we met them that there were confidentiality issues around that. I want to pursue that somewhat, because there is an issue about when does the internal protocols of confidentiality in any institution trump children's welfare? That was an issue that we pursued when I was in opposition and when I was a Cabinet Secretary for Education. There was a real need to ensure that all institutions shared information when a child's welfare was in question. I think that one of the things that the minister should consider with her education and children's cause is why were the education authorities not told about the names of those children affected? Why were not there measures or even letters given to the individual parents so that they could present them saying that my child might have been affected? We need to resolve what happens now. I need to close now. Minister, please take this seriously. We are coming to you from a cross-party basis and we want to get help for these children and we want to make sure that we can identify those that are in need. Please listen to us. I remind all members who wish to speak in the debate that they need to press the request-to-speak button. I call Oliver Mundell to be followed by Jackie Baillie. Clearly, I am not a Lothian's MSP, but I follow the issue. It is something that I do during my time on the education committee and other things that I have seen pop up. It is very interesting listening to Fiona Hyslop in her contribution, not forgetting to congratulate Jeremy Balfour on securing the debate. His contribution, too, was excellent. However, it is that disconnect for people. I cannot believe that we are here in 2023. After the issue came to light, families are still facing difficulties getting the services to work together and to deliver for their young people. It speaks to broader pressures that exist within the system that, even where we know that families have been failed, we still cannot get it right for them. That should concern members right across the chamber. I know that the minister is new in post, but I am sure that she will want to try to help people to move forward. Of course, that is what people want to do. Members who have spoken so far are right. In order to understand the importance of that, we have to recognise the grave injustice that has taken place. It puts it into stark terms when you look at, as was highlighted at the time, by the National Deaf Children's Society, the stark disparity in average identification in Lothians compared to other parts of the country that we could be having people elsewhere in the UK being identified within 109 days on average, but in Lothians it was 4.5 years. Even if it is a small group of families that has been waiting a very long time, something has gone very badly wrong to see that difference. We know that the sad truth is that professional standards were not followed. There were poor management protocols. I just think that that level of carelessness is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. I am not confident that everything within audiology is working well now. I think that we see across the country, not just in Lothians, audiology services under huge pressure. One of my big concerns is that, because there are no audiology services in the community for adults, obviously children should be seen by the NHS, but because there is community, audiology services do not exist. There are a huge number of people on audiology lists taking up space in our hospitals for routine things around hearing aids, removing earwax, while those who need audiology services and that specialist support are waiting far too long. We know that, even when families and young people get that diagnosis, they are not getting the support. It is hard being deaf or hard of hearing in Scotland today. We have not got it right and for all the technological improvements that I have seen with constituents and also with a member of staff that I had here in this Parliament, things are just not there for them, speech and language, waiting lists far too long, problems with getting BSL interpreters, problems with accessing basic services, people told when they phone up Government services, council services, there is no one there who can speak to them or if they have capacity, someone else can speak to them. There are problems with people every single day and the families that are here have been failed. I cannot believe that we are not able to get it right for them, let alone all those other people who have seen their potential diminished. I just asked the minister to take the calls from across the Parliament very seriously and to do what the Scottish Government can to get things right. I now call Jackie Baillie to be followed by Karen Adam. Let me begin by thanking Jeremy Balfour for securing this debate and for the content of his contribution. The failings that were identified in the 2021 audit of NHS Lothian's paediatric audiology service were both shocking and potentially serious consequences. We might never have known about the scale of the problem, was it not for the determination of those parents and indeed the national deaf children's society who fought tirelessly for answers. Children were prevented from gaining early access to hearing technology and not supported to learn sign language when they needed it. The effect of that on those children could well be profound. There is no doubt that those children have been failed. Do not forget that the audit of the service did not include children who were born post-2018, so there may be many more children who have yet to be diagnosed. For those children who have been diagnosed, their parents are still having to campaign for the support that they need due to the original failings of NHS Lothian. The families failed by Lothian Audiology Action Group have outlined areas where support is needed, including access to BSL tutors, speech and language therapy and remediation for those children affected. Since 2011, there has been a 40 per cent decline in the number of qualified teachers of the deaf across Scotland, with falls also reported for specialist speech and language therapists and communication support workers. There is currently no dedicated in-school resource provision for deaf children in the Lothian and Borders area, such