Petition PE1120, by Brian McNair, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review its family law policies and spending levels to ensure that more emphasis is placed on family mediation services and family support for children. Previously, we had a substantial discussion on the issues that the petition raises. Do members have any views on how we should proceed?
Official Report · Committee
Current Petitions
Family Mediation Services (Funding) (PE1120)
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- Frank McAveety Lab 7
- Nigel Don SNP 3
- Bill Butler Lab 2
- Robin Harper Green 2
- John Wilson SNP 1
The record
15 contributionsThe Government has provided information on the level of funding that it will make available to mediation services in each year up to 2010. In the early years framework, the approach will be to intervene early to support children and families. I do not know that there is anything else that this committee can do.
It has been suggested that we consider closing the petition on the ground that the issues can be addressed through guidance within the Government's structures.
I do not disagree with closing the petition, but can we also write to the Government to ask whether it proposes to review the adequacy and effectiveness of mediation services?
Doing that might mean that we cannot accept Bill Butler's suggestion—although in closing the petition, perhaps we can write to the Government to draw attention to the issues that have been raised.
It would be nice to put the point to the Government. Personally, I would like there to be a review of how well mediation services are doing and of how adequately they are funded.
I would like to take it a bit further, convener. The available funding is very small indeed—it is almost minute—and is just about the minimum that is required to employ one or two people in each council, except for one or two honourable exceptions. I would like to register my concern at the level of funding. I do not know whether the committee agrees with me.
You still want to close the petition, but you want to register your concern.
I wish to close the petition and also register my concern.
The monitoring that Nigel Don has suggested could examine Robin Harper's point about whether the funds are inadequate. They certainly seem to be inadequate, or the bare minimum.
I am not sure that we can close the petition while members are raising concerns about the level of funding. Although the information that is before us indicates how much is being spent, it does not tell us about the demand for family mediation services. Also, if we promote such services, demand will increase. If the Government has set aside funding for these services, it should be able to indicate the number of people who request or are directed to them. If the figure increases, the Government will need to increase the resources that it makes available to enable the services to deal with that. There is no point in having the policy if people cannot access the service because there is not enough funding.It would be useful to keep the petition open and ask the Government to specify the number of individuals who have been referred to family mediation services or who have used them in the past. We could also ask whether the Government intends to monitor the situation in the future.
Okay. I recognise members' willingness to address the problem, and two or three questions have been raised with a view to exploring it further. Let us keep the petition open and try to achieve a resolution through asking for the information.
I am happy to go down that route, but I wonder whether we might ask the Government a wider question. It would be useful to know not only how the money is being spent but what other services are provided from local authority budgets or by the voluntary sector and other organisations. The adequacy of services needs to be considered in the round.
Okay. Thanks for that guidance. Is that agreed?Members indicated agreement.
Members who have other duties to attend to this afternoon have expressed interest in petitions PE1179 and PE1180, therefore we will move on to them. The members will speak on behalf of constituents and petitioners.
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