 Felly, nid i fynifio i gael y gallu, nid i ffugwgrifion ni, rydw i ni. Fy nhw'n gweithio ar gyferiwyr gyffredin nhw y byddai ar cleanse seven, six, eight, four yn mynd i ddim yn rhaid i Jeremy Balfour yn rhaid i sportu wneud i glasbynad diwrnodd. Mae'n ddigwyddol i ddim yn ddo Godi ac rydw i dyfodig yn ddigwydd i arni i ddim yn rhaid i ddim yn ddigwydd i ddim yn dyfodig. Ddigwydd o Jeremy Balfour i ddigwydd i'r ddigwydd i ddim, I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead this debate this afternoon. I am very supportive of positive action that can be taken to encourage and support disabled people to participate in sport. As someone who is sport mad and born with a disability, I can see that there are far greater opportunities for those who have a disability now than even when I was born just a few years ago. I would also like to take this opportunity in particular to welcome Megan Dawson-Farrill and Steffan Hogan, who are watching this debate from a public gallery. Megan is a T-54 wheelchair racer who competed in the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Team Scotland and was a gold medalist of the junior world champions. She preached us all to same in that she holds the Scottish T-54 record for 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000, 10,000 and marathon. Perhaps Brian Whittle could learn a lesson. Steffan is a single-arm amputee who was one of Scotland's top young swimmers. Steffan enjoyed in illustrious career as a power swimmer winning multiple medals before transferring to the sport of power triathlon, representing Scotland at a national championship and Great Britain on five occasions. In addition to their tremendous sporting achievements, both individuals have used their extensive experience in disability sport to become disability inclusion training tutors, rolling out an inclusive teacher training programme to give more disabled children a positive and inclusive experience at PE and encourage the next generation of young disabled people to lead a full and active lifestyle through sport. Research commissioned by Sports Scotland and the Quality and Human Rights Commission identified that disabled people in Scotland are less active and have poorer experience of PE in school and are more likely to face difficulties in pursuing their dreams. Research identified that training and education, both on physical activity and disability equality, is essential if it is to be delivered properly and has the potential to raise awareness of access attitudes and assumptions. PE is often people's first experience of sport in school. Research recommended that teachers receive training on disability in sport to help to improve pathways to sport. Similar issues were identified at an education focus national conference run by Scottish disability sport in 2009. The key recommendations of the conference were to design, develop and deliver a nationally recognised training programme to help early-years practitioners, primary teachers, PE teachers and secondary PE teachers across Scotland to participate and help children to enjoy the activity of sport and PE in school. Scottish disability sport subsequently worked with its sister organisation across the UK to develop a disability inclusion training workshop. In Scotland, training has been tailored to meet the needs of a collective of excellence and plays to the Scottish credit and qualifications framework. Scottish disability sport initially received funding from Education Scotland and Sports Scotland to allow a national roll-out of the workshops in regard to the area. That has continued and funding is still there up until March of next year. Over the past five years, 396 workshops have been successfully delivered across all local authorities in Scotland and nine educational establishments, involving 6,000 participants, have also taken part. External research and evaluation of the workshop has taken place and revealed that 88 per cent of close participants were involved in education, 79 per cent were teachers or training assistants. Three quarters of the respondents worked with young people with a disability, suggesting that the targeting of the training was very effective and that people came away feeling far more confident to be able to teach people with disability sport in schools and to take it and teach their workforce. Most importantly, the course led to a positive outcome in a classroom. One primary one teacher described how a challenging behaviour for a boy in a class could not be explained until she attended the course and struggled to play a ballgame where she wore glasses with limited vision. Back in the classroom, she discovered that the boy had no vision in one eye, and her experience of wearing limited-vision glasses gave her some insight into how he must feel. As a result, identifying the vision issue, he is now doing much better. Teachers also refer to the impact that training has had on teaching styles, to be more inclusive, to include the whole class, not just picking out certain individuals. The training continues to evolve. Following further consultations with teachers and practitioners and in conjunction with the National Artistic Society, there has now been new training brought forward in regard to those who face different challenges. Scottish disability sport is now working with 23 Scottish Government bodies to meet the needs of coaches and disabled participants within their own sport. Under the drive of charity Trust Rugby International, with the help of SRU, they now have branches of the clan, both here in Edinburgh and Ayrshire, and are hoping to go into other parts of the country. The clan has pioneered unified rugby, gathering individuals from different backgrounds and communities with the dissonant support needs to play rugby. In conclusion, the success of disability, including training, is multifaceted. It is about wide and comprehensive partners that work with Education Scotland, Sports Scotland and local authorities, making sure that it works for everybody and is something that can be taken forward. In conclusion, I would ask the Scottish Government to commit to continuing with this training and beyond March of next year to find the appropriate way to fund it and to support it and to roll it out across the whole of Scotland. I now call Jackie Baillie to be followed by Fulton MacGregor. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. May I offer an apology to the chamber as I need to leave before the conclusion of the debate, and I have apologised to the Presiding Officer in advance. Let me also make a declaration of interest. I am proud to be the honorary president of Dumbartonshire Disability Sports Club. I thank Jeremy Balfour on that basis for securing this important debate, because it allows me to talk about Dumbartonshire Disability Sports Club. The club was founded by parents, principally due to the lack of opportunities for children with disabilities, and they wanted them to have those opportunities to participate in physical activities. They have been helped along the way by sports professionals and an absolute army of volunteers, far too many for me to name this afternoon. However, it is now very much an essential thriving community resource and a truly valuable asset for my local area, because it provides young people of all ages, all abilities across every town with really valuable opportunities. I want to pay tribute to Alan Clark, who is the chairperson of the club. He and his many helpers have driven this activity forward. Whether it is swimming, athletics or football, and I commend some of them to whoever the Scotland manager is, because they are certainly very good indeed, they have had exposure to all sorts of different sporting opportunities. They have achieved their goals of raising the awareness and profile of disability sports, which has been critically important. They have increased volunteering opportunities because everybody wants to go along and help out. They have increased the sense of belonging to your community and provided, in a practical way, much-needed respite for parents and carers too. It is the transformation in the children and young people, which is absolutely the most important thing for me. The achievement, the laughter, the joy on their faces, the improved confidence—it is truly tremendous and a joy to see. Do you know what? They are really good at it too. I expect to see some of them in the future at the Paralympic Games, at the Special Olympics, because there should be no limit to their ambition. International events like those show the world that athletes are athletes regardless of disability and that anyone is capable of sporting greatness. Opportunities to participate at a local level are the foundation, in my view, for encouraging our children and young people to develop their potential. Let me highlight just one local example. That is a young man called Gordon Reed. Gordon holds singles and doubles titles, far too many to name. He is a Wimbledon champion. He has inspired a generation of people, with or without a disability, to get involved in tennis. I confess that I need to try harder, but he is an inspiration. He comes from Helensborough, and we are incredibly proud of his achievements. However, he was diagnosed at age 13 with transverse myelitis, but with access to local opportunities, good coaching and mentoring, he has risen to the very top of his sport. We need to make sure that we fund and support local disability sports clubs, because they are, I think, the future that will enable Gordon Reed's generations to come forward. I am grateful to BBC Children in need for supporting Dumbartonshire, but we also welcome the initiative from Scottish Disability Sport, because by providing training to those interested in becoming involved in sport for disabled people, we encourage that greater opportunity, that greater participation in our schools and in our communities. I conclude by commending Jeremy Balfour again for bringing this debate to the chamber, but in particular thank the coaches, the sports professionals, the volunteers and the parents who make supporting opportunities available to our young people with disabilities. I call Fulton MacGregor to be followed by Brian Whittle. I would also like to pay tribute to Jeremy Balfour for bringing this very important debate to the chamber. I know that it is an issue that he has always been very, very passionate about, and it is something that he brings in to many of his speeches. I would also like to bring it to the chamber today, on the week in which the Parliament made a statement on the British Sign Language national plan, which is also very important. It is an issue of equality, and that is what it is. For me, it is as simple as that. It is a great motion, and it is about equality. As Jeremy Balfour said, it is not the disability that prevents people from taking part in sports, but rather the barriers that are created by the stigma of having a disability. The Scottish disability sport has worked to overcome this stigma and works to coordinate athletes and players of all ages and abilities with physical sensory or learning disability in the widest area of sports possible. It encourages those opportunities for that to happen, so I would also like to pay tribute to SDS for the work that it is doing. In relation to some of the local examples of what Jackie Baillie had done, yesterday I met Leonard Cheshire disability, who, as people know, is an organisation that is working with folk who are facing these barriers. It is mainly in terms of work and schooling, but also during the discussion yesterday, it came up that they are also looking at helping individuals to get involved in sports, so that is another area where they are working. It might be just a suggestion if they aim different naturalities watching, and I imagine that people from SDS will. There might be scope for a bit of joint-up working there as well, if they wanted to have a conversation with each other in my own local area. The local school, for example, at Christon High recently, I was there for the international women and girls in sports week. As well as talking about that and the fantastic work that they are doing, getting female participation in sports, I also heard about a lot of work that they are doing to make all sports accessible to everybody within the school. Like the other schools in my constituency, I