 Go iallrdd i'n gwoesbun o'i gyntaf i fynd i fynd i ddweud i'ch gael y ddull. Felly, gennynnu wneud~)ig busnes o'r ddebyd ddoch chi i'r contracts cymaintogol eich cael daddau i Mwcien 1, 2, 1, 6, 2 i'r adon, i'r ddebyd i y dddiw i ddweud i ddweud iddiweud i ddweud o'i ddweud i'n cyfaintogol, I invite those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons and I call on Karen Adam to open the debate around seven minutes please. Thank you Presiding Officer. This is such a moving moment for me to bring this debate to the Scottish Parliament, particularly when we are welcoming dozens of young carers here today. Amongst our visitors are two very special young women who, due to their initiative, made this debate happen. I wish to give my thanks also to their teacher for supporting them because obviously she is doing a fantastic job and I'm so glad they can all be with us today. I also want to dedicate my words to those young carers who are unable to be with us, perhaps because of their caring responsibilities and to those who, without realising it, see their caregiving simply as what needs to be done in their family, without truly understanding what their role means. As a young girl, I seldom called myself a carer, but as a coda, a child of a deaf adult, acting as an interpreter and advocating for my deaf father, as he navigated life in a hearing world, it became second nature. As was the case for many of my coda friends who were supporting their deaf family members. As we go about our daily routines, whether that be driving to work, dropping the kids off at school or just nipping to the shop around us, working quietly throughout their day, are young carers. These are children and young people whose mornings may have begun much earlier than for many of us in this chamber. In the quiet of their homes they may have been assisting a parent with a physical disability, preparing breakfast for them and perhaps those of their siblings too. Helping to wash or offering strength and comfort to a parent grappling with mental health challenges. Buffering and mitigating many of the effects that come with disability or illness. So many of those young people watching down on us in the gallery today and countless others across Scotland find themselves in a world where the roles are reversed. A world in which these young people, so full of love and devotion, are shouldering burdens that we weigh heavily on many adults. Imagine a young lad who, before he thinks of school work or socialising with his peers, ensures that his siblings' medical needs are met. The young girl, who instead of scrolling through social media much like her peers, checks in on her mother's wellbeing, providing comfort and encouragement with a maturity well beyond her years. Those are not just acts of duty but profound expressions of love and commitment performed in the backdrop of their youth. The two pupils who contacted my office to discuss the lack of resources for young carers in our area really showed their sheer determination from the outset. Their advocacy for young carers was nothing short of inspiring. We sat in my office chatting for about an hour, putting plans into action and often I think how I doubt I would have had that initiative to approach my elected representative at their age, let alone to meet and advocate so eloquently for the needs of others. Conversations like those stand out in our careers as parliamentarians and it is truly a privilege to bring this debate here today and pay tribute to them. Yesterday we marked young carers action day and I want not just to celebrate these remarkable young individuals although we should and often but we must provide young carers with the support they so rightfully deserve. The theme of this year's young carers action day is fair futures for young carers as they are fighting a battle on two fronts, managing their caregiving responsibilities and navigating the trials and tribulations of growing up. It is imperative that caring responsibilities do not become barriers to learning, earning or simply being able to move forward in life. I am grateful to Karen Adam for giving way on this important topic. I took part in a question time last night on young carers action week in Perth college and one of the points put to me was the importance of the education system understanding the circumstances of young carers and ensuring that the approach of the education system reflected and took account of those additional demands that Karen Adam is so powerfully putting on the record this afternoon. Would Karen Adam agree that it is important that our education system understands the pupils that are part of our education system and their particular needs when they are young carers? Yes, I absolutely agree with my colleague John Swinney on that point and I am going to discuss a little bit about education in my speech but there needs to be allowances, provisions and extra support for those young carers. Many young carers feel that they are missing out on large parts of their childhood and caring can also have a serious impact on a young person's health and wellbeing and, as my colleague pointed out, their ability to learn and their long-term future. According to Carers Trust, more than half of young carers in Scotland say that they feel worried about their future. Forty-three percent of young carers and young adult carers in Scotland say that caring always or usually affects how much time they can spend with friends. It is not surprising, but it is something that we must help with and I want to dedicate a portion of my speech today on the point of the ability