as St Rox in Glasgow. Without access to resources like that, deaf children with complex needs are still being failed. In response to a question that I raised last year on the audiology scandal, Humza Yousaf stated that of the 125 families who had been identified, they had been offered a retest. Only 39 children had actually had it done. That was in May. Can the minister give me an assurance that, a year on, every child that needs one has been given a retest? For all those children who were born after 2018, they too have been properly diagnosed. Every child whose hearing impairment was missed deserves co-ordinated long-term support from health, education and social work. The Scottish Government, I understand, still has not published the national review of audiology that it commissioned and was due in January this year. Maybe I have got that wrong. Can the minister perhaps advise the chamber and, in doing so, tell us why there is a hold-up? With every day of further delay, more children suffer. By failing to first identify these children's deafness and then not providing the support that they need, there is a risk that they will be failed over again. That cannot be allowed to happen. Urgency is the very least that we can offer these children and their families. Action now, not later. I very much agree and associate myself with Fiona Hyslop's comments because it is a cross-party approach that has been taken. That is too important to play about with. We need to ensure that there are no more scandals like that in Lothian or, indeed, anywhere else ever again. Once again, I thank Jeremy Balfour for his contribution and I hope that the minister will respond positively to the debate. I now call Karen Adam to be followed by Sandish Gohani. I am not a Lothian representative, but the issue is incredibly close to my heart, and I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jeremy Balfour for bringing this crucial debate to the chamber today. Ensuring that late diagnosed deaf children receive the support that they desperately need, not only in Lothian, but across Scotland, is of utmost importance. As a CODA, which is CODA, a child of a deaf adult, I have witnessed the challenges faced by those living and affected by deafness. Those experiences have deepened my understanding of the immense significance of the motion before us today. As we have heard, the 2021 audit of NHS Lothian's Pediatric Audiology Service, conducted by BAA, has exposed serious failings, and we cannot ignore, as colleagues have said before me, that it does not include children seen after 2018. That is deeply concerning, as we know that the crucial stages for fluent first language development occur in the early years. Shockingly, the BAA report reveals that the average age of identification of deafness in children within the NHS Lothian area is four and a half years, far surpassing figures from other regions in Scotland. By the time of diagnosis, the critical period for language and communication development has often passed, leading to adverse consequences that may affect their entire lives. It is heart-wrenching to think of the missed opportunities and the uphill battles that they will face, and many of those children will require extensive support from health, education, social work and various agencies to address their complex needs. Also, of course, let us take a moment to acknowledge the families failed by Lothian Audiology Action Group flag, and an inspiring collective composed of families directly affected by those failings through their tireless efforts that shine a light on the challenges faced by deaf children and their families. Those challenges include lesser access to British Sign Language tutors, speech and language therapy and appropriately qualified professionals. Without those essential resources, we deny those children the opportunity to develop their language skills and remediate any damage caused by the failures of the Audiology Service. We must recognise that the impact of late diagnosis goes beyond the immediate effects on individual children and the obstacles that they face in education, employment and social integration. It reverberates throughout families, communities and our society as a whole. Without proper support, their potential will be stifled and may limit their opportunities for personal growth and their ability to contribute to society. To address that pressing issue, we must establish robust systems that guarantee timely and accurate diagnosis for all children, regardless of their geographical location or background. We must invest wholeheartedly in early intervention programmes that focus on providing the necessary support from the moment a child's hearing difficulties are diagnosed. By doing so, we can maximise their potential, allowing them to thrive and overcome the barriers that they face. The deaf community offers a committed support network for individuals and families affected by hearing loss, with online communities, local associations and support groups a sense of belonging and understanding flourishes. Such platforms provide a space for sharing experiences, exchanging information and finding solace in the journeys of others. Deaf role models and success stories illuminate the path forward, serving as beacons of hope and inspiration. They demonstrate unequivocally that a late diagnosis does not define one's potential for a fulfilling and successful life, if that support is there. In closing, I hope that those children receive the justice that they deserve, but, above all, I want them to know that their potential for a fulfilling future is limitless. Alongside Jeremy Balfour and others, I will continue to work tirelessly and cross-party lines to ensure that they have every opportunity to thrive. I wish to declare a personal interest as a practising NHS doctor. Today, sadly, we are discussing widespread failings by one of Scotland's largest health boards. Failings that severely impacted families and their vulnerable children. Some of these families are here in the gallery and welcome to you all. The debate is for you. It is often said that trust is important. If lost, it is very hard to regain. In the wake of a scandalous catalogue of failures, there is little confidence in NHS Lothian's paediatric audiology