Seòmar agus comataidhean

I feel almost a moral duty to come in at this point. Committee members will be aware of this, but our panellists might not be. I am taking part in this meeting remotely, primarily because I wanted to help with childcare this morning after our original plans fell through. Had I been unable to do that, which would have been the case before the pandemic, the care of our three young children—one is at school, one is at nursery and one is a nine-week-old baby—would have fallen to my partner, a woman.

Before the pandemic, we would have just got on with it. We would have known that that was wrong, but we would have got on with it. Last night, when I was chatting over text messages with the convener, who has been absolutely excellent, it struck me that that was absolutely unacceptable, and the pandemic should have taught us all that. I am fortunate enough to work in the Scottish Parliament, which is democratic and modern, but a lot of people work in situations where that is not the case. I felt a duty to comment on the issue given that my situation today relates directly to it and has highlighted the issue for me.

How can we ensure that the notion that childcare responsibilities fall naturally to the woman is no longer acceptable following the pandemic, and that all workplaces respond to that? Eilidh Dickson might be best placed to comment on that. I came to my question eventually, convener.

Good afternoon. I will ask about the development of the barnahus, or bairns’ hoose, model. The issue came up during the passage of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019 in the previous parliamentary session. It was a big part of what the committee asked the Government to commit to, and I am pleased to see that that commitment has been taken forward.

Mary Glasgow, what has been the role of Children 1st in expanding that work? What have you done and how have you worked with partner agencies? What stage is the work at?

Thanks, Mary. It is really encouraging to hear that. I would like to bring in Kate Wallace to speak about the role of Victim Support Scotland in that development. What impact could that have for child witnesses?

I know that Rona Mackay has an interest in the same area, convener, so I am happy to leave my questioning there.

You are right to say that other members are likely to pick up on that.

I think that the answers to the questions from Rona Mackay and me have covered a lot of the general background and that the witnesses want to move on to specific areas. I am happy to leave it there, convener, unless any of the witnesses wants to come in on the impact of Covid.

I think that your submission goes on to mention issues around reporting and whether people felt able to make reports during the pandemic, but I know that that area will be covered later.

I ask Sandy Brindley to answer my initial question about the impact of Covid.

I welcome our online panel—thank you very much for being here today. As the convener says, my questions are quite general—I want to give the panellists an opportunity to open up.

Following on from Rona Mackay’s questions and from what Marsha Scott and Rabia Roshan have said, do any other panellists wish to discuss the impact of Covid on violence against women and girls?

First, I want to reflect on the work that was done in the previous session by the Justice Committee, of which I was a member. We talked quite a lot about the issue when we were considering the impact of Covid.

When the first lockdown kicked in, I remember an incident at a popular local park in my constituency, which was very busy one day. At that stage, of course, everybody was the Facebook and Twitter police, calling people out and saying how dreadful it was that they were going to the park. Most of the people who were there were young women with children, and people started to comment on that, saying, for example, “You don’t know their circumstances. You don’t know why they left the house today.” They made really powerful points that certainly got me—and others—thinking. I tell that story because I know that the lockdown will have been particularly difficult for women experiencing violence and abuse.

Can any of the witnesses talk about the impact of Covid and of the first lockdown in particular? Perhaps Moira Price could answer first.

Convener, I was going to ask about the barnahus model later, if that is okay.

That is a very helpful overview. Superintendent Convery, do you want to come in on that and expand on the point that Niven Rennie made? How important is it that we take into account all the different factors, including child welfare, when dealing with youth offending? You probably heard Bruce Adamson in the previous session talking about taking a human rights approach.

Fergus McNeill touched on my area of questioning earlier and I know that he has been waiting in the chat to come back in, so I will give him the opportunity to do so. I completely concur with what he said about where the balance should be as we move forward to the society that we want to become.

My question for the panel, starting with Professor McNeill, is this: what impact can rehabilitation services in prisons have, whether those are services that prisons provide or those that are outsourced to third sector organisations, local authority workers or NHS workers? What impact has the Covid-19 pandemic had on that area, particularly in relation to the outsourcing of services? It is quite a broad question.