 The next item of business is topical questions. At question number one, I call Pam Gossel. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on targeted counsellor funding for the colleges and universities. Minister Jamie Hepburn. Since 2019-20, we have invested over £13.5 million to provide almost 90 additional counsellors in colleges and universities, exceeding our programme for government commitment to support the recruitment of 80 such posts. We are committed to meeting our programme for government commitment to provide additional funding for the entirety of academic year 2022-23. We are the only UK nation funding student counsellor provision in this way. I thank the minister for that response. Last week, the education, children and young people's committee published the college regionalisation report. The report found that targeted counsellor funding was critical for students. Has demand for mental health counselling increased over the four-year period in which dedicated funding for counsellors has been provided, and how will future demand for those services be met if financial support is not available beyond the end of this academic year? On that last point, what I would say to Ms Gosell is that one of the things that we have committed to is taking forward the publication of a student mental health action plan. That will be forthcoming very shortly. We have not made any final decision in respect of further funding beyond the end of the year, so no final decision has been taken in that regard. We recognise the importance of the investment that we have made so far. We want to see that the work that has been done there to enable us to continue to support students through what we know has been a difficult and challenging time. Fundamentally, that is what the mental health action plan will continue to seek to respond to. I thank the minister for that response. We already know that drastic reduction some colleges will be making in response to the SNP's funding settlement. One college is planning for staff redundancies up to 25 per cent over the next few years. That is not a unique situation. 21 college principals have written to the Scottish Government pleading for help. Those councillors can provide a life-saving service for many students who are struggling with their mental health. Falling those please, can I ask the minister will he set out the Government's position on compulsory redundancies and ensure that all college students can access the services that they need? Just on the point that Ms Gosall has made around the letter from the 21 college principals, I am aware of that correspondence. We will, of course, as you would expect of the Government reply to that. What I can say is that there has been very close contact with college principals over the past period to discuss the issues that we are touching on today. I have made clear as clear to them as I am to Ms Gosall around our commitment to the student mental health action plan and what we might be able to do in subsequent years in relation to funding for colleges. Of course, we have leveraged in additional resources for colleges for this coming year, but I respectfully say to Ms Gosall that it is not good enough to stand there, as she does week in, week out to call for additional funding for not just this sector, but virtually every sector across Government expenditure without identifying where it will come from. I look forward to hearing or seeing where that will come from now. Thank you. As members might expect, there is a lot of interest, so concise questions and responses will enable more members to take part. I call co-captured. Thank you. My understanding is that since 2019-20, the Scottish Government has invested in almost 90 additional councillors in colleges and universities. Some of these institutions are, of course, private organisations and have their own role to play in ensuring provision for the wellbeing of the students. Can the minister say something about how the work of these professionals, including those provided through Government funding, will complement the work of the upcoming student mental health plan? Let me pick up on an important point that co-captured has made. She is right to identify that the institutions that we are providing funding for fundamentally have a core responsibility here. They themselves have to make sure that they are adequately responding to and supporting their students' mental health needs. We have, of course, assisted with that. We have provided a substantial package of funding to universities and colleges. We have provided additional funding to support the recruitment of these councillors. Through a student mental health action plan, we will seek to build on that to make sure that we are supporting the resilience and mental wellbeing of students across the country. Katie Clark 128,000 people have signed a petition to the UK Government calling for the creation of a statutory legal duty of care for students in higher education. A duty of care already exists for staff and for students under 18. Will the minister explore introducing a statutory legal duty of care for students in colleges and universities? I cannot earnestly say that it will be me that said doing it, of course, but that is something that I think that the Government should reflect on. Willie Rennie It is a little bit more positive what the minister says that no final decision has been made about future funding. It does leave the staff in limbo and I hope that the minister will act with a little bit more haste to make a quicker decision about this because those mental health councillors have provided an invaluable service for vulnerable students across the college and university sector. How much longer will we have to wait? I understand the point that Mr Rennie makes. It is one that I take seriously because we have to try to give that clarity heel. We have to go through the usual process that we undertake and we have made that commitment to the student mental health action plan that is before coming very soon. My own perspective is that we should not disaggregate those issues too much. However, I take on both the point and it is something that we need to provide in terms of clarity to the institutions as soon as possible. The health and wellbeing census shows that for many young people challenges with their mental health begin at school, before college or university. Can I ask the minister for an update on what