Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2024
It is important that there is a wide and varied connection between that group of talented people and our education system and beyond. That is why I was pleased that Scottish Land & Estates said in the briefing that it gave us today that it would welcome those people working in its sector. SLE referred to skill shortages and said that it would love to benefit from veterans’ can-do approach. SLE would like veterans to work on the land, because there is a huge skills shortage in that sector. That is the kind of message that I would like to hear from all sectors across the country.
I might regret saying this, but I want to pay tribute to the minister, because I think that he gets this. He probably chose to be the veterans minister because he has a long tradition in this area. He understands the intricacies of the debate and how important it is to reflect on the light and the dark, and the strengths and the weaknesses, of the sector. I am pleased that he recognises the work that needs to be done on the mental health and wellbeing pathway.
I have seen some fantastic work. When I visited Veterans First Point almost 20 years ago, it was encouraging that it was badged not as a mental health service but as a support service. Its approach was that a person could come in and be directed to wherever they needed to be directed to. Of course, many of the needs of the people who came in were mental health needs, but if it had been badged as a mental health service, those people might not even have come through the door. That was a really smart way of approaching the issue.
Combat Stress has a great, in-depth understanding of people who had great trauma in their service experience and of how to turn around their lives. Those former service personnel deserve great credit. They have seen what many of us will never see in our lives, and we should be grateful for the fact that they faced up and did that job on our behalf.
The homelessness prevention pathway is incredibly important, too. That process has taken an awful long time, and it needs to be sped up. I hope that the message that comes out of today’s debate encourages that. The transition from the institution of the armed forces to civilian life is a challenge, so we need to be there for people at that point of transition if they need support.
The final message that I want to send to the minister is about service children. Those children often go from one base to another on an almost yearly basis. I am pleased that, in England, that is recognised with a service pupil premium, which is like the pupil equity funding that we have here. In England, additional support is given to schools that have a high proportion of service children, who need a lot of extra support to ensure that they can get back into the rhythm of education. I have seen the challenges that that poses for schools with a high concentration of service children. They need that extra support.
I hope that the minister can take to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government the suggestion—it was one of our asks in the budget process—that there should be a service premium in Scotland, as there is in England. If we can provide such a premium here, we might help those children at an important stage in their lives.