service, even in the Scottish Government's supervision of the service. Let's consider what the health board and the relevant Government Minister are saying. On May 11, I asked eight formal questions to Jenny Minter, Minister for Public Health, to ascertain specific data on a range of unknowns, including the number of children diagnosed with serious hearing difficulties over the previous five years and how many children have been identified as potentially impacted by late diagnosis. The Minister replied on May 25, with specifics. As of the 16th, 725 children were on NHS Lothian's permanent childhood hearing impairment register. This is 92 more than at the time of the 21 British Academy of Audiology audit. On reviewing auditory brainstem response testing undertaken in the previous five years, the BAA reviewed ABRs of all births back to 2017. On its second report, we made public in July 23. The Minister confirmed that 147 children have been identified for clinical review. 26 had a misdiagnosis and 31 had been recalled. I also received a letter from the Minister this week, stressing that NHS Lothian had made significant progress against all actions in the BAA report and that governance and culture has improved. Paediatric audiology now has an additional senior expert, though we do not know what and who that senior expert is from the report I got. The Scottish Government will receive a progress report against the established action plan each month. An independent review of audiology across Scotland will report with recommendations in the summer. On Tuesday this week, I had the opportunity in the Health Committee to question Callum Campbell, the chief executive of NHS Lothian, to his credit, Mr Campbell made a sincere apology. The review he said was a wake-up call in Lothian and of the recommendations made by the independent chair, Jacqueline Taylor, Mr Campbell said that his health board has followed every one of them. His service has tried to contact every single family and is asking people to come forward if they think they've been missed. NHS Lothian has increased his resources of speech and language and he feels there is now no lack of access to British Sign Language tutors for those who want it. If we are to accept without question these responses, it appears that NHS Lothian and the Government are getting to grips with this crisis, but our families both here and elsewhere around Scotland are reassured by the words of those in the dock. We hear that children still face delays in accessing treatment or language support and families on low incomes or those with language barriers are being missed. No family impacted by failures should be left behind. We must ensure that these failures are not happening elsewhere in Scotland to help to restore confidence and trust. A good start would be for the Minister to meet the cross-party group of MSPs for further discussions on issues in their constituencies. Regarding the monthly progress report that NHS Lothian will send to the Scottish Government, will the Minister commit to making this public because transparency, sunlight, is the best disinfectant? I thank Jeremy Balfour for bringing this important debate to the chamber like others, and also to everyone in cross-party. I think that we all agree that we need to work together to make changes here. As we know, the paediatric audiology service at NHS Lothian has failed many people, not just children but their families too. As well as increasing the awareness of the impact of those failures on the children and their continued struggle to get the support that they need, this debate, as well as the meetings with parents and service managers, I hope might help to reassure families that MSPs are identifying steps that we can take to support the affected families and draw the attention of authorities who continue to lack, I think, the urgency required to fix that problem. We had the privilege of meeting some parents here in the Parliament and, as others have said, the families failed by Lothian audiology action group are truly an inspiration to us all and a model for such campaigns in the future. When you encounter determined campaigns like this, you cannot fail to be impressed and listened, and that has helped to cause us to jump into action. We wish that more had been done at the time to help those parents to approach the authorities and get some action from the authorities, tasked with protecting patients and their families. I think that Fiona Hyslop's contribution was excellent in the fact that we recognise that that is the case. During the period of the scandal, the audiology department provided care to more than 22,000 children. In order of some of the children identified that it was almost 34 per cent of cases, there were moderate or significant concerns in the way that they had been treated. Yet, as we have heard, that audit did not include any children seen after 2018, so we can be fairly certain that I agree many more and we have to consider that in the way forward. The parents feel that there has been no acceptance that their original review was a sample, and that is a crucial point. It was a sample for a children out there who may not be identified. I think that we must consider that possibility. We know from other cases that, if treatment opportunities are missed during the key development stage of a child, it can cause difficulty and rarely be corrected later in life, and Karen Adam's contribution to that helped us to understand that point, that we must support the children as they are developing now. It is astounding that there was no more accountability taken of that particular fact that those children had missed an essential part of their development. Although a lot of the political focus has rightly been on NHS Lothian, we must also seriously consider the help and assistance that families need right now, because that is what will make a difference to the children that we are talking about. Families report that a number of those children still require access to BSL tutors. That is a fact. The parents are reporting that to us. In the Government's manifesto, there was a commitment to additional funds to local authorities for free BSL tuition for deaf children from the age of five. It is important that we get some feedback on that. I