 Dyma gan ymlaen i ddiwgai ddod am gymaint ar contradictorio i Gensiom. Efallai, ein digiann o'u gwneud gan ddiwgai ddod iawn ar gyfer hwyl fforddau mewn twdd, ac rydw i'n ddych chi'n gweithio i'r ddiwgai mewn cyfrifiadau, ac rydw i'n ddych chi'n gweithio i gael gan ddiwgai meddwl unrhyw i ddorog. I generation unrhyw y maes yng nghydfodd hyn i ddod i ddych chi'n gweithio i'r ddod hefyd. I want to thank all members across Benches for signing this motion, allowing me to have it debated tonight. I would also like to welcome to the gallery Mel Scrimger, manager at New Bires Nursing and Marie, who is a deputy manager. Claire Holmes, a carer, Elizabeth Cain or Bessie and Diane Hamilton, residents all from New Bires village. George K. trustee, one of the trustees for generations working there, and Kate Samuels, their communication intern. We're very welcome. I'd also like to thank the minister. I know he visited this project today, and no doubt he's going to tell us how we got on with the bean bags, but I'll leave that in limbo just now, as I know it's part of his speech. It is now. You know when you're out and about on constituency visits, you stumble on something, even after 70 years on MSP, which is news to you. So it was on a visit to New Bires Nursing and Gore Bridge that I first learned of this intergenerational project. It was actually quite timely, because a few weeks later in channel 4, there was a four-part documentary on the interaction between a nursery located inside a residential home. However, how many in this Parliament, just like me, knew that similar programmes were already on our own doorstep in Scotland? Before I go on, just a plug for a timely event tonight hosted by Bruce Crawford, which ties in nicely to the debate. It's highlighted in a report called A Good Life in Later Years. It's earned from 6 p.m. and I hope that some of the participants can see them have made their way here, too. Back to New Bires. New Bires village is little more than a stone's throw from New Bires village care home. On that day, children will usually walk from the nursery for their weekly and that early visit. When New Bires Nursery opened at the end of May 2016, one of its main aims was to forge strong links with the community, having benefited so much from community support during the extensive renovation project. While intergenerational work was and very much still is in its infancy, Mel Strimger, the manager, having heard of centres over in the USA that combining preschools with care homes for the elderly brought incredible benefits to both the very young and the very old and was keen to do more than the token visit to the local care home at Harvest Festival or Christmas time, with which we are more familiar. It was not to be, in her words, tokenistic, but with regular meetings. She contacted Gail Flynn, the activities co-ordinator at New Bires village, who was enthusiastic about the idea and welcomed them with open arms. Last but not least, there is Kate Samuels of Generations working together, but more of that later. Before I go any further, let me congratulate the parents and carers of the children as well as the nursery staff and not the least the care home staff as it is entirely a team effort and the commitment from all these parties which makes it work. Some of the great assets of four-year-olds, and they have many, is their boundless curiosity, energy and directness. On arriving at New Bires, some of the activities that I have seen for myself are not the cans down, there were not bean bags when I was there. Those were made by the New Bires village staff, throwing the balls through holes in a makeshift cardboard wall, fishing for toy ducks in a paddling pool, which I was not successful, and lots of other activities. The children are all up for it, but so are the residents who turn up. Some in their determination to hit target are almost falling out of their wheelchairs with the effort. The children run about, retrieve the balls and take them to the residents and, of course, have a go themselves. Apart from improving hand and eye co-ordination and improving the motor skills of both the nursery children and the residents, there is that invigorating element of competitiveness, but it is the fun and the laughter from the residents and the children, which I remember most. Gales of laughter and many, many smiles interspersed with the comments from the children and the residents. It is all very noisy and great fun. After all that noise and fun, the children settle down to their deuce and the residents to their tease. Other events might be more sedate, such as reading stories and painting. What is so good about the whole inter-generation project is that its success just comes naturally. It is an extension of what I know through time spent with my six-year-old granddaughter. When, otherwise, would I have to be taken out of myself and into her world, her priorities, made to do exercise, I always try to avoid. In this project, whether the residents have grandchildren or not, that individual and special relationship between the elderly—and, by the way, residents were in their 80s and 90s and one was a centenarian—and with young children just falls into place as naturally as night follows day. The benefits to children and residents are therefore all to see the staff of both care home and nursery are rewarded for their commitment to the project by the laughter and chatter that fills the room just by itself. There are other inter-generational projects promoted by generations working together, which is a charity dedicated to promoting that work, training, supporting and linking projects. The charity is national and an inter-generational excellence training centre it has. It has delivered training to communities, charities and individuals in person and online. It has 20 local networks across Scotland that enable local people and