Meeting of the Parliament 08 May 2024
Absolutely. This is an opportunity to reset, refocus and actually prioritise young people who need the Government’s support.
The Cass review is a four-year-long, near-400-page report on the care that we give to some of our country’s most vulnerable children. The fact that we have been failing them for so long is bad enough, and we should all reflect on that. However, to ignore the scientific evidence-based report for the sake of dogma and ideology would be unforgivable. This is about the health, safety and wellbeing of our young people. There are no other national health service services that we would allow to continue unchanged after such a report had been brought forward and had shown that they were failing, and this service should be no different.
Next week, I will hold an event in Parliament with Marion Scott from the Sunday Post. That will be an opportunity for MSPs, ministers and cabinet secretaries to speak with families who are affected by gender care and to hear how they have been failed by the processes that are in place in Scotland. I urge all MSPs, regardless of their persuasion or political party, to speak to the families who have bravely stepped forward to tell their stories.
It is clear that we need to implement all 32 recommendations of the Cass review, as our motion says. That is simple, but it will show that we in this Parliament care about young people who are experiencing gender distress. The message that I have for MSPs is that, if they do not back our motion today to implement the full recommendations of the Cass review, they will need to explain to the families why they have not done so, because those families are the ones who have been impacted by the Scottish Government’s lack of decision making and action.