progress has been made towards the bute house agreement commitment that every young person has a right to access in school mental health counselling if they so require it, which should hopefully in turn reduce the demand for college and university mental health support services? That is a fair reminder that we have a duty to support the mental wellbeing of all young people in Scotland. We continue to provide £16 million to local authorities towards the commitment to make sure that every secondary school has access to counselling services. Authorities across the country have confirmed that all schools have such access. Authorities provide us with six-monthly reports on the services and the latest reports to be analysed show that just over 14,500 young people access the service between January and June 2022. With over 6,000 of those young people reporting improved outcomes, with the majority of the remaining young people still accessing the service and with their outcomes to yet be captured but to reported in due course. 2. Foisel Choudhury To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to recent reported analysis by health equals, which shows that poverty-driven health inequalities are reducing life expectancy amongst people who live in the most deprived areas. We are using all of the powers and resources available to us to tackle poverty, reduce inequality, increase healthy life expectancy and thus create a fairer Scotland. The Scottish Government has allocated almost £3 billion across 22 to 23 to mitigate the damage inflicted on households by the UK Government's cost of living crisis. We are providing free school meals, increasing the numbers of hours of free childcare. We have already increased the Scottish child payment to £25 per week, supported £1.85 million households with council tax reduction and operated all benefits that we deliver. We will continue to deliver free prescriptions, concessionary travel, free personal care and our fair work agenda. As co-convener of the cross-party group on improving Scotland's health and as a member of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I am well aware of the disparities faced in Scotland in terms of health. In 2018, a study showed that a boy born in Muirhouse had a life expectancy of 13 years shorter than that of a boy born in neighbouring Crammond. Analysis from the health foundation reported that the average life expectancy in Scotland has reduced by 4.4 years since 2013. In addition, drug-related deaths have increased and are 18 times higher in the most deprived areas when compared to the list. Can the minister confirm what steps the Scottish Government has taken to address these health inequalities and the specific health conditions that disproportionately affect those from the most deprived areas? We absolutely recognise the clear and inextricable links between health inequalities and poverty, and that is why we are using all the powers and resources that are available to us to support families as far as possible and to tackle the underlying causes of inequality in our national mission to tackle child poverty. We are also, as you are aware, being on the CPGs that you are in. We are also targeting people who have low incomes and are reaching out to provide healthy, life-changing—sorry, sorry, sorry—we are also targeting people who live in poverty with means to stop smoking. Measures like the minimum unit pricing of alcohol that was aimed at the whole population had a particular impact on people who live in poverty, and those who live in poverty were the ones who were most helped by that policy. I thank the minister for that answer. For individuals with diabetics, poverty-driven health inequalities are preventing them from accessing technologies advanced in the treatment of their condition. This has been highlighted by Diabetics Scotland. Diabetics tech cannot wait campaign. This technology has a potential to change and indeed save the lives of those with type 1 diabetics. It can also reduce serious complications and the strain on the NHS. Can the minister advise what action it will take to tackle the inequalities of access to the hybrid close-loop diabetics technology in relation to a socially-communic background? It is a great question. Those people have real difficulty accessing healthcare and navigating healthcare. One of the reasons that people who are experiencing health inequalities suffer poorer outcomes is because the system fails to respond to them and listen to them in the way that it does for those from a wealthier and more educated background who are more able to advocate for themselves. Undoubtedly, we will be making sure that the system begins to listen to absolutely everyone. I can write to the member with details of how much money there is going into those particular diabetic technologies. It is a tragedy that one of the greatest predictors of people's health and life expectancy is their wealth. It is an absolutely brutal tragedy that this Parliament is determined to tackle. We will tackle it, but we will need cross-party support in order to make the bold decisions that do fundamentally tackle the underlying causes of poverty, as well as ensure that people who are living in poverty can access equal healthcare. The analysis that Mr Chowdry refers to makes it clear that 13 years of Calis-Tory austerity is now impacting every inch in the UK. Recent research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health also linked Tory-led austerity to worsening health outcomes in the 20 per cent most deprived day in Glasgow and Dundee. Will the cabinet secretary reiterate that the Scottish Government is committed to taking action within its powers to tackle the root causes of poverty and associated health inequalities? The member is absolutely right to raise this issue. In fact, Foisal Chowdry also mentioned the key date of 2013 for being when we started to see life expectancy reduce in Scotland. That is the academics tell us because of the Tory-Lybden austerity measures that they brought in 2010, which had a direct doubt. It is a policy that is absolutely life shortening for people in Scotland. It has had a life shortening impact on people living in Scotland. I hear them chunkering from a sedentary position 16 years. The academics are exceptionally clear on this point. Austerity, the political choice to pursue austerity politics, has been life shortening for people in Scotland and continues to be so.