organisations to get together and discuss ideas for projects. It provides information, delivers support and encourages involvement to benefit all of Scotland's generations by working, learning, volunteering and living together. It can address community challenges such as ageism, loneliness and ill health. I fully commend the project that I saw and intend to return. I have got to improve my motor skills, especially in trying to catch a duck. I will not go any further than that. You can leave it to your imagination. I hope that other nurseries and care homes together with parents and carers, if they are not doing this, give thought to replicating the experience in my constituency and I look forward to contributions from other members. Stewart Stevenson, to be followed by Elaine Smith. I am one of the three people here who have served the time that God allocated to us, my three school years and ten, one of the three sector generians who are present in this Parliament. I am delighted to see that the minister who responded to tonight's debate three years ago was half my age. He is catching up in statistical terms with each passing year. I think that the whole issue that Christine Grahame brings to the Parliament today relating to New Barh's village and New Barh's nursery is an important one, not simply for people in Gorebridge but for people right across Scotland. As people get older, it is an inevitable fact that many of their friends will no longer be with them for a variety of reasons. It becomes more difficult for older people to make new friendships to replace those which are no longer possible because of the death of friends that they had in their youth. Connecting older people to younger people is a brilliant way of maintaining the social skills and social interactions that might otherwise be diminishing in older people's lives. I, for my part, think that talking to older people is a brilliant bridge back into previous history of our country and of our communities. I remember having a chat to my sister-in-law's father-in-law, Bob Monroe, a wonderful fellow. He stopped driving when he was 96. He got his first pair of glasses when he was 96. He remembered them coming back from the Boer war in Victorian times. To talk to him about that experience as a comparatively young person, in other words, even younger than the minister, was something of great fascination and stimulated new thoughts. Whenever we bring the old and the young together, we have that opportunity. The kids of that sort of age have questions of breathtaking naivety when viewed from the lofty heights of a 70-year-old like myself. How did you live without television? How did you live without a telephone? What happened in the world before there were iPads? Those are excellent questions to which, of course, people of a certain age have a very interesting and well-developed answer. Not only are we, as the motion before us, looking at eye co-ordination of both young and old, we are also looking at the opportunities that are created by interaction between young and old of mental stimulation. As our memories become less certain with age—not something that affects everyone but a substantial number of people—the parts of our memory that still work well will generally be those of our youth and our infancy. Having kids come along and say, what was it like when you were my age, is a terrific way of re-energising the mental cells of older people. I note the comment in the motion that is before us, the recommendations for similar projects elsewhere. I hope that we will see this sort of thing in the north-east of Scotland, the area that I represent, and elsewhere, because it is quite remarkable how little time and how few people connect us to distant things. My grandfather was three years old when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 15 April 1865. That is the kind of link that makes history real for us. That is the kind of link that stimulates thinking, physical activity and social skills, very much to be commended, indeed, Presiding Officer. Elaine Smith is followed by Ruth Maguire. Thanks to Christine Grahame for bringing the issue to the chamber. I apologise as I have to leave very quickly. I did ask to speak first because I have a branch executive meeting of the Commonwealth parliamentary association, which is starting right now. Forgive me if I rattle through my contribution. Social isolation affects far too many people in our society, as we know, but, as the population grows older, the number of people beyond pension age experiencing it is increasing every year. In Age Scotland, no one should have no one campaign showed that 100,000 older people feel lonely, most are all of the time, and more than 200,000 go half a week or more with no visitors or even phone calls from anyone. In times gone by, the older members of our society would have spent their final years with their families, keeping that connection with the community throughout their lives, and with children, I suppose, in the family, keeping everyone young. Sadly, that is not as possible as it once was, and many of our family members take the decision to move into a care home. Perhaps that is because their children are all living away or they do not have any children or they simply cannot accommodate their parents' particular needs. There are many, many different reasons, but to show that older people have a lot to offer and should be valued, we must make them part of the conversation about the future and with future generations. What better way to do that than to bring young and old together to impart wisdom and deliver a bit of sunshine into each other's lives? The benefits of bringing old and young together are as much about imparting knowledge, as we have heard from Christine Grahame and Stuart Stevenson, whether it is history for the kids or teaching her grander how to use the