to learn their education. Learning environments play a crucial role in supporting and developing young people with caring responsibilities and, as such, schools, colleges and universities must be understanding but also supportive of young carers. Too many do not feel that that is currently the case. One in three say that they struggle to balance their caring responsibilities with their education and young adult carers are 38 per cent less likely to achieve a university degree. Sadly, those caring for 34, 35 or more hours a week are 86 per cent less likely to do so and are also 46 per cent less likely to enter employment than their peers. We need to do our utmost to ensure that young carers have access to learning and training opportunities and that they succeed in their education and employment. They must have time to themselves and that is so important for their mental health. Above all, young carers must feel that they have a choice in their lives and I am glad to see that the Scottish Government is providing a young carers grant. However, a leading carers charity says that many young people who look after others do not recognise themselves as carers and, as I said earlier, they see that support that they give as just a regular part of family life. As a result, they do not know that they are entitled to this benefit, so I hope that we can really promote that as much as possible today. In conclusion, the motion that we are debating today is a call to action and not just for recognition. The care that so many of the young people in the gallery and beyond are providing to their families, and the contribution that they are making to our society more broadly is invaluable. Thank you to my colleague Karen Adam for bringing this important debate to the chamber today. The theme of this year's young carers action day is, as we have heard, fair futures for young carers, which is about removing barriers that young carers face, that their peers may not. It was my absolute pleasure recently to visit the Stirling Young Carers Service, who work in my constituency. I am delighted that Esther Keane and Cara Barber are in the gallery with us today. I am also delighted that Robert Kearney also joins us with his mum Anne. Robert volunteers with the service and was himself a young carer. We know that caring can be a very positive experience, but there can be negative impacts on young carers without the right support. That is why organisations such as the Stirling Young Carers Service are so important. They told me that young carers often experience stress, tiredness and anxiety due to their caring role. That in turn can mean that they find it hard to concentrate at school and keep up with their schoolwork and homework. They can also feel isolated and miss out on social experiences with their peers. In Stirling's constituency, we are very lucky because we have Stirling Young Carers Service, who run rural groups. I know that rurality is a barrier to accessing support. Organisations across Scotland and in Stirling are doing excellent work at breaking down those barriers. Stirling Young Carers are currently supporting over 150 young carers, 59 of whom are in rural groups. 29 are receiving one-to-one support to help them to manage stress. However, they pointed out that young people cannot access support if they do not know that they are young carers. Robert Kearney has been volunteering with Stirling Young Carers Service for six years, and Robert Kearney is so passionate about his volunteering. He is an amazing young man who also helped to care for and support his twin brother. As a child, he felt that it was just his brother, and it was very natural to do the things that he did for him. It was only later that he realised that, by taking on such responsibilities, it meant that he was classed as a young carer. The carers service found that 89 per cent of young carers experienced an impact on their emotional wellbeing due to their caring role. When they do not know that they are a young carer, they miss out on so much support, including financial support, such as the young carer grant. That is especially important when 15 per cent of young carers live in the most deprived areas in Scotland. In order to address that, Stirling Young Carers is working in schools to help to spread awareness of what it means to be a young carer and designing CPD for school staff. It would also like to see mandatory training for teachers and school staff similar to that offered on safeguarding. That could make a huge difference, especially in light of research from Carers Trust Scotland, which suggests that nearly half of young carers do not often get help to balance caring and their education. I thank Stirling Young Carers and their volunteers, such as Robert, and the thousands of young carers across Scotland for the tireless work that they do. If you are a teenager aged between 16 and 18 with a caring role, you might be entitled to a young carer's grant and other support. It is worrying that the Scottish Government figures suggest that around 25 per cent of those eligible for a young carer grant in 2022-23 did not apply. If you are unsure and you are a local constituent of mine, please get in touch. I now call Jeremy Balfour to be followed by Kara Mockins. I am delighted to speak in today's debate to support young carers. I generally thank Karen Adams for bringing forward this debate this afternoon. Young carers have something to be proud of. They sacrifice so much to care for someone they love. Those young people are often certain that they are shaped in that person that they are by their