Meeting of the Parliament 26 February 2026 [Draft]
I, too, congratulate Roz McCall on securing the debate. It is interesting to hear, from across the chamber, about situations that I found myself in years ago. I am lucky in having three children, the youngest of whom is now 10, so the immediate, early years of childcare have gone; I am now just a waiter to my youngest, who, as he watches TV in the morning, looks at me and asks what sort of continental breakfast I will provide. [Laughter.] That is what he wants. However, I remember those early days.
I do not think that my wife and I really thought about it. We decided to have children, looked out a pram, a cot and everything else, then suddenly thought, “Hang on a minute, what do we do with this child when we go to work?” That child needed us. They do not need me so much any more, but they were following me to the toilet every day—to wherever I went. Suddenly, we needed to know, “Where am I going with this child?” I had not thought about it.
It might have been naivety on the part of my wife and me, but not until that point did we realise—suddenly—the importance of childcare. That is why I agree with a lot of the points that were made by Gillian Mackay, Meghan Gallacher and Davy Russell. Childcare is so important. We no longer live in an age in which one parent can stay at home all the time. By the way, it is important that, if a family wants to do that, the Government should try to facilitate it, because looking after children is incredibly important. However, childcare is incredibly important, too.
I was privileged to chair the children and young people’s services committee in Moray Council when the early learning and childcare extension came in. I give credit to the Government for that, because it was a really good thing to do. We in Moray Council tried our best to make sure that local authority providers as well as private providers had the capacity to deliver across the area.
Unfortunately, however, it did not work. Although great stuff is now going on in Moray, there are pockets across most of our communities—particularly in the most remote rural patches—where provision is not happening. That causes complexities and leads to significant financial difficulties, on which Meghan Gallacher touched at length.
I remember that one of my first conversations with Roz McCall was on this subject, and we have had several conversations since then. I am not an expert. I have been to events that were organised by Pregnant Then Screwed, which is doing fantastic work. If I am lucky enough to come back after the election, I will continue to support everything that it does, everything that Roz McCall does and everything that anybody else does on this.
All that I wanted to say today, and the reason that I wanted to speak, is that I have lived and breathed the subject myself. We still live and breathe it, even though my children are older. My wife and I are still battling with part-time and full-time hours to work out who is at home when the children get home from school, for example.
The subject should be absolutely at the forefront of the mind of the next Government, whoever its members are.