internet, as it is about just giving someone company. There are so many things that can be exchanged. Schemes like that are of great value to our society, and there are generations together to say that it is all about working, learning, volunteering and living together. The initiative, which Christine Grahame and Gord Bridge highlighted, is doing exactly that, and I certainly hope that we see similar projects rolled out right across Scotland. That was also shown well by the Channel 4 documentary on people's homes for four-year-olds, and we saw the joy that a young child can bring to the life of someone who may only spend time with people of their own age and the care staff—something else that Christine Grahame has touched upon. Our own Equal Opportunities Committee identified that in 2015 in the report on age and social isolation, in which Derek Young from Age Scotland said that the need for contact is in the nature of human need in the same way that feeling hungry or thirsty or tired or in pain is, and I agree with that. I welcome the fact that there is a strategy to tackle only isolation in Scotland. In the programme for government, the minister may be saying more about that, and I apologise again for missing that, and I hope that we see that delivered soon. I was equally glad to see my friend and party colleague Rhoda Grant lead a debate in March on the physical and psychological impacts of loneliness. In that debate, she recognised the great work of the Joe Cox commission on loneliness, who is trying to start a national conversation about the scale and impact of loneliness in the UK. Of course, Joe always pushed for cross-party work in Parliament, and the commission is following that example. If we can bring some of that spirit into our discussions on older people in our society and into the Parliament generally, that can only be a good thing. Once again, I congratulate Christine Grahame for highlighting the mutual benefit of older people and youngsters learning from each other, and, more importantly, perhaps enjoying each other's company with generations working together. Thank you very much. Thank you to my colleague Christine Grahame for bringing this important topic to the chamber and raising awareness of the excellent work that the charity Generations Working Together do. It is always a pleasure to hear about great examples of intergenerational collaboration that take place across Scotland, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to highlight the inspiring work of Anumkara, a dementia respite centre in North Ayrshire. The centre strongly recognises the positive impact that intergenerational activities have on the wellbeing of their guests and has forged strong links with the local schools. St Bridget's Nursery School and St Bridget's Primary School attend on alternate Thursdays. They are affectionately referred to as Anumkara's Wee Pals and are very popular with the guests. Many of the guests even book particular dates for respite to coincide with when the wee ones come in. Guests at the centre teach the children songs like You can't shove your granny off the bus, as well as games that they enjoyed when they were younger. Their Wee Pals teach them all of their favourite songs and games in turn, resulting in great fun and enjoyment for everyone. The two generations also carry out joint craft work, as well as events such as Teddy Bears picnics and Burns poetry competitions. I am told that the children always ask their teachers when they can go and play with their friends at Anumkara, and that when they leave, they go round each of the guests and give them a kiss and a hug. For their part, guests consistently say that their time with the children brightens their day and leaves them with a deep sense of happiness. Those simple remarks speak volumes of the mutual value and happiness of intergenerational friendship and collaboration. In addition to its wee pals, Anumkara also welcomes sixth year volunteers who are completing their youth philanthropy initiative, Duke of Edinburgh candidates and modern apprentices. Those older children are given the opportunity to undertake dementia training and dementia simulation suit training, which allows them to develop insight into an empathy for living with dementia. Two previous sixth year volunteers used that knowledge in their university applications and are now studying medicine. Anumkara's rich and diverse intergenerational projects underline the mutual benefits to the children and to the guests of working together and how it enhances their health and wellbeing. I would like to end my speech with some more good news. Before this debate, Anumkara did not have any connection with the charity referred to in Christine's motion Generations Working Together. Following my discussion with them in advance of the debate, they have now signed up to join their network and plan to send their staff on some of their training courses. They also plan to seek the charity's help on a current project, which is designing a dementia training course suitable for early years. That is a clear demonstration of the charity's role as a focal point of intergenerational working across Scotland and as a provider of information, support and encouragement. I wish both Anumkara and Generations Working Together every success for their future. I thank Christine Graham for bringing this important motion for debate this evening. I, too, would like to commend this valuable partnership between new buyers' village and new buyers' nursery, and in particular the work of male scrimmage. Although it is still in its infancy, the project is going from strength to strength, and all those involved should be immensely proud of their achievements so far. I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting the project, but I wholeheartedly welcome the focus on inclusive intergenerational practice and the