did not want to leave any schools out, but it was just because I was physically there that they are doing fantastic work to make that accessible. I got a briefing just on exactly how they are doing that, so that was really, really happening to see. I also want to mention the shining stars in Kate Slaven from that organisation. A local organisation in Coatbridge should do a fantastic job, giving real opportunities to young people with disabilities. They actually do that through the Forum of Music in Theatre, which is, of course, different to sport, but the principles are the same. The young people, she tells me every time I meet her how they started off, so it was just confidence levels, and then through that confidence just grows. They have been at various locations, including recently at the Westminster Parliament, singing for MPs and other folks. That is absolutely fabulous to see. I was also at the SFA grassroots awards recently, and a lot of the folk got awards there. They were talking about awards for setting up disability teams. That was really good to see in some of the people who come up on the stage to talk about receiving the award and what setting up a disability football team had meant to the parents. I do not actually mind saying this in the chamber, but it was really eye-worn. That was stuff that people were doing on a volunteer basis, and I think that that should be commended at every chance we get. I say that I am coming to the end of my four minutes, and I did have quite a lot of things to say, but I will simply conclude by again thanking Jeremy Balfour. I know that he has also joined my cross-party group in the future of football in Scotland, and I am sure that the two of us will continue to push us forward, and again, the Scottish disability sport. I declare an interest in that I am a senior track and field coach, a former chair of the Scottish Coaches Association and a member of the European Coaches Association. I can also start by congratulating my colleague Jeremy Balfour on securing the debate, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute. As you know, it is a subject that I have a keen interest in. First, I want to suggest that the title of the debate is a bit of a misnomer, because this debate is not about disability, it is more about a debate to celebrate the abilities of sportsmen and women and to call for the coaching and teaching practical and theory training to be expanded to allow teachers and coaches to encourage access and participation to another sector of society. A few years ago, I took on the coaching responsibilities of a Paralympian palsy. He was already an international-class athlete with the drive and single-mindiness required to reach this level, and his expectations of me were rather high. I remember the GBA head coach for disability athletics coming along to an early training session to discuss how I was going to adapt to my training programmes to suit someone with this kind of disability. I said the same way that I do with all my athletes that I work with. I said not much of a little confusion. I will continue to assess and adapt his training programme according to his responses to training, because all athletes are different and respond in different ways to physical and psychological inputs. I can tell you that this young man was a 400m runner, and it does not matter what physical adaptations that are required in training, if we get it wrong, he will come into the home straight carrying a bear on a sofa with his family, commonly known as athletics parlance, as his backside falls out of his shorts. I will say that I have cleaned that up a tad for you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It does not matter who you are, there is a physiological and emotional requirement for a sporting event. I threw him in at the deep end, with all my other so-called able-bodied athletes, and he thrived. That is exactly what he wanted and needed, to be treated with the same brutality as everyone else, just as part of the squad. I laughed at him the same as any other, as the rest of my squad, when he hit the ground after a rather difficult session. Did we have to adapt his training? Absolutely. I have to do that with every single athlete that I coach. In my opinion, Scottish disability sport, in helping to develop a UK disability inclusion training model, is breaking down perceptions, that fear of working with this community in a sporting environment. That perception or misconception that is somehow coaching this section of society requires a different skillset. It may require an understanding of specifics of the individual and their limitations, but how does that approach differ from coaching any other sportsman or woman? I still coach and then my squad have a young man who won the 100m, was second in the 200m and third in the long jump at the Special Olympics earlier this year. He is a category T20 with a learning difficulty. All that means to me is that the verbal inputs and instructions are adapted and perhaps not given in batches, but coaches adapt their inputs with all their athletes. He is part of my squad and has been integrated and accepted like any other athlete would. Also at those Special Olympics, I was a young man who I have worked with who won a gold medal for cycling. He is quite heavily autistic. That posed a difficult challenge for me and a different challenge for me. He has to be watched constantly because when all the drinks bottles are lined up, he does exactly what you are supposed to do with drinks and he drank all of them. The squad and I have to have his back all the time. Inclusion and physical activity is a great treatment for poor mental health, as has been said by Sam H, and poor mental health is a significant challenge for the disability community. Inclusion has to start in school when the same opportunities must be afforded to all irrespective of background or personal circumstances. Let's ensure that teacher training and coaching includes upskilling in this area. I will come to my conclusions mentioning the fantastic Kayleigh Hagel from Kilmarnock, whom I met at a disability sports training camp at the Sports Arena in Kilmarnock. She is a para swimmer and a race runner and a world record holder and training towards the Paralympics in Tokyo. The run-byte club in the air, when I met them, I took my kit along to train with them. When I saw the speed that we were going round the track, I left my kit in the car. Finally, how can I not mention the MSP team of myself, Dean Lockhart, Colin Smith and Alexander Stewart, aka Davros, who took part in the Scottish power chair football team challenge during the recent Scottish championships, and we were trounced 6-0 in 10 minutes. It wasn't pretty. Deputy Presiding Officer, opportunities to participate, no matter your background that are out there, let's celebrate them and do everything that we can to make sure that all can access. Please have a few words from John Mason, followed by Maurice Corry. