The next item of business is a debate on motion 12561 in the name of Angela Constance on celebrating Scotland's volunteers. May I ask those who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons? With the warning that we are already short of time, could I appeal for brevity? I call on Angela Constance to speak to and move the motion for absolutely no more than 15 minutes, please Cabinet Secretary. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? I have borrowed those words from Martin Luther King Jr, because they feel like an apt way to open this debate on volunteering as part of Volunteers Week 2018. I am delighted to have the opportunity to stand in the chamber and put on record my thanks to all those people who are giving their time and energy freely to befriend the lonely, care for the sick and the dying, help their elderly neighbours and fight for causes that they believe in. To those and to all of Scotland's volunteers, I say thank you.  I am pleased to be wearing the t-shirt that I was gifted from West Lothian Voluntary Sector Gateway. The t-shirt, quite simply, says, Volunteers Week, a time to say thank you. I genuinely believe that it is this generosity of spirit, this selfless giving of oneself, that will transform our communities and reflect the values that we hold to be true to others around the world who are fighting everyday injustices. The theme of this year's Volunteers Week is volunteering for all, which provides us with the opportunity to highlight that volunteering is for everyone and to celebrate, of course, the diversity of Scotland's volunteers. Earlier last week, I had the pleasure to visit Sirenians in Bathgate to learn more about how volunteers support the OPAL programme, the Older People Active Lives programme, and the pathway to recovery programme, which is helping people to overcome addictions. I met volunteers of all ages, volunteers of all backgrounds who wanted to put their skills and their experiences of life to good use. Some volunteers were rebuilding their lives after a bereavement, some volunteers were rebuilding their lives after a battle with addiction, but all of those volunteers wanted to give something back. All of those volunteers, volunteers from people in their 20s to women in their 80s, all spoke of the importance of good support and training for volunteers, because we should never forget that volunteers are often doing something that requires great knowledge, great skill, as well as great kindness. We know that volunteering brings enormous benefits not only to beneficiaries but to communities and to volunteers themselves. Among other things, volunteering increases social and civil participation, empowers communities and reduces loneliness and isolation. It can also improve mental and physical health, support the development of job and life skills and foster a greater sense of belonging. Volunteering is key to us achieving our ambition of creating a fairer and more prosperous country with the quality of opportunity for all, a country where everyone has the chance to participate and the chance to make a difference. Alex Cole-Hamilton is very grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving way. I absolutely agree with everything that she has said so far about volunteering, but does she agree that volunteering is not inevitable and that it is not a given and that we have a duty in this place to foster an environment that makes volunteering more accessible? I agree with that sentiment very much. To create a country that is more fairer and equal has to be at the very heart of everything that we do as a Government and a Parliament. Volunteering is truly the golden thread that runs through all of our policies, from our draft strategy on social isolation and loneliness to our fairer Scotland for disabled people to our fairer Scotland action plan. We must remember that volunteers contribute on average 136.5 million hours of help every year, and we must remember that volunteering contributes £2 billion to our economy each and every year. It is fair to say that, despite our collective achievements, it is fair to say that all of us in this chamber, I am sure, when it comes to volunteering, want to do more. I want us to create a society where volunteering is the norm, where opportunity or expectation is not limited by upbringing or social circumstance. That is why volunteering is explicitly referenced in the programme for government and why we have committed to being bold and revisioned for volunteering and doing more to support everyone who wants to participate and to have the chance to do so. We want to recognise the full spectrum of social action from those who staff the helpline at the Samaritans every Sunday night to those random acts of everyday kindness. It is time to change the narrative in volunteering to celebrate existing activity, while finding new ways to engage with anyone who wants to participate. It is also time to learn from our young people and build on the positive trends in youth volunteering. As a Government, we are committed to working with young people to better understand their aims and motivations for volunteering, and there is no better time to do that than during the year of young people. Before I go on to say a bit more about our ambitions for volunteering and the role of our young people will play in shaping our approach, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the young people who have volunteered to play an active role to ensure the success of the year of young people. There are now more than 500 ambassadors based in every local authority who will champion the year within their local communities. I very much encourage members to find out what those young ambassadors are doing in their own areas and to engage with them around their activities if they are not already doing so. It is time to stop and to listen to how young people perceive the world and how they are perceived by others. A better future for current and subsequent generations is what the real legacy from the year of young people should be. I am thrilled that our young people will play such a crucial role in shaping the