emphasis placed on developing the positive resources that young and old have to offer each other and those around them. The relationship between a child and a grandparent can be very special, but we know that intergenerational bonds need not be traditional or biological. There are striking similarities between the young and the old. Those are either end of life's journey. They can live in the moment, focusing on the joy of being, not clock-watching or stressing to fit as much into time as possible, but this project is much more than simply having fun and meeting new friends. It is much more than a means of energising young and old for a few hours a week. I believe that the bonds that are forged are deeper, purer, more precious, and they can deliver lifelong benefits. Research shows that intergenerational contact can help children to develop life skills, build their self-esteem and confidence, and we know how crucial it is to a child's wellbeing to develop resilience through positive caring role models and a strong sense of community. For those living in new bias village, interaction with the children could mean the re-emergence of a wonderful memory of their own or their children's childhood. It may give them a renewed sense of purpose and an opportunity to pass on skills and experience, or it could represent a moment of unadulterated joy as they face up to the challenges at the end of life. Before I finish, I would also like to pay tribute to the work of generations working together, and in particular their efforts to tackle the deep-set issues of loneliness, vulnerability and discrimination facing older people. Their intergenerational work across Scotland, but particularly in East Lothian and Midlothian, is invaluable in breaking down barriers and improving opportunities for young and old from all backgrounds. I look forward to hearing more about the connections that are being built between new bias village and new bias nursery, and I wish everyone involved all the very best for the future. I thank Christine Grahame for bringing this debate here. Intergenerational working is becoming more and more recognised as a vital way of improving the physical, social and mental wellbeing in both elderly and young people. During my last week of recess, I visited my local voluntary group in Wick to see Christine Campbell, who works for the befriending service, and she also does voluntary work with generations working together. After speaking to her about it even for a few minutes, it was evident that her passion for this drives her on to make a success of it. Judging by the level of interest in Wick, she is succeeding. Last year, she had seven girls from fifth and sixth year involved in the scheme, some working towards their saltire award, some at their Duke of Edinburgh gold award. They visited people in the hospital, people that never had any visitors for various reasons, and some because their families lived some distance away. Those people were vulnerable and very lonely. That also fits in well with the NHS Highlands current focus on loneliness. The girls also gained from the process immensely. They gained confidence and conversation and communication skills. They heard stories that they would never have normally heard, and they made friends. This year, there are 20 fifth and sixth year pupils taken part, and they will be visiting local care homes, as well as the hospital. That increase just goes to prove the success of the scheme. Also during recess, I had a brilliant visit to the Brora village hub in Sutherland, the centre caters for elderly people and younger adults with learning difficulties. The visit was absolutely fantastic. I joined in with the craft group, I visited the men's shed and the kitchen, and I was even presented with a lovely drawing of a duck for my office. You can see that there is a wee bit of a duck theme going on here today. There is some fantastic intergenerational work being carried out at the hub under the leadership of manager Lindsay Tennant, as well as that of Catherine Esther from Engaging with Activity Community Interest Company. It is an excellent example of how to run a centre of this kind and should be used as a template for others in other parts of the constituency. The atmosphere was fun and friendly, and the staff and volunteers clearly loved their work. Other examples in my area include the two primary schools in WIC, which also undertake intergenerational work. Next month, pupils at NOS primary school will be doing a project on grandparents, leading up to grandparent day on October 1. The younger children are tasked with finding a photograph of their grandparents at school, and the older children will be interviewing their grandparents about their skill experiences. Over at the other school, primary 6 in Newton Park, primary 8, go to the town and county hospital to visit elderly patients there. Those visits have proved invaluable for both the patients and the pupils. As we know, people are living longer, and that is proving to be one of our most significant social challenges, but it is also an opportunity because people of all ages are assets to their communities and to society. It is now becoming apparent that intergenerational work can bridge the gap that often appears between age groups. It can lead to people leading longer, healthier lives, maintain their independence for longer and keep the brain and senses stimulated. Generations working together says that it brings people together in purposeful, mutually beneficial activity. It promotes greater understanding and respect between generations, and it contributes to building more cohesive communities. As a Parliament and as a society, we have a duty to support and develop those ambitions. Thank you very much. John Scott will be filled by Sandra White. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I begin by congratulating Christine Graham on securing her motion for debate today and on her speech, which highlights examples of generations working together in her constituency, and as well as welcome to Parliament, our guests from Gorebridge. The strong links created in just over a year between new buyers' nursery and the new buyers' village community and the new buyers' care home is a measure of the success of the project so far and a demonstration of the potential for further community intergenerational working. One could argue that, where communities worked well in the past, particularly close-knit rural communities such as new buyers or Barhill, where I was born and grew up, that in such communities the interaction between generations already took place almost unnoticed. However, intergenerational working and generations working together as a concept identifies, formalises and builds on what worked to a greater or lesser extent in the past. Certainly, generations working together creates a transferable model for others to follow and to consciously adopt. I very much welcome Christine Graham drawing this community building best practice to our attention today. The benefits for all at Gorebridge and elsewhere are plain to see. As Christine Graham's motion notes, with children and young people benefiting from the stimulation of adapting to a different environment and learning and interacting within that environment, personal view is that with so much time being spent in front of screens by children and young people, this different activity is even more important and beneficial to them than it would have been only 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. What would have been regarded as normal physical intergenerational activity in my childhood is being diminished and lost in our new world depending on social media from an early age for apparent social interaction and Stuart Stevenson alluded to this. We are also becoming a more anxious society than we were, perhaps with good reason, and the reassurance of the physical contact and presence of older generations is genetically programmed into our minds to be of benefit to children and young people. For the elderly too, the benefit of having children and young people around them is also stimulating as well as being enjoyable, reducing loneliness and isolation, again a growing problem, not just in our rural communities such as new buyers, but throughout Scotland. One well-known growing problem in all generations is mental health issues, and I am very aware of that development from my changing constituency workload. Without doubt, one of the contributing factors to this emerging issue is too little caring human interaction currently being driven again in part by dependency on social media. In my constituency, generations working together highlight the Trudon coastal rowing project, which supports intercommunity boat building and rowing competitions. Boat building participants met every Monday to Friday for five months and worked together to build a 22-foot wooden St Ailis skiff. That type of project is now being taken forward by the Duke of Edinburgh award team in South Ayrshire. Self-evidently, the benefit for pupils is learning new skills, working with others outside the school environment and developing self-esteem and team working skills. The benefits for the adults of my constituency are many, driven by satisfaction at passing on knowledge to the next generation. In turn, that engenders the sense of connecting with young people in our community, with buddy relationships being developed, which of course develops the concept again of intergenerational work and intergenerational rational knowledge transfer. Today, I again congratulate Christine Grahame on sharing and highlighting the concept of generations working together. I believe that there is much more to be done in this area for the benefit of the young and old alike. I also congratulate Christine Grahame for the resolution and motion that is here before us today. It is something that is very close to not just my heart, but everyone's heart as well. I also want to welcome the people in the gallery. I note that Bill and Rose from the Scottish Senior Alliances in the gallery, too, had a very busy day. We had a cross-party group of older people today, so I am going to mention some of the issues that were raised there. Katie from Generations Working Together was certainly there as well. I put forward some questions, which I think that I thoughtfully answered in the committee meeting. Generations Working Together is based in my constituency in Wilson Street in the Merchant City, so it is just a toddle along for me to go along and visit, which I have promised that I will do. I say toddle basically with the inverted commas in that respect. Basically, I think that we have heard some fabulous stories of what is happening throughout Scotland in various constituencies, and certainly in my constituency, there are many primary schools going to visit the care homes, but there is also Duke of Edinburgh ward, as has already been mentioned, the Prince's Trust, and others, the Guild Guys, Scouts, Boys Brigade—all help out as well. One area that sticks in my mind was the Prince's Trust, where a group of young people actually landscaped a whole garden in one of the care homes, but the people who lived in the care home were there. They picked the flowers, they picked the bushes, they picked the trees, and they were there to help to plant as well. That was working together, and it looked absolutely fantastic. The one thing that comes out to me, and Christine Grahame and others have mentioned it as well, is not just what one generation gets out of it, but what both generations get out of it as well. As John has just said, and his contribution, we learn from each other. I remember in school possibly others, too, that we had domestic science, as