Meeting of the Parliament 15 November 2017
The debate has been valuable and thoughtful. We have had the opportunity to reflect on two important reports from two parliamentary committees, which have drawn together a considerable amount of evidence and feedback from members of the public. An awful lot of that feedback was given with great courage by members of the public who have endured examples of bullying behaviour and who live with the consequences. I place on record my admiration and that of the Government for those individuals who have come forward to contribute to our discussions in that fashion.
A number of members who have spoken in the debate have reflected on that evidence. I was struck by the contrast in Monica Lennon’s speech between one very bad example in which a young person was bullied and the very good example of Brannock high school. Mr Whittle also cited an example of a young man who prospered in a mainstream education setting—I cannot recall the name of the school—despite the challenges that he faced. The fundamental theme that ran through both those speeches was the strength of the schools’ ethos of inclusivity and their effort to ensure that those young people had a good experience.
In essence, that is what lies at the heart of the Government’s thinking behind the respect for all guidance that has been issued. In it, we set out not only for our school system but for wider debate some of the important elements that must be at the heart of our approach to education if we are to ensure the strongest possible ethos of assisting young people. The guidance will play a valuable part in the journey of supporting young people to avoid their developing further mental health challenges that would require more acute interventions. As I and other ministers have acknowledged, those services are under significant pressure. If a school has a strong ethos, that can equip young people with the ability to avoid having to seek further assistance, as their condition will not have deteriorated sufficiently to merit such intervention.
The challenge of this policy area, which has been with us for all time, is made more demanding by the era in which we live. Cyberbullying is now a significant factor in life. It can follow young people out of an educational setting into a home setting, where young people might be able to experience much greater support. An important part of our agenda, therefore, is to ensure that our policy approach adequately equips young people with the resilience to withstand the pressures of cyberbullying, makes clear the fact that such behaviour is unacceptable and gives them the confidence to tackle it.
The importance of the home setting brings into play points that were made by Ruth Maguire, Tom Mason and Jeremy Balfour about the importance of parental involvement and of ensuring that parents are equipped with the knowledge to support their children to acquire the resilience they need should they experience difficulties in that area.
In his statement to Parliament yesterday, Mr Matheson said that an important part of the work of the expert group on preventing sexual offending involving children and young people is considering how to tackle the issues early and create the resilience within young people to withstand what they face. That addresses one of the points that Gail Ross made in her powerful speech.
I said in my opening remarks that I would spend a little bit of time on personal and social education. I intend to do that because the review of personal and social education is an important aspect of ensuring that there is proactive support and assistance for young people in our schools.
Personal and social education must be appropriate for the times: it must be relevant. In that respect, Mr Greer made the point—he has made it to me before, but I will happily respond to it again—that the development of a deeper understanding of the issue of consent must be central to the approach that we take.
There has been a call in Parliament today for personal and social education to be delivered uniformly across the country. Although I want personal and social education to be valuable and relevant to every young person across the country, I think that that approach would inhibit the exercising by individual teachers of their professional responsibility to decide what is the correct approach to take in certain circumstances. I do not want to impede in any way the professional capacity of teachers to make the judgment about the most effective way in which to deliver personal and social education.
I will close by reflecting on the speech given by the convener of the Education and Skills Committee, James Dornan. He mentioned a number of values that must underpin the approach that we take in all these areas of policy, whether in how we tackle bullying in our society or in how we equip our young people with the capacities to handle some of the challenging issues with which we wrestle in personal and social education. Mr Dornan talked about the importance of understanding consent, of love, of kindness and of respect, which he said lay at the heart of the agenda that we are discussing.
It is important that we reflect on those values and understand the significance that they have in ensuring that we take an approach in this area of policy that is supported by a broad consensus in Parliament. In doing so, we can have a profound impact on the lives of young people and equip them with all that they require to withstand the pressures that come from bullying as well as provide a good personal and social education that enables them to meet the challenges of our times, and that is what the review that we undertake will address.