future of volunteering in Scotland. In partnership with Project Scotland and Young Scott, young volunteers are being given the chance to lead work to engage young people and stakeholders from across Scotland in developing recommendations for the Scottish Government to help to shape future strategic approaches to volunteering. I am excited about the work and the opportunity that it offers to young people to shape a new approach to volunteering the length and breadth of the country. Given the increase that we have seen in youth volunteering from 33 per cent in 2009 to 52 per cent, who better to lead the work than our talented young people? The activity will also support a wider programme of work with the sector to develop an outcomes-based framework for volunteering. The framework will set out clearly and in one place a coherent and compelling narrative for volunteering and identify the key data and evidence that will inform, indicate and drive performance at a national and local level. That work is already under way. Over the course of 2018, we are working with our partners to take the conversation out to communities to understand more about what volunteering means to them. The outcomes framework will be developed in the context of the refreshed national performance framework, which has been recently scrutinised by this Parliament and will be published shortly. I am pleased to see so much in that framework that helps to reinforce the importance of the agenda, particularly with reference to the need for us to live in an environment characterised by kindness, dignity, compassion and respect. I am particularly heartened to see the references to kindness as a core value that is very much at the heart of why we volunteer and what we gain from the act of volunteering. We are also continuing to increase the diversity of third sector's volunteering pool through the volunteering support fund to include those who experience disadvantage or who traditionally experience barriers to volunteering. The fund is having a significant impact on individuals, organisations and communities. I am very excited to see what more will be achieved over the next three years. In the last year alone, the fund has supported 855 disadvantaged volunteers to participate. I would like to take this opportunity to share an example of the difference that this fund is making to people's lives. East Lothian Aid for Refugees has reported that their volunteer co-ordinator has visited foreign refugee camps on eight occasions, providing invaluable help and advice to the groups there. This is the same lady who had previously not left her house for eight years because of her own problems. I know that this is just one example, but there will be thousands more examples up and down the country. I have no doubt that each and every member today participating in this debate will be able to share multiple examples of positive power of volunteering from their constituencies. As we debate volunteering today, I would ask colleagues to reflect on and share those stories and testimonies. I would ask that we use this time together to highlight and celebrate the contribution that volunteers are making to our country each and every day for no fanfare or no reward. I am sure that members will also reflect on the breadth of work that third sector organisations and community groups are delivering in their constituencies. I have no doubt that we will all ask ourselves collectively about what more we can do together to mobilise for greater participation. How can we collectively help to engage and take this conversation out of this chamber, out of policy rooms and into living rooms instead? In thanking our unsung heroes and heroines and celebrating the forces of good in our communities, let us also listen to those who have not been heard before. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I am very pleased to move the motion in my name. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your brevity. I call Michelle Ballantyne for no more than 11 minutes, please. Volunteers week is a time to say thank you for the fantastic contribution that volunteers make. This week, every day has a theme and during the week hundreds of events and celebrations will take place right across the UK, saying thank you to volunteers and recognising their invaluable and diverse contribution. This year, Volunteers week, as the minister said, is about volunteering for all, celebrating the huge range of people who give their time in so many ways. I am delighted to be opening for the Scottish Conservatives today, as volunteering has always been at the heart of my life and continues to be. I grew up in a household where my mother volunteered, meals on wheels, hospital visiting, local opera groups and sports tees to name but a few. My own volunteering started when I was at primary school, helping in the Sunday school and participating in village clean-ups. As I matured, so did my volunteering, it became skill-based and my husband would say that I am not good at saying no when somebody approaches me to volunteer. As Winston Churchill said, we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give. The Scottish Government defined volunteering as the giving of time and energy through a third party, which can bring measurable benefits to the volunteer, individual beneficiaries, groups and organisations, communities, environment and society at large. It is a choice undertaken of one's own free will and it is not motivated primarily for financial gain or for a wage or salary. That creates a distinction between formal volunteering through a third party, where your efforts will probably feature on the data on volunteering and give them a picture of the financial benefit that volunteering brings. That informal volunteering, the grass-cutting elderly neighbour or the lifts that she provides to a friend who needs to get to hospital. That giving often goes unnoticed by everyone but those involved and is not recorded in data collections, but it is that very kindness that the minister referred to. Today, this Tuesday of the Volunteers Week puts the spotlight on young