 Not very good. It's not very good to me. I guess not very good. Thank you. The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 6631, in the name of Jackie Don barre on IWilWheak2022. This 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, and I call on Jackie Don barre to open the debate around seven minutes please Mr I'm pleased to be able to bring forward today's member's debate, celebrating the hard work and commitment of the young folk across Scotland on I Will Week. I thank all colleagues from across the chamber who have supported my motion, allowing us all to highlight the volunteers and young people across Scotland who are making a positive change in their communities this evening. Presiding Officer, I Will Week was first established in 2013, bringing together 50 young people who wanted to make a difference in their community, with 50 organisations who could help them to achieve their goals. The I Will Week now reaches over 700 young I Will ambassadors in over 1,000 organisations, and it took place from 21 to 25 November this year. It has the aim of shedding light on the challenges faced by young activists and change-makers, as well as helping to encourage meaningful conversations among all those who work in the youth work sector on how they can continue to support youth social action in 2023. From primary schools to a clinical commissioning group in Faro and Furnace to FTC companies to Government departments, the I Will movement has gone from strength to strength. However, challenges lie ahead. Poverty, the climate emergency, worsening mental health and wellbeing, social and economic inequalities, racial injustice. Challenges that existed before the Covid-19 crisis have been further exacerbated by the global pandemic, and the future has never felt more uncertain. That is why I Will Week is so vitally important. It provides a platform through which young people can truly influence change. Social action is about people coming together to improve their lives and solve the problems that are important in their communities. It can include volunteering, donating money, community action or simple neighbourly acts. Through the commitment and skills of citizens, social action can empower communities and help people in need. Taking part in social action is also associated with higher levels of wellbeing and can improve folks' confidence and skills. It is also often reported to be the catalyst for people becoming involved in local democracy and national politics, areas in which we need more diversity. Our ambition as a country is to be a democratic welcoming nation. In order to do that, we need to empower our communities to take more ownership of the decisions taken and empower folk to have influence over their lives and outcomes. Social action is important at a young age, and young folks should grow up influencing decisions and communities that will shape their futures and spaces to make a positive difference. I Will Week is one way of celebrating the young folk across the country who are involved in social action and striving to make their communities better for all young people, as well as seeking to see and make changes to policies, which may have an impact on young folk at local and national level. Research suggests that high-quality activities will meet six principles, including being youth-led, challenging, having social impact, allowing for progression to other opportunities, being embedded in a young person's life and enabling reflection about the value of the activity. The higher the quality of the social action, the more likely it is to benefit both the young folk involved and the communities or causes they are trying to help. Presiding Officer, I want to give a quick shout-out and a personal thank you to Sian Gullen for the help that she has provided me in this topic. Sian has recently marked her sixth year as an I Will ambassador, and in those six years she has worked with YouthLink as co-chair of the I Will advisory group and has been involved in a lot of the planning around the I Will events in Scotland, as well as helping to ensure that the movement remains youth-led. She has also been working with other I Will ambassadors and other young people to help to progress the youth VIP recommendations to make volunteers more accessible for young people across Scotland. She is a true advocate for social change, and I know that others are taking inspiration from her work. Presiding Officer, I will end by strongly encouraging all members across the chamber to help to promote the remarkable work of I Will and I Will ambassadors in helping to make change for not only young folk but the wider communities that we, as MSPs, represent. It is important that we recognise the incredible work of young folk across our local communities, regions and right across Scotland. Children and young people and not to be cliched, Presiding Officer, are indeed our future. We must enable them to lead the way and we must listen to their viewpoints and we must support them to bring about meaningful social change. Today, I ask the Minister for a commitment that the Government will build on its record in that regard and will continue to support the advancement of youth democracy and social change. I now call Audrey Nicoll to be followed by Douglas Lambson around four minutes. I would like to apologise for my late arrival in the chamber. I thank Jackie Dunbar for bringing this motion forward today in recognition of I Will Week 2022, an opportunity to recognise the important role that youth volunteering, campaigning and mentoring plays in our communities, our neighbourhoods, towns, families. As Jackie Dunbar has outlined, I Will has grown over the years and I Will Scotland, supported by YouthLink Scotland, brings together over 100 youth organisation members all across Scotland. I Will Scotland supports a wide range of initiatives and work, which are important