caring role. They gain a heightened sense of empathy, develop acute observation skills and have experience that comes together to form a more caring nature. This is something to celebrate, but we must all do more to support those who encountered challenges that their peers do not. It is important that we both acknowledge their different experiences and commend their hard work. Like Karen Adams, I want to point out that many people do not understand that they are carers. I asked my daughter recently, as she was doing up my lasers, are you a young carer? She rolled her eyes and said no, but there are many people who do so much whether for siblings or for parents that are carers that, as both former speakers have said, simply do not acknowledge. It would be a miss of me not to take the opportunity to thank my siblings as I grew up for the extra support that they gave me. Young carers have plenty on their plate, as well as being in school, their caring work can often involve cooking, providing emotional support, running a household, shopping, dispensing medicine and giving personal care. In light of a young carer's day, it is good to take a moment to think about what a caring role means for a young person's life. For some, the struggle has been seen as different by their friends at school. It can lead to social isolation. That can be made worse by the fact that young carers often do not have as much free time to meet up with their friends as other young people do. They can lose that innocence much earlier than others. We should acknowledge that and do everything that we can to support them. We have a theme this year about fair futures for young carers. The best way that others have acknowledged already is to facilitate that through education. It is so important that young carers are properly supported in school and that they are not disadvantaged for the future. We must take this need seriously and it must not be simply heard by this Parliament but, more importantly, it must be heard by local authority education departments and head teachers and teachers at every level of school. Many of us have the privilege of every year going along to the camp that is run for young carers. I am short for the last seven years to have heard the same message, but often young carers do struggle to stay awake because they have been up all night. They do struggle to get their homework in time because they have had caring responsibilities. Often, sadly, teachers do not take that into account and they are disadvantaged by this. I know that there are not simple answers to this, but there must be a way that we can, in some way, identify those who are young carers and give them the extra support that they require to make sure that, as Card Adams pointed out, they do not miss out on future job opportunities or colleges or universities. Young carers are among the best of us and we owe it to them to provide us as much support as we can. To this end, I would encourage everyone to sign the young carers covenant and to gather and move forward towards a fair future for young carers. It is released, we deserve. I thank Card Adams for bringing this important debate to the chamber on behalf of Scottish Labour and I thank young carers across Scotland for everything that they do and reiterate our support for them. We welcome the carers trust annual young carers action day and recognise the impact of the work carried out by the carers trust across the UK, but, of course, specifically here in Scotland. It is right, as stated in the motion, that caring should not become a barrier to learning, earning or being able to get on in life, although I do appreciate that this may be the challenging reality for many young carers here in Scotland. It is really incumbent on all of us in this Parliament to move those barriers whenever we can. As others have said quite apt this year's theme is fair futures, because, ultimately, that is what comes down to fairness. Young carers at the moment do not get a fair deal. I think that we have heard this in the chamber today. The barriers to learning and earning means that taking on caring responsibilities means making sacrifices that will have lasting impacts. There is no equality in that, no fairness, and it is an injustice. I think that we have heard today that we all are determined to help overcome this. Looking at the carers trust's most recent report, there were some extremely concerning figures coming out of the research in Scotland, and we need to make sure that we are all aware of that. Half of young carers who work struggle to balance caring duties with paid work. Over half are stressed, usually, or always because of being a young carer, and two thirds feel that the cost of living crisis is always or usually affecting them and their families. Important information from young carers to us and here in this place we must take these facts seriously. It must act as a wake-up call because these are not just figures, they represent individual stories across Scotland of young people who are genuinely struggling to balance caring duties with work and education and who are feeling the impacts when it comes to their emotional and mental health. This is not a situation that excellent young carers should find themselves in, but it is a reality and those in government do have to reflect on these important pieces of information. Mental health waiting lists in Scotland remain far too high, far too long and young people continue to suffer as they wait for appointments that are needed urgently. Indeed, those challenges are exacerbated by a UK Government handling of the economy