volunteers. As such, I take great pleasure today in being able to note that youth volunteering has been steadily increasing, with youth participation now at around 52 per cent. Initiatives such as John Muir, the Duke of Edinburgh's award and Saltire awards have given focus to young people's volunteering and allowed them to build the confidence, skills and readiness for work or further education. New friends have been made and lifelong memories created. But the challenge will be now how we maintain the level of engagement with volunteering as our young people become adults, because adult participation hovers at just 27 per cent. Volunteer numbers in Scotland have not changed much in the last decade, whilst volunteer numbers in general have been in steady decline since 2010. If it was not for our young people, we might be seeing a different figure. The most common reason that people cite for why they stopped volunteering is a lack of time, as young people move into the workplace and they are likely to feel that they have less time to give up to volunteering, or as family commitments take over and any spare time is spent with family. For those who continue to give up their time, we must be wholeheartedly grateful. They not only contribute to the workings of society and communities, they enhance the lives of so many people in their communities, helping to bring people closer together and working towards creating a happier, healthier environment for us all. In the Scottish Borders, 30 per cent of adults volunteer formally, with even more contributing their time informally. As was said earlier, the latest Scottish household survey showed that, in 2016, formal volunteers in Scotland contributed just under 137 million hours of help, worth £2 billion to the local economies—not something that we can ignore. Although it is perhaps a rather crude estimation of the value of volunteers as there is far more to their worth than pound size, that is, however, based on the time in hours that have been contributed, multiplied by the average medium wage. What does that mean in one small town? In my hometown of Selkirk, music in the town is provided by the silver band, the flute band, the pipe band, all of which teach the next generation of musicians. The common riding and agricultural show is organised and run by volunteers. The local war memorial and garden is built and maintained by volunteers. The cricket club, the football club, the rugby club, the swimming club, the bowling club, the riding club are all delivered and run by volunteers. The two new fantastic play parks were created through the dedication and fundraising by volunteers. Town centre buildings are being developed by the volunteers of the development company. Cubs, scouts, brownies, guides, army cadets are all delivered by volunteers. The kayak club, the archery club, the local opera show and many of the music and entertainment events in the town are organised and run by volunteers. My personal shout-out is for the beautiful estate of the Haining, which I am proud to be the trustee of, even if it does give me a few sleepless nights. The estate was left for the benefit of the people of Selkirk and it is managed and run by a team of amazing volunteers who are engaged in renovating the estate and providing a wonderful place for local people to hold events, special days and to just enjoy all year round. Whilst the community council, the Chamber of Trade, the casting organisations all provide a massive input of voluntary work into the town, without them we would have no Christmas lights, no farmers markets and no celebration events. All of this before we get to parent teacher councils and all of the individual volunteering that takes place. Perhaps the most important thing that any volunteer can bring to an organisation is their enthusiasm and experience, as well as the personal, social and community benefits. Those are more difficult to measure than monetary value but are arguably more important because they create the society in which we live. At present in Scotland, women and girls are more likely to volunteer than men and boys and those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to formally volunteer whereas those from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to volunteer informally, helping out neighbours and community initiatives rather than volunteering through established organisations. Arguably those who are not engaged could sometimes have the most to gain from volunteering. There is continued evidence of underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups in volunteering. Of course volunteering brings a sense of belonging and wellbeing, as well as helping people to engage with their local community, giving them a sense of purpose. A creation of community resilience can be generated by volunteering as everyone comes together for the benefit of each other. Volunteering can improve youth engagement, address social exclusion, increase community engagement and help towards a fair and equitable society. In the 50 years that I have been volunteering, I have seen a lot of changes, not least of all the level of paperwork and responsibility that is in some cases overtaken many of the pleasures of volunteering. There is a danger that, as we professionalise volunteering, individuals will become more reluctant to take on the lead responsibilities and the onus will be pushed on to funding paid coordinators. When I was searching through looking to how do we evidence how much volunteering gives us, one of the things that I looked for was how does it improve your wellbeing, not only for individuals but also for their communities? Interestingly, the DWTP and Cabinet Office has worked to establish a benefit of wellbeing for volunteers and found that a 1.9 per cent higher life satisfaction could be accrued for those who give up their time compared to non-volunteers. I suppose that that depends slightly on where your life satisfaction started, but I suppose that, in my own way, I would maybe challenge that, because I have often felt that it is volunteering in my life that has given me the most satisfaction and often made