Hansard

I commend Jamie Hepburn for giving the Parliament the opportunity to debate a significant report.

We all tend to accept as a given the importance of a positive early-years life experience. However, what happens in practice belies the commitment to supporting early intervention and early years services. We know, and it is well stated, that families that have work opportunities and work experience help to create more stable and more positive children, who are better able to take advantage of the education system. We know that family stability is fundamental to a good start in life and we know that the quality of services is critical, as Bob Doris mentioned.

Malcolm Chisholm, Jamie Hepburn and Bob Doris mentioned the working families tax credit. It is quite bizarre that a Conservative-led Government that places great emphasis on work and families is making it exceedingly difficult for many families to work in the way that they now need to work. Families either need two incomes to survive or, when a parent is bringing up a child on his or her own, they need childcare so that they can work as well as raise their children. If the coalition values working families, it should rethink what it is doing with the working families tax credit.

Malcolm Chisholm referred to the 1990s and a debate that he attended in the House of Commons. I do not want to get into party politics, but in 1997 the Labour Government, followed up by the Labour-led Executive in Scotland, fundamentally changed the quality and nature of the debate around early intervention and early years services. The sure start fund, the working families tax credit, getting it right for every child, the workforce development fund and the changing children’s services fund all helped to create a more structured and well-supported environment. When we debate the budget, we need to watch that we do not shift the priorities away from those critical services that people might think are of greater value. We ignore and abandon such initiatives at our peril.

I have one more thing to put on the record; I will end on it. We often look beyond Scotland for examples of good practice in how we should support children and families. Perhaps we need to pause and reflect on the good practice that happens here in Scotland. Why not look at that good work and build on it? Liz Mercer and her team in the Cathkin community nursery in Rutherglen achieved the highest possible gradings in a recent inspection. Lynn McCafferty and her team at Brucehill nursery in Jackie Baillie’s constituency are leading the field in children’s emergent literacy. In my constituency are Doris Robertson and her team in the West Johnstone family centre, where the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education reports noted the very good quality of care and learning that are being made available to children. We do have good practice in Scotland—we have fine examples, but they need to be well supported and financed so that families, parents and the children get the best possible start.

My final plea to the minister is that by all means we should learn about good practice elsewhere, but let us concentrate on establishing a Scottish model and sing the praises of what is happening here in Scotland.

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