Speeches by Kane.

“2.12 and 2.13.”

“I think it is important to protect the space to fix the dam, as opposed to plugging the dam, which seems to be what is happening an awful lot. I am getting an assurance that you are at least protecting that space for these conversations to happen.”

“How squeezed is this? It is more an opinion that I am asking you for, but how much is the ability to look at prevention being squeezed, given how big the scale of the homelessness problem is?”

““Actively considering” is one thing, but I would imagine that it has been on your radar for a while that the prevention side is getting squeezed. If you are going to incentivise local authorities to do this, the more you incentivise them, the more they will come up with interesting ideas; there are enough of them there…”

“So what can you do to incentivise more prevention activity when they are currently dealing with such a big problem? That is the bit that is getting squeezed.”

“Thank you for clarifying that, but it also means that they are not getting to spend an awful lot on prevention activity.”

“You have talked about the homelessness prevention grant. When I look at paragraphs 3.9 and 15 in the Report, I wonder why local authorities are spending so much of this homelessness prevention grant on temporary accommodation. You have touched on that quite a bit, but I just want to ask that question and then I have a …”

“Now that you have all that information, are you feeding it into a funnel to learn lessons and put them into practice here? Is that all happening, or is it just a talking shop? We have different approaches, and that can be helpful, so are we taking that learning and doing something with it?”

“Can I move on to paragraph 1.10 of the Report, which talks about funding in relation to covid-19? This is a general question for Amanda and Julian—a big one at that, I grant you. How well would the NHS cope financially in the event of another pandemic? That is to Amanda, Julian or both of you.”

“You are going from three measurements to five. I am interested in why five is the right number. Also, were the local authorities involved in designing this? What information can they provide now that does not create the additional burden of moving to a different standard? Is there more that we could get more quickly if…”

“Thank you. Can I build on that? Paragraph 2.28 of the Report looks at the need to get in and do more identification before school. I do not know if this is for Susan or Alison, but can you talk a little bit more about what you are doing to make sure that providers are able to identify and support children before they s…”

“How do you ensure greater consistency across schools in identifying children? Is greater consistency possible?”

“Susan, can I ask you about paragraph 2.4 in the Report, which talks about the proportion of children identified as having special educational needs and how it differs across local authorities? There does seem to be some wide variation in some of the figures. Why does the level of support that children with special educ…”

“If you will excuse me, I have just one quick follow-up on something that Alison was saying. Am I hearing that the problem is not so much with the way that you are collecting the data—the interface to get the data—but is to do with a broader societal problem of movement of people? Is it a problem that you can solve in d…”

“Can I pick up on a point you made earlier, when you said that you are working hard to improve data? What does that look like? What is the work that is being done? What is the timescale before you would expect to see improvements in data collection? Can I ask Susan and Jonathan that?”

“It does.”

“It is a great honour to be called to make my first contribution in this place as the Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Stirling and Strathallan. My constituency is the geographic heart of Scotland, and what a beautiful part of the world I am lucky enough to represent! At just under 2,500 sq km, it is pre…”