Meeting of the Parliament 18 February 2020
It appears that I am in my last minute.
We have a system that acts against delivering on a report that I am sure we will all agree on. We have a Scottish Government that puts in place barriers to the development of a cohesive strategy. The solutions are clear. To be effective, we must have a delivery mechanism. We need GPs and healthcare workers who are armed with the knowledge of how and where to deliver services, not the current staffing crisis that they face. We need an educational environment that allows pupils access to extracurricular activity and teaching staff who are given the breathing space to deliver all their expertise. We need a third sector that is properly funded, because it is a massive contributor to this agenda.
By slashing council budgets again, the Scottish Government has put the very services that will be needed to deliver on the report’s recommendations under threat. At 5 o’clock today, MSPs will troop into this chamber to vote after what I wager will be deemed to have been a consensual debate, they will vote the motion through unanimously and, tomorrow, absolutely nothing will change.
If the Scottish Government agrees that physical activity is an investment, I challenge it to tell the Parliament how it intends to make good on that investment. So far, it seems that there is neither the will to drive this agenda nor an understanding of what is required to make the health of the nation a priority. Talk is cheap—it is time to show us the money.
15:07