Petition

Our final item of business is consideration of PE1420, by Teresa McNally on behalf of Clacks kinship carers, on recognising the real value of kinship carers and giving them parity with foster carers across Scotland. What action do members wish to take on the petition? We had a Scottish statutory instrument from the Government last week that dealt with kinship care.

I agree that the issue has already been dealt with and we should close the petition.

I agree that the Government has responded to the petition and, although the SSI that we considered last week may not address 100 per cent of what was asked for, it has dealt with the issue fairly well. Does the committee agree to close the petition?

Members indicated agreement.

Although we are meeting next week, this is the last public meeting of the Education and Culture Committee in this session. I thank all the members of the committee, including those who were members at some point over the past five years; we have had a few changes over the years. I hope that committee members have had an interesting time. It has been a fascinating five years for me as convener, and I thank you all, individually, for your support and the work that you have done in ensuring that we have held the Government to account on legislation and examined a whole variety of different parts of the sector for which we are responsible.

On behalf of the committee members, I thank the clerks, who have done an outstanding job in supporting the committee, as have members of SPICe. There is also work going on behind the scenes that members do not see, such as the press releases that go out, and I thank officials for ensuring that all that happens.

I thank all the people who make the committee work on the day, here in Parliament and also when we go out visiting. Most of us check the Official Report afterwards—not for accuracy, but to ensure that we have not made a fool of ourselves. I thank the official reporters for the work that they do, as well as the broadcasting and sound team who do a great job. I thank the security people and the other staff who provide the coffee and tea.

It has been an interesting five years and we can hold our heads high in terms of the work that the committee has done over the whole session.

Meeting closed at 11:57.