me the happiest. Those strange nights where you went out in the middle of night and planted up the town so that in the morning, when the people came out to the festival, it looked different to that night when they went home, it was that quiet pleasure that we all went home with, chuckling to ourselves, that we had made a real difference and we were going to put smiles on people's faces in the morning. Volunteering for all is a theme that provides the prospect to engage people, people who would not normally partake with volunteering opportunities. We must learn how they can be better supported, where new opportunities should be developed and where to increase access to volunteering opportunities for the benefit of everyone living in Scotland, because volunteers are not paid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless. Today is the day to say thank you to everyone who has delivered any volunteering and to say to anybody who has not joined in, volunteer, it will make a difference in your life. It is great to be taking part in this celebration of volunteering in Scotland, and I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for bringing forward this important debate today. It is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to congratulate Volunteers Scotland on raising awareness about the crucial work of Scotland's army of volunteers during Volunteers week and to share what volunteering means to us in the communities that we represent. We fully support the motion, and on behalf of Scottish Labour, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who contributes to Scotland's vibrant culture of volunteering. Volunteering is an important part of life in Scotland today, with 1.2 million people in Scotland volunteering a staggering 136 million hours of their time every year. As the cabinet secretary recognised, that contributes £2 billion to our economy, so it is an invaluable good for both volunteers and beneficiaries alike. The commitment that I made to a local befriending organisation when I was a student is an experience that enriched my life, and I am still in touch with Covid and South Lanarkshire today. At that time, I perhaps did not realise the wider impact of volunteer work or the influence that I would have on my own outlook and values. Volunteers add something special to our communities from having a cup of tea with young people who might be having a rough time, or reinforcing the work of our emergency services. However, the benefits do not flow in one direction. Being a volunteer can be really fulfilling. It can help you to feel part of something in addition to your own network of family and friends. For those who experience loneliness or are feeling disconnected, volunteering can play a crucial role in alleviating feelings of social isolation or just to achieve a clearer sense of your own purpose. We know that loneliness has a significant impact on mental health, and that particular groups have an increased risk of this, including disabled people and older people. Disabled people and older people are underrepresented in voluntary participation, and that strikes me as a lot of missed opportunities. Although the theme of this week is volunteering for all, there is work to do to remove barriers to participation so that volunteering is experienced by people from all different backgrounds and that their skills and experiences enrich our community and challenge stereotypes and stigma. I was recently at two events in which a special contribution of older people and disabled people to voluntary roles was clear. At an event organised by Disability Equality Scotland, I heard about the tireless work of access panels to improve social inclusion for disabled people. The contribution of access panels is crucial, particularly when policy makers are not always representative of service users. That is something that has become quite apparent to me during the scrutiny of the planning bill, and why I believe that there is a strong case for access panels having statutory rights in the planning process, such as the right to be consulted on planning applications, so that we can build truly inclusive places. At the latest Scottish Older People's Assembly, it was clear that older people have the life experience and often the professional experience to make them valuable volunteers. Intergenerational interaction is one of the many benefits of volunteering and the culture of kindness and respect that it inspires. When I was a councillor in Whitehill in Hamilton, we had an annual intergenerational lunch that young people came along to and they cooked a meal and joined older people to have lunch together. It was an event that everyone in the community looked forward to each year. In the year of the young people, it is fantastic to see that your volunteering participation has now grown to 52 per cent. In my local area of South Lanarkshire, voluntary action south Lanarkshire found out of the volunteers that they work with, 63 per cent were under the age of 25. It is crucial that volunteering opportunities are accessible for everyone, particularly for underrepresented groups, who often are the ones who could benefit the most. More must be done to meet the complex needs of different groups. I am keen to hear more from the Scottish Government about the action that it is taking to work with stakeholders to identify and eliminate barriers to volunteering. On Saturday 23 June, I am hosting a coffee morning as part of the great get-together, as part of a series of events in memory of the late Joe Cox MP, and together with my colleague Jed Killen MP, we are hosting the coffee morning at the Gilmur and Whitehill parish church. It is a Saturday. It will be quite relaxing. We are aiming to bring together people who would not normally spend time together on a Saturday. On that note, it is an invitation that is open to everyone in the chamber and beyond. All you have to do is to register in advance so that we get enough teas and coffees and cakes. I am reminded about today's debate about the words of Joe Cox, as she was going round her constituency. Joe said that we are far more united