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I hadn't really intended to speak in today's debate, but I'm happy to make a few comments. I was particularly struck by Jeremy Balfour's speech and Jackie Baillie's speech, which, for me, I have to confess is unusual. The point that she made about confidence, because I know as an individual, as a boy, the difference that it made to me when I found a sport that I could actually do, because we were forced to play rugby at our school and I was absolutely hopeless at rugby and I hated it. Then we got the chance to do some other sports, including cross-country running, which I then found that I could do at a reasonable level. Clearly, it seems to me that if that made a difference to me and my confidence and my whole standing within the school, because I went from somebody who was mocked as not being a tall sporty to somebody who could actually do something, I think that applies also to many disabled young people. I strongly believe fundamentally that every person has something to offer, every person has something that they are good at that other people cannot do and be that in the academic field or the sport field or culture, or whatever it is, everybody has got something to offer. Unless we give young people the chances to try out different things, they and we are never going to find out what they are good at and what we as a society can gain from. The other thing that I just wanted to mention was that we recently had a visit to my constituency—I checked, it was the 23rd of September—from the National Deaf Children's Society. That was at the Tocross swimming pool, which, as members will know, is the best swimming pool in Scotland and happens to be in my constituency. Obviously, where Commonwealth Games and so on took place. I was very impressed at what they were doing. First of all, they have a vehicle and an exhibition as to the different aids and adaptations that they can help with young people who are deaf. Things that I had not realised were explaining to me at that time because a young person in a pool cannot wear any of the equipment that they need for hearing and are therefore dependent on a trainer teaching them what to do. If that trainer is standing at the edge of the pool and the young person is in the pool, it becomes incredibly difficult. However, one mother was telling me how her daughter, when the trainer got into the pool and was able to be close to them and she could lip-read to some extent or perhaps hear to some extent, that made an absolutely huge difference and for her, her swimming really took off after that. Clearly, we have to think of finances in this area. For families encouraging young people, disabled or not, to take their sport very seriously can involve quite a lot of cost. I do not think that there is an easy answer to that, but I just thought that I would mention that as well on the way past. Thank you very much. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, Jeremy Balfour, for bringing this excellent debate to the House on such an important issue today. For all speakers so far, I have spoken. He has highlighted the importance of these opportunities and facilities for disabled people to partake in sports. The more we need to do to encourage that, the better. Jackie Baillie referred to my local area and the success of the Dumbartonshire Disability Sports Association, which has been excellent. I commend it. It is an exact example where we have areas of deprivation there and we have disabled people in that community who have been denied the opportunity to access the facilities that more able kids and people have been able to do. I am delighted that she mentioned Gordon Reid, the Helen's Rowland Tennis Club member. I have to declare an interest. I was a member of that club, but I am also proud of his great success on the international stage in the wheelchair tennis and the sport that goes with it. He is an excellent example of what can be done if the facilities are made available to people like himself. I must declare a small interest in that my parents started Gordon on his tennis travels when they brought short tennis from Wimbledon to Helensborough some 25 years ago, and now it is called mini tennis. I am very proud that there is some connection on that. Gordon was one of the first young players who actually put through the system. Can I just turn momentarily to disabled servicemen and women? We have seen this wonderful example that Prince Harry has put forward with the Invictus Games. I would ask and encourage the minister that we might bring an element of that or even that to Scotland at some point. I think that it would be an excellent idea. We have had it held, as you know, in Toronto recently in Canada, a member of the Commonwealth, and I think that Scotland would stand high if we could look to do that. As I say, it is something that demonstrates the ability and the skills that many ex-servicemen and women who are sadly disabled from service in operations would only be a great and dignified way of celebrating those wonderful achievements that they have achieved. We do see it in both the Paralympics, Invictus Games and others how well they are doing and how things have adapted very well. Finally, I thank Jeremy Balfour for bringing this debate to Parliament and to everyone who has contributed and to welcome the elite athletes to the gallery and congratulations on their wonderful