that has created a cost of living crisis that does, we have heard from young carers themselves, add anxiety and stress to individuals and families. Governments must accept responsibility and accountability for their own discussions and actions and their feelings. When they do that, we can then properly engage in co-operative and properly overcome the significant and worrying challenges. One further key area that has been raised by young carers and here in the chamber tonight is about the balancing of education. Schools and colleges and universities must be more flexible in supporting young carers in particular to carry out their duties, but they must still have that crucial ability to achieve what it is that it would like to achieve. I recognise that I am running out of time and there is so much more to say in this issue, but I once again thank Scotland's young carers for the tremendous contribution that they make to not only their families but right across Scotland. It is important for us to hear your voices and I think that Karen Adam bringing this to the chamber has allowed us to do that. I commit my party to continuing to support a cross-party approach to this. I thank Karen Adam for bringing this important member's debate to the chamber. I wish to extend my gratitude to young carers across Scotland for the incredible work that they do in looking after their loved ones, including those who are joining us in the chamber this afternoon. Yesterday, we celebrated young carers action day and I would like to commend the immense contribution that young carers make to our society when caring for their family and loved ones. As others have said, many young carers would not think twice about what it is that they do, but we need to make sure that we think deeply about how we support them properly. Caring for someone should not be a barrier to equal opportunities in learning or participating in life, especially at a young age. Those young carers' lives are much too often further complicated by education and employment systems that fail to identify and understand the diversity of their caring roles and respond to their support needs. We also need to ensure that we address issues for young adult carers in that regard as well. For someone who leaves school, any good support that was there stops and they need to start again at college, university or workplace. Carers Trust research found that 59 per cent of young carers in Scotland care for more than 20 hours each week, with 12 per cent spending 50 hours or more providing unpaid care on a weekly basis. I welcome the launch by Carers Trust of the first-ever UK-wide covenant for young carers and young adult carers, which has been shaped by the views of more than 500 young carers. I thank the Carers Trust for allowing me to join them for the launch of the covenant earlier this week and I encourage everyone in the chamber to sign up. We heard from young carers across the UK about their experience and what they want to see for young carers and young adult carers. The whole session was led by young carers who did a wonderful job articulating not only their experience but the experience that they had gathered from others. What they told us was that young carers need lasting and meaningful change. We must ensure that they remain at the forefront of policy development and have access to the support that they are entitled to and deserve. In Scotland, they must have a fair chance to prosper in all aspects of their lives so that they can achieve their full potential and secure a fair future. Karen Adam is also correct that we need to provide opportunities for these young people to be young people. I have been hugely privileged to attend the young carers festival, which allows young carers to have a break from their caring responsibilities and a space to see friends and have their voices heard. There was also an opportunity to ask questions of MSPs. I was struck speaking to them at the number of issues that young carers wanted to ask me about. I was totally prepared for questions about caring and access to services, but many were asking questions about other issues completely unrelated to their caring responsibilities that they were passionate about. It struck me that that is actually some of what the young carers festival is about, allowing young people to get into things that interest them. It was an enlightening experience, even if they absolutely put me through my paces and challenged my policy knowledge. If anyone gets the chance to go, they absolutely should. I would also like to take the opportunity to shine the light on some of the incredible work across central Scotland that is aimed at benefiting young carers. At the Falkirk and Clackmannanshire carers centre, the organisation offers support tailored to the needs of young carers aged 8 to 18. That includes a support group with monthly sessions providing young carers with the rest from their caring responsibilities and the chance to connect with peers who understand their experiences. North and South Lanarkshire young carers are dedicated to supporting the experiences of young carers across the region. Their mission involves raising awareness, identifying and offering direct support to those who care for family members with illness or disability, including those caring for parents with mental health or substance abuse issues. I would like to extend my very best wishes to all those involved in this year's young carers action day and their endeavours. Young carers action day serves as an important reminder of the invaluable contributions that young carers make in