Thank you, convener, for allowing me to speak. The petitioners are, indeed, my constituents.
An important line in the committee’s vision statement says that you consider
“issues which may affect a small number of people but have a significant impact on the quality of their lives.”
That is where I will start.
I support child advocacy services, as do my constituents. However, when those services go wrong, they can go very wrong for individual people, and, at the moment, there appears to be no way of undoing that wrong. The bulk of advocacy workers are excellent people, but there is currently no regulation. Advocacy can be provided by a whole range of people, including members of the family. However, I am not talking about members of the family providing advocacy, because the petition is about non-statutory services; I am talking about organisations—paid or unpaid—that provide such services.
Advocacy support services are used in a whole range of areas, including health, education, social work and civil court proceedings, yet they are currently not subject to regulation or oversight—they have been missed out from that.
Convener, in your introduction, you quoted the Minister for Community Safety as having said that
“Any regulation of child advocacy services would require a full consultation and primary legislation”,
which is an admission that there is currently no regulation. That is not correct.
The minister also said:
“The scope for, and effect of, regulation may be limited as child advocacy services are not only provided by organisations or persons acting in a professional capacity.”
Be that as it may, if parties are assisting children—that is all that they are supposed to do; they are not supposed to change what they say or persuade them—in very difficult and complex circumstances, training and regulation is required for the sake of the advocacy workers, third parties and, in particular, children.
I note what you said about section 21 of the 2020 act. However, as I read that, it is not about regulation; it is simply to do with the provision—whether advocates should be paid and how they would be accessed. Regulation is not mentioned. That is the concern that my constituents have.
I suspect that other people—maybe only a few, but enough for it to matter—will have their family and personal life impacted by this. I understand that you are under a lot of pressure and that we are coming to the end of the parliamentary session. However, I suggest that the committee should press the minister for an answer and find out whether she has concerns that this is an unregulated “profession” and whether, in another session, any incoming Government would consider looking at the issue in more detail.
In the meantime, we should see how far this penetrates and find out in what ways other individuals have been similarly affected.