achievements. I would also like to start by acknowledging the great work that is being done by Gavin McLeod and his team at Scottish Disability Sport in highlighting the benefits of getting people participating in sport. Fulton MacGregor mentioned breaking down barriers, and the Scottish Government firmly believes that there should be no barriers at all to participating in sport. Everyone should be able to enjoy sport. Whoever they are, wherever they are and whatever their background, we all know the benefits of sporting activity to all, including those with disabilities and those with poor mental health, as Brian Whittle iterated on how important it is for people to be active when they have poor mental health and the benefits that activity can bring. I am proud that the Scottish Government is determined to create a modern, inclusive Scotland that protects and respects human rights, of which a key element is promoting the equal participation and access to sport. The excellent UK disability inclusion training course, run by Scottish Disability Sport, will help to achieve that by providing participants with the tools to help to teach sport for people with a disability. The workshops have been individually tailored to meet the needs of five key groups coaches and volunteers, teachers and staff in education settings, Scottish Sports governing bodies, sports development officers and leisure service providers. By the end of the workshops, participants should be able to do the following things. Recognise the influence perceptions and experience have on interactions and our expectations of others. Recognise different communication styles, as John Mason mentioned. Identify appropriate disability-specific terminology and be aware of appropriate etiquette. Articulate the principles of the Equality Act 2010 and identify the key aspects of legislation that relate to your role within sport. Recognise specific barriers to participation and consider ways in which any challenges can be addressed and potentially overcome. Identify the participation opportunities within disability sport. Know where to go to for further information and finally recognise how to influence, even change practices and facilitate inclusion. This workshop will help to improve opportunities for all to participate in sport and physical activity. I was pleased that members took the opportunity, taking part in the debate, to highlight the work that is being done in their local areas to encourage those with disabilities into sports in their own areas. I know, for example, how much is done in my own area, not least at the wonderful new Aberdeen sports village. I thank Brian Whittle for bringing to the debate his particular knowledge and experience in this area. I want to emphasise that, for our part, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting equalities in Scottish sport, ensuring that people of all ages and from all communities across Scotland have the opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity. In April this year, the Minister for Public Health and Sport announced an additional £2 million investment in sports governing bodies. Those extra funds are being distributed by Sports Scotland to help to meet the Scottish Government's priorities on reducing inequalities in sport's participation. The First Minister also opened the national sports training centre and ever applied this year the first sports training centre of its kind in the UK. The state-of-the-art residential facility is designed with inclusivity in mind for disabled sport, disability sports users, both performance and community users. That will ensure that Scotland is even better placed to support our disabled athletes in the preparations and to help to ensure that sport and activity are accessible. The Scottish Government works closely with Sports Scotland on equality matters. Last year, Sports Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission published an equality in sports research report into equality in Scottish sport that Jeremy Balfour mentioned. That report looked at who currently participates in sport, the barriers to participation and suggests potential solutions. Equalities and inclusions are one of the three priorities for improvements that were set out in Sports Scotland's corporate plan for 2015-19. As a sector, sport must recognise and understand the protected characteristics as well as the associated complexities if we are to effectively address issues that may be preventing or constraining people from getting involved and progressing in any aspect of sport. The equality at Sports Scotland report outlines progress towards ensuring equality is integrated into its day-to-day work and provides an overview of how it has delivered against equality outcomes. It also sets out three new equality outcomes for 2017-21, one being that sports organisations and people working in sport will have an improved understanding and awareness of the needs of people with protected characteristics. That outcome underpins commitment to show greater leadership, to influence and drive the changes needed to address inequalities and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to get involved in sport. In conclusion, I would like to put on record my thanks to Scottish Disabilities Sport and Sports Scotland who have been working together to ensure that every child, young person or adult with a disability can participate in sport and physical activity. I know that the Minister for Public Health and Sport is looking forward to working closely with Scottish Disabilities Sport following the launch of their new strategic plan this year, inspiring through inclusion 2017-21. For me personally, I would be interested in seeing the evaluation of the UK disability inclusion training course. I will take forward Maurice Corry's idea of bidding for Invictus Games to Scotland. We have a great record in delivering sports in high-profile sporting events in Scotland. The Commonwealth Games was one of the first to have huge inclusivity for those with disabilities. It is a great idea and I am sure that we can take it forward together. Thank you very much. That concludes the debate. I suspend this meeting until half past 2.