our communities and to their families and the urgent need for support and recognition of their vital role. Together, we must amplify their voices, champion their rights and work tirelessly towards a more inclusive and supportive society where every young carer feels valued and empowered. I thank my colleague Karen Adam for bringing this important debate to the chamber. I also extend my heartfelt gratitude to all our young carers, the length and breadth of Scotland, including those from South and East Ayrshire and my Carrot Cymde and Doon Valley constituency, some of whom are in the gallery today. I first met the young people from the South Ayrshire young carers back in June when I attended a screening of their brilliant short film entitled The Weekend at South Ayrshire County buildings. I have always been in awe at the resilience, the determination and the love that is shown by our young carers, but nothing prepared me for how blown away I was by both the film itself but also by the young people when they took the time to explain to me how the film came about and also gave me an insight into their daily lives. I came away totally humbled and determined to help amplify their voices in this place. I am delighted with the success that their young carer awareness raising film has garnered. Initially, only intended for local use, the film is now raising awareness of young carers right across Scotland and the UK. I was very impressed to learn that the film was entirely co-produced, with the young carers starring in, writing, producing and directing it. A big thanks to the local social enterprise film company, The Iris, and to South Ayrshire Council for recognising the value of co-production. It empowers in a way that simply telling a story cannot do. It is a very poignant and thought provoking illustration of the life of young carers through their own eyes. The film tells the story of three young people as they navigate their lives and their caring roles over a single weekend. Importantly, the film contains a story on parental substance use, which they have been praised for including. I hope that that will help to challenge the persistent stigma and also encourage children and young people in this situation to come forward for support as a young carer. The film has since achieved several accolades, including winning the Scottish Public Services award for diversity inclusion, and winning the Scotland and North East England regional final of the Great British Care awards and the unpaid carer category. They are heading to the UK finals later this month, and I am sure that the chamber will join with me in wishing them the very best of luck. They are also finalists in the Youth Link Scotland awards later this year for equality and diversity. Importantly, the film is now included in continuous professional development learning modules for Education Scotland and Carers Trust Scotland. That has really helped to raise the profile of young carers locally and nationally. Through their work with schools, the film supports young people to self-identify as young carers to ensure that they get the support to achieve equity and that their peers give them an insight into what the life and everyday experiences of young carers are, challenging assumptions and improving peer understanding. I think that that is absolutely vital. The authenticity from co-production and the pioneering content have also produced a resource that is changing the lives of children and families right across the country. I will see if I can get the film shared with MSPs because, as the legislators of the land, it is important that we hear directly from young people ourselves. Excitingly, they are now working with primary age children to make a film suitable for their age and stage, with the young people involved in the weekend and now involved in this new project as peer mentors. I think that that is just amazing. Finally, in terms of support nationally for young carers, the young people themselves told me about how important it is to have protected funding for young carers at a local level and for the young carer training to be made mandatory for education and social work alongside that statutory child protection training that they get. They need to be seen, heard and supported. We need to actively demonstrate that we care for the carers and that we all have a responsibility to ensure that young people are supported in their caring roles, but they are also supported just to be kids. That means recognising what supports need to be put in place to truly provide that equity that then gives them real equality and a fair future. I congratulate my colleague on securing this debate, and it is a privilege to speak in it. I do indeed welcome young carers here today. There are around 1 million young carers aged 17 or under in the UK, and if we extrapolate on population numbers, that means approximately 100,000 young carers in Scotland, and I am sure that this is an underestimate. At this stage in the debate, Deputy Presiding Officer and two colleagues in the gallery, I apologise for the duplication of any points made, but they deserve repeating. Who is a young carer? That is tricky, because many looking after adults in the family or siblings will not identify themselves as a carer, and there are some indeed who may wish to keep quiet, perhaps for fear of interference from social work. Young carers usually know who they are, but for public consumption a young carer is someone under 18 who helps to look after someone in their family or a friend who is ill, disabled or misuses drugs or alcohol. They can also