have spoken to a family member who has explained to me that it is very expensive to get BSL tuition. It is not just about the individual needing to use BSL, it is about the whole family unit and not just about one person being able to get that. If we want children to develop and have the same excitement and learning as other children, we have to have a wide access to free BSL. I am going to stop my contribution there and thank everybody for their contribution to this debate. I now call Ashrygan to be followed by Foyzil Chaujin. I commend Jeremy Balfour for bringing this serious issue to the chamber for debate today. I think that there have been a number of excellent contributions made so far in the debate. We are discussing failures in paediatric audiology in NHS Lothian. As we have discussed so far, the review identified 155 children who were affected seriously. I think that the point that has been raised by others is that it may not because of the time frame have picked up everyone affected. I would also raise that as an urgent issue to the minister to look into this further and see if there is anyone else that has been missed. The root causes that were identified contributing to these failures were listed as a lack of scientific leadership, a lack of knowledge, reflection and inquiry and a lack of robust quality assurance processes. That led to assessments being carried out incorrectly. It is very disappointing that, at this stage, departments are being run in this way. I would like to ask the minister in her contribution, or if she is not able to advise in the chamber today, perhaps she can follow up to myself and perhaps others in writing about what progress has been made on delivering the many recommendations that the review put forward, many of which were, of course, extremely urgent. This week, I have taken the opportunity to speak to two families that have been affected in my constituency. I spoke to Stephanie, who is a mother to Rory. He is 11. Despite repeated testing when he was a baby and a young toddler, he was not unfortunately diagnosed as profoundly deaf until he was four. He then went on to be fitted with a hearing aid and later cochlear implants. Stephanie told me that this represents five years of missed communications. Rory will obviously be starting high school in the not too distant future. His mother is very concerned that the developmental delay that was created by this level of misdiagnosis will not be closed by the time he goes to high school, putting him obviously at a disadvantage then, without significant additional support, which, unfortunately, he is not receiving. The second family that I spoke to was quite a similar story. The daughter was tested repeatedly as a baby and young toddler and was also told at the age of three that she could hear perfectly well, which, of course, was incorrect. Her case was eventually picked up in the audit, and she was finally diagnosed as being deaf from birth. She is now four and a half, and she has been fitted with a hearing aid. Disappointingly, at the family's most recent audiology appointment, the clinical staff there seem to have no notes. They seem to not understand or be aware of the diagnosis. Unfortunately, I feel at this point that this does not fill that family and others with confidence that the culture that had led to the failures in the first place has been addressed and improved upon. The misdiagnosis and mismanagement has caused both the children and their families unnecessary suffering. The issues in NHS Lothian must be addressed, and those who have been affected need support. Fiona Hyslop put it very well when she said that it needed to be specific, additional and on-going. I suggest that maybe this takes the form of a full individualised plan of support for each child but also for their families. I think that Carol Muckin made an excellent point regarding that. I think that this support is essential. To frank, it is the least that can be done to support the children and their families that have been affected. I hope that the minister will take on board what has been raised here today and work with the cross-party group of MSPs to make the progress that is so sorely needed. I advise members that, due to the number of members who wish to speak in this debate, I am minded to accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I now invite Jeremy Balfour to move the motion without notice. Mr Balfour, the question is whether the debate will be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? That is agreed, and I now call Fausal Tradry to be followed by Ben Macpherson. Families in Lothian placed their trust in a service that was there to assist and help them. Instead, they were failed by that service. I have read some difficult accounts of children who were eligible for a collier implant. This is a technology that would allow deaf children the ability to hear for the very first time. Due to late diagnosis, some children were too old or no longer eligible for this potential life-alternating technology. Some of these children were also diagnosed incorrectly. This was rectified so late that families have now been told that their children may not ever be able to speak. Other children will face major language and communication difficulties throughout their lives as a result of these late diagnosis. I do not need to express how difficult this must be for all of the families involved. The failing of NHS Lothian between 2009 and 2018 has meant that late diagnosis deaf children have lost out on years of potential support and guidance through the diagnosis. There now needs to be sufficient tailored support in place to help these families through this. The audit that identified the failing ended in 2018. As my colleague Jeremy Belford addressed, there still may be many children who were wrongly or late diagnosed that have not been identified. We must ensure that support is offered to them. There will also be cases of children who were not included in the audit or have not responded to the communication. These children may still be without support and sufficient measures need to be in place to ensure support is offered to every single child affected by this issue. A one-size approach will not fit all. There must be multi-agency tailored support