you might call it. I speak to my own daughter and I try to pass my great cooking skills on to her, but I honestly could not say whether she has actually been better than me or gained some of the cooking skills. However, that is the issue that, to me, is very important, where the younger generation learns from the older generation and through learning from their skills, they respect them more. John raised that in the last couple of minutes of his contribution. In some aspects of our society now, it is respect for everyone. I think that the intergenerational work pushes that respect way out there, and it helps everyone—young people and older people also. However, I cannot finish without giving a plug for generations working together in the work that they do. Anyone who wants to contact them will certainly lead them to any groups that are working in their area and give them help and volunteering and so on. Another plug that was one that was very successful last night was cycling without age, which is absolutely fantastic. We had them at the cross-party group today, giving them not a demonstration, but a video of just how this is so helpful. I am so pleased that the Scottish Government has said that it will look into this and back this cycling without age. I have met Fraser and others, but imagine if you are in a care home and you have not been getting out and about for even a couple of weeks or a number of months, the joy you get when you are out and about in your constituency, seeing the changes where you used to live, whereas before you could walk about and get the bus, you are on the bike. It is absolutely fantastic. We plug for Fraser and cycling without age. I begin by congratulating Christine Grahame on bringing this debate to the chamber. I join others in welcoming our guests to the gallery and take the opportunity to thank them for their hospitality earlier today, of which more later. I am pleased that Christine Grahame has commended the intergenerational project between Newbuyer's Village and Newbuyer's Nursery in this evening's debate. The Scottish Government is delighted to support and encourage intergenerational projects across the country. Indeed, intergenerational practice aims to promote a more positive attitude to ageing amongst people of all ages, countering negative attitudes about and between younger and older generations, ensuring balanced workplaces where employers see the value of a diversity in age and inspiring a care workforce for the future. I have made a number of contributions in this evening's debate. I would like to begin by thanking Stuart Stevenson for his continuous reminding me of my comparative youth. It is probably a good thing that Ross Greer and Kate Forbes were not in the debate this evening on that basis, although I would like to say that he spent some of his speech talking about the constant questions about what it was like in his day. I say that, even in my comparative youth, I have found that to occur to me as well, as when I took a photo of my nieces and nephews to use up the spool on a disposable camera and then had to explain to them the concept of waiting for photos to be developed before they could actually see what had just been taken. As Christine Grahame pointed out, I visited the new buyer's intergenerational project this morning and saw this inspiring project first-hand. Modesty precludes me from talking about how magnificent my performance in the beanbag throwing was, but I think that it was fantastic to take part in the potted sports and engage with the children, the elderly residents and the staff who are filled with enthusiasm about the project and the potential for the future. Indeed, Bessie, who is in the gallery, was speaking to me earlier and she told me that when residents are waiting for the children to arrive, they are often feeling very anxious about waiting for the children to arrive and then their world is brightened as the children enter into the facility and is soon full of joy and laughter. That was certainly the atmosphere that welcomed me as I arrived at the project today. I left knowing that the support for intergenerational projects is the right thing to do for children, for the elderly and for the wider community. I acknowledge that Scotland has a lot to learn from countries such as America, Japan and China, who have been running intergenerational projects for years. London will also be opening its doors to its first full-time intergenerational nursery later this month. There are some great examples in Scotland of intergenerational work with children, particularly from early learning and childcare and primary school settings. We are keen to promote and showcase best practice. It was good to hear examples being brought forward by members, including Gail Ross and Ruth Maguire, who highlighted examples from their constituencies. People of all ages and in all communities across Scotland can experience social isolation and loneliness at a point that Elaine Smith noted in her contribution. That is something that we as a Government take seriously. The Scottish Government is supporting generations working together, a charity that provides information, delivers support and encourages involvement to benefit all of Scotland's generations by working, learning, volunteering and living together. Through our equality budget this financial year, we are funding £70,000 to the organisation to deliver its opening doors project. The opening doors project seeks to build strong and mutually beneficial working partnerships with local and national organisations and groups who work with people, including the elderly, who might be suffering discrimination, isolation and loneliness. It creates more opportunities within communities for people to connect and build relationships between the generations, a point that was well made by both Michelle Ballantyne and Sandra