have emotional as well as practical caring responsibilities. The level of single-handed responsibility that sometimes placed on young carers would be daunting even for an adult. Cleaning, laundry, washing, food shopping, lifting, cooking, financial and practical management, with growing cash, paying bills, intimate care, washing, bathing, giving medication, sibling care, looking after a brother or sister and so on. Often the condition of the person they care for is not obvious, so people do not think that the young person needs help. I understand too why young carers do not want to be any different from their peers or draw attention to their caring role. Understandably, they may want to keep their identity as a carer at school or college separate from their caring role. They may feel that they cannot discuss it with their friends. They do not have an opportunity to share their story. They are worried about bullying. Indeed, as I have said, they are worried that the family might be split up and that they themselves might be taken into care. They may want their caring to get a secret because they are embarrassed. Some young carers even look after more than one person and may have health issues of their own. Some start giving care at a very young age and others can become carers overnight. I looked at the carers' trust. Young carers in education took it. I was once a teacher and there is an important role that we have referred to here to the role of education. The class teacher is called a resource for identifying and supporting young carers. They can be distracted, for example by checking their phone, not for a trivial reason, but to check on the person that they care for and that they are okay. They can become quiet and withdrawn. They get no time at home to study due to hectic or chaotic home life and come back to school with homework undone. Should the teacher be taking them to task or working out what is behind this? They feel pressured to remain in a caring role and not progress into further education and division of their loyalties. Now there is helpful guidance on the Scotland website for teachers and the most important thing is to be aware, notice the change in behaviour perhaps of one of your pupils and ask yourself what is at the back of this. There is young carers' awareness training for teachers, so important for practitioners, student teachers and probationers, so that they know the signs to look out for. I think that a key thing here is to change the narrative, celebrate young carers and the valuable work that they do. It is a positive to be a young carer, but important to be recognised for that. There is, of course, a duty for local authorities, but I have not got time to go into it, but both Midlothian and Borders have guidance on the website for young carers. I want to finish with this, but it is time that we all come together to make a change and create a fair future for young carers. The young carers covenant, which I have read, will do exactly that, and that is why I have signed it. I thank Karen Adam for initiating this important debate regarding young carer action day. I thank all of you for being here to discuss young carers and the vital contribution that they make to society. As so often, my colleague Karen Adam has absolutely brought to life, partly because of her own lived experience and has given us immense insights into the situation for young carers and has used her lived experience to advocate for change. It is really powerful to hear your own story and the testimonies that you have shared. Young carer action day, which took place yesterday, is a valuable annual event, not only because it puts a spotlight on the very important issues that young carers face, but it also allows us to hear directly from young carers. In fact, we have more than 50 young carers here today in Parliament learning about how they can create change and speaking about what they need from us as decision makers. I heard first hand at last year's young carer festival how this year's theme of a fairer future for young carers is an absolutely crucial focus for many of them. They express both their excitement and their apprehension at looking forward and planning for their future. As I said in my opening, it is really important that Parliament has been given the opportunity to acknowledge the positive role that young carers play in our society and to reflect on some of the pressures that they face. As part of this, we welcome the young carer covenant, launched by carers trust, as part of young carer action day. Committing to the covenant will take a cross-government commitment, so I will absolutely commit now to engage with my ministerial colleagues about the Scottish Government signing up. I encourage others who work with young carers to sign up too. The statements in the covenant align with our policies and actions already in place to help to recognise and support young carers, as set out in the Carers Scotland Act in our national carers strategy. I am very grateful for the opportunity to mention some of those actions that we are taking to support young carers to ensure that caring is not a barrier to them achieving their future goals. In 2022, we published our Scottish Government national carers strategy. Now, into the second year of implementation, the strategy sets out our approach to addressing current issues facing all carers, as well as a long-term vision for building a sustainable future for young carers. We recognise in the strategy that young carers' education and their future prospects are incredibly important. That is why we fully fund an