Hansard

I congratulate Andrew Welsh sincerely on securing the debate. I share his enthusiasm for the Arbroath CAFE. It is precisely the kind of project that needs to be replicated throughout Scotland. There are many other, similar projects, such as the Corner in Dundee, which is now internationally renowned, and Off the Record in Stirling—although they may have a different emphasis.

Such projects have a huge role to play. As Mr Welsh and I both sit on the Audit Committee, which in its past few meetings has considered how effectively to tackle youth offending, we know the situation as it is at the moment. The Executive spends 60 per cent on process and only 40 per cent on disposals. I, for one, would like that balance to be reversed. I cannot speak for Mr Welsh, but I have a feeling that he may have sympathy for that view.

Many of us want the Executive to invest far more in projects of the type that we are discussing. It may come down to local authorities. We heard at question time today about the difficulties of long-term funding in the voluntary sector in particular. We heard about the difficulty of getting local authorities, the national health service—as in today's oral question—or others, round the table to make the necessary finance available.

The Executive calls for three-year funding in "The Scottish Compact: The principles underpinning the relationship between Government and the voluntary sector in Scotland", which I strongly support. However, it is easy for the Executive to call for that, because it provides directly only 6 per cent of voluntary sector funding. Most comes through local authorities and other bodies. We want longer-term funding—for at least three years—to be made available for projects such as the CAFE project.

As convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on drug misuse, I have a particular passion for such projects. They play a central role in involving young people and giving them constructive and positive alternatives to drug and alcohol misuse.

Another project, which is in my region, is Clued Up in Kirkcaldy. It does an invaluable job. those who run it are brought into schools by teachers when they have identified kids with a drug or alcohol problem. It helps those kids and has a drop-in centre in the town. The centre is just a couple of big and extremely sparsely furnished rooms, yet it is a hub of activity, particularly of after-hours activity, for schoolchildren. It gives them positive activities to take part in, rather than the destructive ones that come through drug or alcohol misuse.

I strongly support the Arbroath CAFE project and pay tribute to it. Its renown has spread way beyond Arbroath and the boundaries of Angus; it has even reached Mid Scotland and Fife and beyond. We are sometimes accused of not having been radical or imaginative enough in our first session, but I hope that, when the Lib-Lab coalition returns to power in the new Parliament, we can proceed with more imaginative projects like the CAFE project, the Corner in Dundee and Off the Record in Stirling, which are having an impact internationally. The head of the Corner has gone abroad to countries as far away as Malaysia and elsewhere in the far east to advise people on setting up similar projects there. We need more here at home.