Hansard

In a sense, Irene McGugan answered that question in her speech. She will know that the situation has not arisen overnight. There has been a lack of work-force planning over a number of years and there have been additional legislative requirements. We are now putting in place a programme that begins to address the situation.

I turn to one of the things that I hope will address the problem. Earlier this year, I announced an additional £400,000 for postgraduate bursaries to enable an immediate increase in the number of social work students. That enabled 45 additional places to be taken up. We will double that funding for next year to £800,000 to support 45 additional postgraduate students on social work courses. There is no instant solution. If anyone had a magic wand they would have waved it before now. We need a sustained programme to ensure that, over time, we get people trained and into the jobs.

I want to talk about youth justice for a couple of minutes. Of course social workers have a crucial role to play in youth justice. It is in the interests of everyone that the small proportion of young people who get caught up in persistent offending behaviour stop offending and do so quickly.

We know that for many young offenders the shock and intervention of getting caught the first time are enough to make a change. Let us be clear that for many referred to hearings, the support will be available. The Audit Scotland and Scottish Committee of the Council on Tribunals reports acknowledged that. We also know that we need to do more to tackle effectively the persistent offenders who cause misery for many communities. The programmes need to be in place to deal with them, and those programmes must be effective.

We have done a lot of work on trying to reduce the length of time to disposal in the children's hearings system. We know that we have to do more to reduce that. The Audit Scotland report highlighted the matter, and we are still some way off our targets. However, we also know that the intervention needs to tackle the particular needs and behaviour of the young person.

We have listened to those who have asked for a greater range of programmes to support the supervision requirement at children's hearings. That is why we have invested in setting up youth justice teams in every local authority area. More than £25 million is provided to support targeted intervention aimed at doing exactly what the Audit Scotland report wants to see—less process, more delivery on the ground.

The programmes will challenge young people's behaviour, provide intensive community support and set up the mediation and reparation schemes to ensure that young offenders face up to the effect of their actions on their victims.

We are also moving to implement quickly the action plan on youth crime. I do not accept that nothing has happened. We have a feasibility group to examine youth courts, which is due to report later this month. We have a commitment to an increase in secure provision—the right kind in the right place—and we are now considering proposals put forward by potential providers. That is a big step forward from where we were a few months ago. Three pilot areas already have fast-track children's hearings. They will be supported with funding and work is due to start early in 2003.

The rate of progress over the past few months has been rapid and it has involved a lot of work by partners throughout the youth justice system. I have made it very clear that that pace must continue. I will bring forward national standards in the very near future to ensure that we continue the progress. I acknowledge that we need to improve the services that we offer our children. Second best is not good enough for anybody's child.

We need to focus on the whole child. I hope that this morning's debate is constructive and that we do not resort to soundbites and slogans. We should seek to continue the work to integrate and improve services and to deliver for children.

I want to end on a positive note. I look forward to continuing to work with members on the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced last week and on which Jackie Baillie, Irene McGugan and others have worked so hard. I hope that that bill will also bring us closer to the goal of delivering quality services for every child in Scotland.

I move amendment S1M-3698.2, to leave out from "commends" to end and insert:

"welcomes the constructive recommendation of the recent reports into children's services, the Child Protection Review, It's Everyone's Job to make Sure I'm Alright, the Audit Scotland report, Dealing with Offending by Young People and the Scottish Committee of the Council on Tribunals' report into Children's Hearings; notes the need to address recruitment and retention of social workers and welcomes progress in the Executive's Action Plan for Social Services; notes that the reports highlight a need to continue to focus on delivery which improves outcomes for Scotland's children, and agrees that the Executive should continue to address the problems of poverty and exclusion and close the opportunity gap."