education officer at Carers Trust Scotland, and we will continue to work with education colleagues to ensure that young carers are seen and supported in schools. I agree with John Swinney and others about the flexibility and extra support that is needed for children and young people in education. I agree with the point about raising awareness so that people self-identify as carers. We have a young carers identification awareness raising campaign that runs around the young carers festival and the young carers action day. My own personal view is that the system needs to be just that little bit more automatic. That would solve a couple of problems. Very often, the person that those young people are caring for is well known to the system. It is very often a brother or sister who is also in the education system. Why not automatically recognise and identify brothers and sisters as part of their care? Proactively offering them support means that we do not have to wait for them to identify themselves. I am keen to pursue that with education colleagues. As well as working with education colleagues, we have been working with Skills Development Scotland and employers with projects such as Carers Positive to make sure that when young carers are ready to join the world of work, there continues to be flexibility and support for them. Many young carers tell us that they receive invaluable support from their local carer and young carer services. That is why we fund the coalition of carers in Scotland and carers trust Scotland to support carer centres and young carer services to collaborate and to build capacity. Alongside their core local funding, we provided £560,000 in 23, 24 for local carer centres to expand their support to carers, including young carers, and have provided £3.5 million specifically for short breaks. Being able to take a break as a young carer is absolutely key to ensuring that they get time to pursue their hobbies, manage their own wellbeing and have other opportunities that can help to support them in their future goals. To reassure Gillian Mackay and others who raised that point, we will establish a right to breaks from carers through the national care service bill to support people to protect their wellbeing and to sustain those caring relationships. The bill will create a right to personalise breaks, support for any carer who is not currently able to access sufficient breaks, but we are not waiting for the bill. We are acting now to expand the easy access short breaks ahead of that legislation. As well as the short breaks fund, we fund the Young Scot young carer package and the annual young carer festival to help young carers to have some form of break, pursue the opportunities and to have fun. Improving support for unpaid carers is an absolute priority for our social security powers. Despite our fixed budgets and our limited powers of devolution, we have transformed social security provision in Scotland, delivering assistance based on our principles of dignity, fairness and respect. We want to ensure that caring is not a barrier for young people, certainly. Mark Griffin? I really appreciate the minister giving way. I think that the young carer grant has been a fantastic addition to the social security landscape in Scotland. When the minister talks about fairness, I think that there is a slight unfairness in that eligibility, where siblings or people in the same household need to choose between themselves who apply and qualify for that young carer grant, despite them both providing the same level of care. I wonder whether the minister would give any consideration to extending that criteria just so slightly so that siblings in the same household could qualify. The member will be aware that the social security powers do not lie in my portfolio, but I am more than happy to raise that issue with colleagues. As I said, responding to young carers' needs is going to require a cross-government approach, and I am more than happy to raise those issues and see what we can do to improve the situation. We want to ensure that caring is not a barrier for young people to succeed in life. Since 2019, we have invested around £3.3 million, making over 10,000 payments of our young carer grant, which is unique to Scotland, and provides young carers with that annual payment of more than £350 to spend as they choose. That gives them direct control of how best to support themselves, allowing them to access life opportunities and activities that are more typical for their peers. We recognise the importance of young carers having access to education, and our recently launched carer support payment expands access to many carers in full-time education who are currently unable to get carers allowance, benefiting up to 1,500 carers a year once the benefits are available nationally. We will continue to engage with carers of all ages, including young carers, to inform future improvements to carer support payments. All that work that I have just mentioned has been guided by young carers telling us what they need, and we will continue to listen to young carers to shape our work. To close, I want to acknowledge members' contributions. Today, it has been a fabulous debate, with the issues that are absolutely brought to life and lots of wonderful references to the young people in the gallery. Most importantly, I want to acknowledge the huge contribution that is being made by young carers right across Scotland, and I want to reiterate the Scottish Government's commitment to doing what we can to ensure that young carers have access to the support that they deserve when they need it.