White in this evening's debate. Through our year of young people in 2018, the Scottish Government is considering how intergenerational activity can form part of the equality and discrimination theme. In addition to working with generations working together, we will also work in partnership with other organisations representing the elderly to encourage collaboration and engagement with youth organisations throughout the year. We produced Scotland's third three-year national dementia strategy in June, which continues our focus on supporting and promoting a rights-based and inclusive approach to improving services and support for people with dementia. That approach is embedded within our continuing national support for implementation of the Promoting Excellence Dementia Skills framework in education, training and development of the health, social services and housing workforce. Promoting excellence is there to help local services implement the standards of care for dementia, including standards on enabling people with dementia across all care settings to remain included in their local community, including through intergenerational activity. Some examples include Alzheimer's Scotland's national dementia friends initiative, which includes partnership work with Young Scott in developing awareness-raising initiatives for use in schools. That is in addition to a range of activity with local schools taken by Alzheimer's Scotland's network of dementia advisers. Also, in Prestwick, it is part of dementia community work. There has been partnership work with Alzheimer's Scotland to run dementia friends sessions with local school children. Also, as a specific example of cross-generation work, a Prestwick-themed board game, including a historical focus, is being developed by local school children, a history group and some local care home residents. It was heartening to hear Ruth Maguire speaking of the Annam Cara respite centre in her constituency and the Annam Cara's wee pals, who sound like a cracking munch of kids, bringing happiness to residents. John Scott mentioned the issues around social media and reliance upon devices and the anxious nature of society. I would comment to him and other members the Away In Play initiative, which was launched during the summer by Inspiring Scotland. I attended the launch event in Dundee, which is a campaign designed to encourage children and young people to make more of the opportunities of outdoor play and learning and to grasp the risks that are associated with it rather than to shy away from them. If members wanted to get behind that campaign, I would be more than happy if they did so. We know that high-quality early learning and childcare plays a key role in improving outcomes for children. That is why we are committed to doubling the amount of funded hours by the end of this Parliament, and we are placing quality at the heart of our approach. We are developing a quality action plan that will be published next month. Over the summer, we have been working with stakeholders who know what drives quality and what more we need to do to strengthen it. That action plan will contain a series of actions to ensure that early learning and childcare delivers a high-quality experience for our children. One of those actions will be to promote learning from ELC centres of innovation centres like the one that I visited this morning. We will ensure that centres carrying out innovative and exciting work that has a positive impact on children are supported to celebrate and share their ideas with other settings. It was interesting to hear—I was about to mention Christine Grahame—if I have time to take the intervention, I will take the intervention. Christine Grahame? Forgive me—you were rattling along perfectly all right, but you mentioned centres such as what happens in new bars, care centres and new bars nursery. Do you take it specifically going to see if that can be replicated throughout Scotland because it was the physical interaction, as well as the conversations between the children and the residents that was so important, that people who have not moved perhaps have a great deal due on that day. I know what that feels like. Actually, we are becoming more mobile. I think that it would be fair to say that what I saw today, I am very keen to encourage development of. I think that what we have heard tonight in the debate is that while this is an excellent and innovative approach, it is happening in other locations as well. What we need to try and do is to join these things up a little bit better because sometimes great work is happening, but we do not often hear about it and spread that message as widely as we could. I was just about to mention Christine Grahame before she pre-empted me and said that she spoke about the channel 4 documentary, which I thought was very interesting. However, while speaking to Mel at the event today, it was brought to my attention that that programme had focused almost exclusively on the outcomes for the older people without also focusing on the benefits that were brought to the children as part of that approach. We want to ensure and acknowledge that there are benefits on both sides of the approach and we can take that forward. I begin to close by congratulating Christine Grahame for bringing this debate to the Parliament, to congratulate and encourage the continuation of the project that is taking place in her constituency and the other projects that have been highlighted this evening, and to reiterate my commitment to look very carefully at those approaches as we develop our plans in relation to early learning and childcare and look at what lessons we can learn and apply as we roll out our expansion of funded early learning and childcare. I thank the minister and all members for their contributions. That concludes the debate and I now close today's meeting of Parliament.