in enabling young people to drive social change. Celebrating International Volunteers Day, the work of the youth Scottish Parliament is looking at a variety of issues to ensure that the rights of young people are upheld. The work to support young carers and young adult carers by ensuring that they can participate in a survey to find out about the pressures facing young carers and what support they need. I am delighted to see some focus on disability. I have been working quite closely with an inspiring young constituent who is passionate about driving forward disability rights for young people on the important issue of relaxed theatre performances and quiet shopping times in shopping centres for young people living with autism, and I thank her very much for her commitment and her drive on that. I am sadly old enough to have had the privilege of doing my own bit with young people, spending many years as a volunteer with the Aberdeen Outdoor Award Centre, supporting the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and as a child protection officer for Aberdeen Grammar Rugby. Indeed, there are very different roles with one thing in common, to help children and young people to reach their potential, step out of their comfort zones, build confidence and resilience and just have fun in a safe space. My own son was a scout for many years and as an adult he now looks back on the experiences and opportunities that the scouts gave him, team building, problem solving, being pushed out of his comfort zone, cooking and even dealing with feeling homesick, and I have absolutely no doubt that this made him the person that he is today. However, not all children and young people are given the opportunities that they deserve. Many find themselves faced with circumstances, experiences or an environment that is difficult and challenging for them to navigate. Therefore, it is imperative that barriers and obstacles are removed so that they can achieve their potential and just have a good fulfilling life. The focus and support of I Will provides this effort as pivotal and I was pleased to note the key themes explored in I Will week 2022 included working together and what we need to learn about working across sectors, how can young people shape a place, creating genuinely enabling environments for young people and the role of funders in all of that. Important themes and questions and ones that we must all be collectively invested in answering in our respective roles. I very much hope that the outcomes of this week of celebration and focus on young people provide the I Will movement with a platform to take their work forward right across Scotland. To conclude, I again thank Jackie Dunbar for bringing this debate forward this afternoon. I want to end with a few words that I often used to remind my own family about how valued they were. What you are looking for is already in you. You already are everything you need to be. Just never forget that. Thank you, Ms Nicol. I now call Douglas Lumson to be followed by Martin Whitfield around four minutes. Thank you to Jackie Dunbar for bringing this debate to Parliament this evening. We were councillors at Aberdeen City Council together and now MSPs together. We very rarely agree in debates but I'm glad we can today. Young people are part of society that deserve to be heard because they are here and they exist in the present. They are not just the future and the decisions made in Scotland and the UK affect young people today. Not my words, Presiding Officer. Those are the words of an I Will ambassador from Aberdeen. We are fortunate to have so many young people who are willing to come forward and be heard. As a Parliament we should be doing more to listen to their voices and hear their views on topics that affect us all. We are lucky in Scotland to have a vibrant youth Parliament and perhaps we should be working more to strengthen the links between those two bodies. As elected representatives we have the privilege of welcoming school groups into our workplace and I know that for many of us it's a highlight of our weeks. Young people have important things to say about our democracy, our policies and the issues that we discuss and they often ask the unexpected questions that others dare not ask. I Will weak is all about a celebration of those young people who get involved. It celebrates the social action that our young people are taking part in. It commends the huge amount of volunteering that young people do and the difference that they make throughout Scotland. Figures from Volunteer Scotland show that far from declining volunteering among our young people is actually increasing. Youth volunteer participation is double that of adult volunteers 49 per cent compared to 26 per cent. 17 per cent of our young people who don't volunteer say they will in the future and in the last decade formal volunteering has grown from 33 per cent to 49 per cent and girls are more likely to volunteer than boys. Our young people are active and vital members of our volunteering communities in Scotland. I Will weak also encourages organisations and governing bodies to commit to young people and their participation in social action and decision making. We want to see young people more engaged in how policy is made at all levels of our society. It gives me an enormous sense of pride that tomorrow in Aberdeen, my home city, there is a policy convention taking place with over 200 young people attending. They are discussing youth works role as a rights respecting and rights promoting practice. Young people are key to enabling social action in Scotland and be the catalyst for change that young people will ultimately drive. I think that as parliamentarians we should invite them to come here to present to us the outcomes of that conference. I would also like to add my thanks to the many youth organisations and youth workers throughout Scotland who are passionate about working with young people. Youth League Scotland were leading the I Will weak in Scotland doing incredible amounts of work to build and strengthen our network of youth work. Youth work does indeed change lives. I know that colleagues would also join me in congratulating Angela Leitch in her appointment as chair of that organisation just this week. Presiding Officer, in closing, I would once again like to pay tribute to our young people. Their ambition, vibrancy, hopefulness and commitment to helping others is something that I think that we could all learn from and emulate. They are indeed part of today's Scotland and we are a far richer country as a result. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Lumson. I now call Martin Whitfield, who will be the last speaker in the open debate. Round four minutes, please, Mr Whitfield. I'm very grateful, Presiding Officer. It is a pleasure to take part in this debate. I extend my thanks to Jackie Dunbar. It's fascinating that a debate should follow on from the debate that we had earlier, where this debate allows us to highlight some of the real strength that our young people can show us oldies. The desire through the I Will movement for young people to fight your cause—we see it no stronger in young people than in climate change and in democracy—the I Will movement to lead the movement, to listen to the young people. Douglas Lumson categorised it so brilliantly in the fact that they sometimes ask questions that even throw adults. I would go further and say that they sometimes have the solutions that we are perhaps too narrow minded to see sometimes. It is important that we open up the opportunity to listen properly to our young people and not to hide behind tick box exercises where we just say, yes, we've spoken to them and move on. It's yes that we've spoken to them, yes that we've listened to them and we want them to be part of the change that affects their lives. Of course, the last I Will movement claim is to pledge your support. That is the opportunity for organisations to walk the walk as well as talk the talk and pledge to support our young people, particularly at this challenging time. As we move into a period of poverty, the likes of which I think many living people in this country have never seen before and perhaps have only read about, we have huge tsunami coming our way and we need to involve the young people in the solutions to that, but also to have them part of the discussions because sometimes their ideas can, as I say, help us oldies. I would also like to echo Douglas Lumsden's thanks to Angela Leitch, who I know so well from her East Lothian past. I know that she will be a passionate advocate for young people. She will make sure that those young people have a say at the table or, indeed, perhaps just in the library or in a walk outside so that those young people can express their ideas, their opinions and their views in a way that they feel comfortable to do. I think that it's a massive idea to invite those from Aberdeen to come and give their proposals here, maybe in this chamber or perhaps wherever in the Parliament they feel most comfortable to do it and to hold us politicians to account. I know time is short and I know there was huge support for that motion, but I can't go on without extending my thanks to the young people themselves. I would like to pick one aspect of the volunteering, which I think is very important for both this chamber to note, but I would also look to the Minister for ideas on how we can improve that. When you look at the formal volunteering, the group of young people who come from our hardest hit families from the lowest smid ratings are often the lowest to formally volunteer. I think about members of the Scout, Carb, Girl, Guide movement. I think about other volunteering opportunities they have, but, interestingly, they are the group that statistics show are most likely to just volunteer to help their friend, their neighbour and their community. I think that there is no requirement that everyone has to formally volunteer, but I think that there could be very productive work done in trying to work out why the young people from those backgrounds are particularly challenged to enter formal volunteering, which often flows from great benefits and ideas when, clearly, the passion to volunteer, the passion to help and, indeed, the passion to have the answers already exist. I would be very interested both at the end of the debate, but going forward, what consideration has been done about bridging that gap between the accidental volunteering and the more formal volunteering, which is much easier to recognise in statistics and data. In conclusion, I once again thank Jackie Dunvile for bringing this opportunity to the chamber tonight. We are talking about the most important people in our society, and I think that the I Will week has shown what they can really offer, and it is first oldies to listen to them. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Whitfield. I now call on Jamie Hepburn to respond to the debate. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I begin by joining others in thanking Jackie Dunvile for securing this debate, allowing us to collectively have the opportunity to recognise I Will week 2022. I thank colleagues for their contributions this evening, although I dissociate myself from Martin Whitfield's oldies categorisation. I want that very firmly on the record, but this has been a short debate and has been a very valuable one. I Will week is an important initiative for recognising volunteering, recognising fundrais and recognising the campaigning and recognising the mentoring work that young people are doing to benefit others. Youth Link Scotland deserves a mention for the activity that they do in that regard. In organisation, I have the highest respect for and engage with and work with regularly. I pay my thanks to Tim Frew for his leadership as the chief executive. Of course, I welcome Angela Leitch to her role. It is also important that we place on record our thanks to Lorna Hood, who has made a massive contribution to public life in Scotland generally, but not least in her role as chair of Youth Link Scotland over the past six years. It is important that we place on record our thanks to her. We should also thank the many thousands of people who volunteer or work in the youth work sector, who provide the support and provide the opportunities for young people to engage through the medium of youth work. Many of the examples of which we have heard here tonight and exist right across the country. We as a Government value the kindness and generosity of volunteers, volunteers who continue to make a difference in our communities across the country. It is important to recognise that through that, I will weaken the impact of all of our young people who choose to volunteer and who make a difference. That massive contribution is having a positive impact. It is improving the lives of individuals and communities across Scotland that makes Scotland at a better place. Scotland's volunteering action plan was launched in June of this year, and it aims to create a Scotland where everyone can volunteer more often and throughout their lives, and it includes supporting young people to volunteer should they want to. In that regard, I think that a fair point was made by Martin, which I feel about, trying to extend the opportunity for the fullest and widest range of young people to be able to take part in volunteering, no matter their background. As we take forward our youth work strategy, that will be a focal point for us to consider how we can better reach out and involve more young people. In the current situation, we should observe that volunteers have been at the front line of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and they are now a critical part of the response in the face of the cost of living crisis that we are now facing. Volunteers have provided a range of support. We have all seen that in the communities that we represent, and young people have, of course, been a critical part of that activity. In the context, because part of the motion that Ms Dunbar has laid before us, and we debate this evening, talks about the work to try and tackle poverty, poverty that young people experience. We know the impact, the real impact that the current situation is having on families living in poverty and the implications that it has for our young people. In March this year, we published our second tackling child poverty delivery plan, Best Start Bright Futures, and that sets out the range of ambitions that we have, the actions that we will take over the next four years and beyond to tackle poverty. That comes as part of our ambition to make Scotland the best place in the world for a child to grow up. The national outcome for children and young people is that children grow up loved, safe and respected so that they reach their full potential. In that sense, then in March 2021, we collectively made a step towards that when we as a parliament passed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Cooperation, Scotland Bill, which is an important part of the landscape of youth work, because it enables and gives young people and children the expression to have their voice health, which is, of course, a fundamentally important right that they have. I am very grateful, and I have no intention of entering a note of discord, but on that point of the UNCRC, do we have a date when it will be returning to the chamber for reconsideration? I know that the Deputy First Minister has laid out to Parliament how we intend to take that, for that will be brought back. I am afraid that I cannot give the specific information, because it is not me that is leaning on it, but I will make sure that we pick up on it, and if there is information that I can convey to Mr Woodfield, I will be happy to do so. The youth parliament was mentioned by Audra Nicolle and Douglas Lumsden as well, and of course we have the children's parliament as well. Again, they are an important part of the landscape of youth work, but they are also an important conduit for young people to come forward and set out their opinion, their view on the world that we live in now. I thought that Douglas Lumsden made that point very effectively when he cited the ambassador that he quoted from. We have to think of young people, not just in the context of the future contribution that they can make, but in the contribution that they can make here now. Their voices should be heard, and I can assure all members that those organisations are a very effective mechanism for communicating the voices of young people to the Scottish Government. Having mentioned the youth work strategy that we are going to return to, we want to ensure that we continue to reap the benefits of the extraordinary activity of the youth work sector. In the vein of Jackie Dunbar's desire for us to restate the importance of youth empowerment, that is why it is important that we take forward that work to have the development of a new youth work strategy. That is very much designed to improve outcomes for young people through a stronger, better, connected system that offers opportunities to promote equality and equity, and it is inclusive of the needs of all young people. Our vision is for every young person to realise their full potential, regardless of their background and circumstances. Youth work can play a critical role in that regard. My aim is that the youth work strategy will enable that to be taken forward further still. We must actively give young people the confidence that their voices will be heard. Let us keep speaking to young people to ensure that, in partnership, we represent their views on the issues that matter most to them here in Parliament.