available for those affected. Tailored support means taking each child's case individually and assessing how best to support them and their families. Of course, access to British Sign Language lesson and training should be readily available to the children and families affected. But consideration must also be given to cases where BSL is not the best solution. Some of the children affected come from families where English is not their first language, whose support will be offered to these children who may struggle to communicate with families using BSL. Children with additional support needs may also struggle to learn or communicate with BSL. Additional means of support needs to be offered to families whose children have learning or communication difficulties. That is how we can continue to support the families whose lives have been permanently altered by NHS Lothian's patriotic audiology failure. I thank Jeremy Belford for bringing this important issue to the chamber. I now call Ben Macpherson, who will be the last speaker before I ask the minister to respond. I commend Jeremy Belford for bringing this important debate to the chamber. Although the motion is primarily focused on NHS Lothian audiology services, I would like to highlight the important interconnected issue of language and communications development and access to British Sign Language education, which has been brought to my attention by two constituents in the gallery today, Benedictine and Jaleica. They have given me permission to talk about their family situation in Parliament today. Benedictine and Jaleica's two-year-old son Thomas is deaf and a wonderful child that shows great creativity and resilience. Understandably, Benedictine and Jaleica want Thomas's educational prospects and those of other deaf children to be appropriate and available and delivered as well as possible. His parents have expressed to me that Thomas shows little progress in verbal language. However, it is progressing incredibly well and quickly with one of our key national languages, British Sign Language. Thinking ahead to when he grows up, his parents are aware that there are currently deaf schools in Falkirk, Hamilton and Aberdeen. In Edinburgh, however, there are currently no deaf schools, primary or secondary. Units in schools that teach BSL as its principal language are also not available. That all makes being a pupil learning in a national language very difficult in our capital city. Benedictine and Jaleica understandably believe that deaf schools are incredibly important for deaf children as the curriculum helps them to understand deafness and to tailor learning to the specific needs of the children attending. The education is simply reformatted. Through my constituents, positive discussions have already been taken place on this with the City of Edinburgh Council, which we are very grateful for. I am committed, along with my team, to working with them and others to help to create a school environment in our capital city that guarantees that Thomas and other children like him a solid future and an equal education opportunity. I am keen to see learning potential in deaf children achieved, regardless of their local authority area, and improvement in terms of consistency across council areas. For example, provision in some areas includes weekly BSL instruction and communication support workers qualified at least BSL level 3. In Lothian, Benedictine and Jaleica have informed me that, as children learn 80 per cent of language through incidental listening, listening to adults, the 30 minutes of BSL that Thomas currently receives a week during time in school is not a reasonable comparison to his hearing counterparts. He is not currently receiving the same curriculum as his peers, as he does not hear announcements or story time, and these important things are part of the school experience. I appreciate that the Scottish Government leads with an inclusive ethos, and that is highly commendable and something that we all believe in. However, we must build on that to make it a reality for all our deaf children in Scotland. I appreciate that the Government remains committed to supporting all children and young people and that we have a role in ensuring that that happens in terms of lived experience. While all this is happening, I am sure that the minister will elaborate on those initiatives that the Government is undertaking. Here in Lothian, there are service gaps, and my constituents have already given me and others so much insight and provided so much constructive engagement on how we can improve those matters on behalf of their families and others in the deaf community. I urge the Government and the council to focus on how we can improve the services that are available to Thomas and others. I now call on the minister, Jenny Mintill, to respond on behalf of the Scottish Government up to seven minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Let me start by acknowledging the importance of this topic and thanking Jeremy Balfour for bringing forward his motion, and my colleagues from across the chamber for their very considered contributions. A number of points have been raised in the debate, and I would be happy to respond to those in writing after the debate, as I believe that the subject requires considered responses to all of them. However, I would be very happy to meet with the cross-party group of MSPs and I would like to commend the work that they have done. I would also like to welcome the families to the chamber. I am very sorry that it is in those circumstances, but thank you for the very important work that you are doing to raise this issue with Government, with your MSPs and with NHS Lodian. I thank you very much. At the outset, I would like to make it clear that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all of our children, young people and their families get the support that they need at the right time. That is made clear through our getting it right for every child approach. Earlier today, I was at a session with officials talking about children and education and how they can work better together. I will take some of the learning that I have from this debate to my officials with regard to this situation. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the seriousness of the failings around NHS Lodian's paediatric audiology services, outlined in the British Academy of Audiology's 2021 report, which simply shows that, as others have said, unacceptable levels of failure. As a result, a number of children and young people and their families have endured lasting impacts on their lives. I have no doubt that those who are affected by the situation in NHS Lodian are anxious and rightly angry about what has happened. As Jeremy Balfour said, in his contribution, those are real issues impacting on real families. In December 2021, NHS Lodian was escalated to stage 3 of the board performance escalation framework for audiology performance and service delivery, demonstrating how seriously the Scottish Government took that situation. The step was to ensure that the necessary improvements were made to the service with a formal recovery plan being developed by the board in partnership with Government. I am pleased that work has been taken forward by NHS Lodian and progress has been made, but I am aware of some of the points that have been made and would like to explore that further. I would, however, encourage any family who thinks that their child may have been affected by the situation in Lodian or have any concerns with regard to audiology to contact NHS Lodian's helpline on 0800 800 880. The Scottish Government is clear that families across Scotland should have assurances that their child is getting the best possible audiology support. That is why we introduced a national independent review of audiology services in January last year, which will report on its findings soon, I believe that Jackie Baillie referenced that. Presiding Officer, it is important to reflect on previous failings and the subsequent work done to make improvements. However, that does nothing to help those children and families who have already been affected. That is why it is vital that our public services are joined up and that we ensure that children get the best support that they need. A number of my colleagues referenced the importance of health working with education to ensure that there were focused efforts to support that cross-folio work that Fiona Hyslop referenced and to try to avoid the disconnect that Oliver Mundell referenced in his contribution. Our sea here strategy, which is jointly endorsed by COSLA, provides a strategic framework for action for meeting the needs of people with sensory loss against a background of increasing demand, requirements for greater efficiency and effectiveness and, of course, health and social care integration. Our refreshed sea here strategy will be published in 2025 and in early discussions stakeholders have identified the need to include more on early years children, young people and transitions to adult services. We will listen to those voices, to those with lived experience, as Karen Adam eloquently put, to ensure that we progress that work properly. The Scottish Government's sensory loss and social care advisory group will support and advise officials, as will a group of Scottish Government policy officials with an interest in sensory loss. I would also like to reflect on another point that Karen Adam made with regard to peer groups and the support from third sector partners, and those are a vital element of support. The Children, Young People and Family Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund has provided just over £100 million of funding to 115 organisations since 2016 to deliver support that tackles inequalities, child and family poverty, improved learning and build skills. One of the organisations in receipt of some of that funding is the National Jeff Children's Society, who receives £102,900 annually to support a range of activities. Returning to public service provision in respect of education and learning, access to specific support is critical, which Ben Macpherson and Ash Regan both referenced to. From my perspective, it is very helpful to hear the direct experiences of your constituents, and I thank you for sharing them. I also thank your constituents for allowing them to be shared in the Parliament. I think that, as Jeremy Balfour said, this is where this Parliament works well, is when we have got the cross-collaboration and the honesty and the experience from each of us from our own constituencies. We are committed to supporting the delivery of high-quality early learning and childcare services, which are language-rich environments that provide children with opportunities to play, learn and have social interaction. A number of people reference British Sign Language and, in supporting the provision of sign language, it is our aim to make Scotland the best place in the world for people who sign to live, work, visit and learn. We are developing our British Sign Language national plan 2023-29, due to being published in October this year. As part of that, we have identified key priorities, which include support for deaf children and their families, and how we can better support the BSL workforce. That will be overseen by an implementation governance group, ensuring that we deliver our commitments in a way that addresses the current needs of BSL signers across Scotland, as well as identifying any new needs that arise over the lifetime of the plan. Before concluding, I would like to briefly reflect on the impact that late diagnosis may have not only on learning but mental health. The Scottish Government is committed to improving access to community mental health and wellbeing support through our investment in community mental health services. We are providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health support for children, young people and their families. Finally, I would like to thank again Jeremy Balfour for bringing forward this debate. As I said before, the very thoughtful and thought-provoking contributions from my colleagues. I also reaffirm my early commitments around the Scottish Government's commitment to ensuring that all our children and young people have access to the right support when they need it. I am not sure that I look forward to the correct word, but I will ensure that we have a meeting as soon as possible with the cross-party group. That concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting until 2 pm.