and far more in common with each other than the things that divide us. That is the great spirit behind volunteering. Vaslan in our area has confirmed that more than 16,000 hours of volunteering have been contributed in our area. Over 61 per cent of that was in the field of health and social care, which I found quite interesting. However, volunteering is very diverse. In the Hamilton Bothwell Road action group, they bring people together to get outdoors and do some litter picking. When the weather is good, you do not realise how much fun litter picking can be, but it is quite therapeutic. I would also like to congratulate Antonia Cathnes from Hamilton. She was recently crowned the Scottish parent of the year for her voluntary work supporting other parents. Speaking to the rewarding nature of volunteering, Antonia Cathnes said after experiencing adversity in her own childhood that volunteering has helped to build her confidence. The beneficiaries of voluntary work are often the most vulnerable in our society. Those services are often aimed at those who are most in need and can help people from slipping through the net. At a time when local government funding is squeezed, I appeal to the Scottish Government to make sure that charities are not allowed to slip through the net. I was pleased to hear the cabinet secretary talk about the importance of recovery. Just a couple of hundred yards from here, a community cafe set up and run by volunteers in alcohol and drug recovery was recently at risk of closure. In fact, they have to move premises and there is some good news there, but they have to now raise funds to cut out those new premises. They have a GoFundMe page that I just checked before the debate, and they have raised just under £2,000. They need £25,000, so if you are on Twitter, it is at Serene to Café. Hashtag SOS Edinburgh. They do fantastic work, and it is all led and run by volunteers, and they need our support. The other point that I want to make is that, while the spirit of volunteering is very special, we have to be careful that volunteers are not being brought in to take the role of skilled workers and people who used to provide jobs. Last week, we heard in Scottish Borders that several school librarians are now being replaced by pupils and volunteers as a cost saving measure, and that is not something that I hope that any of us with which to see them becoming rolled out practice. Again, I appeal to the Scottish Government to ensure that volunteers in the volunteer sector do not bear the cost of that. In conclusion, volunteering drives forward the principles of equality and opportunity. It promotes intergenerational learning and understanding, and it helps to foster a culture of respect and kindness. I hope that the message of Volunteers Week is heard by people across Scotland and that the priceless gift of giving your time to help others is widely recognised. I hope that volunteers themselves, who are so often humble about the work that they do, take some time to recognise and celebrate their contribution to the communities across Scotland. I call Alison Johnstone for up to six minutes, please. Presiding Officer, I wish to join others in commending everyone in Scotland who dedicates their time, their talent and their expertise to volunteering. Volunteers make an incredible contribution to an enormously wide range of activities. It is fair to say that there are so many people that we all wish to thank today, but I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the great work that volunteers do in terms of fundraising. One group alone, capital sci-fi con team, has raised over £74,000 for the Children's Hospice Association Scotland and more than £180,000 over the past few years, and the last three years. The youngest member of that costume group is only eight years old. Clear indication of the impact that our volunteers have. Now I would like to turn in particular to the role of volunteering in supporting and promoting sport. There are at least 45,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland, and almost a third of those are sports clubs. Sixteen per cent of all those who volunteer give their time to sport in Scotland. In this year of young people, it is worth noting that half of all young people who do volunteer do so in sport. In our 2016 manifesto, the Scottish Greens were proud to highlight the crucial contribution that volunteers make to sport in Scotland. Across Scotland there are more than 13,000 sport clubs and almost 200,000 people dedicated to volunteering in sport, bringing great benefits to society. The support delivered to Scottish athletics, and I will bring members' attention to my register of interests, but the support delivered to Scottish athletics in terms of volunteer hours, amounts to £7.9 million—a remarkable contribution to athletics at all levels. Next Tuesday in this building, I am delighted to co-sponsoring the Scottish Sports Association reception to celebrate volunteering in Scottish sport with my colleague Liz Smith MSP. We will celebrate Scottish sports. We will celebrate those almost 200,000 volunteers, and you can meet volunteers throughout Scottish sport, so please do come along. We wholeheartedly support expanding sports clubs in Scotland through support for volunteering. If you do not have the volunteers, you cannot deliver the sport. We would like to see making facilities more accessible given priority, providing more funding to enable more women, people from minority ethnic communities and disabled people the ability to participate in all aspects of sport and volunteering. Michelle Ballantyne and Monica Lennon have highlighted the barriers that specific groups face in being able to volunteer as they might wish. A report from England by Women in Sport called Good Sports, why sports need to engage female volunteers, showed that, while women make up the majority of volunteers across all activities, they are still less likely to volunteer in sport than men. In fact, figures from 2015 indicate that men are twice as likely to volunteer in sport as women. Their research found that volunteers in sport are more likely to be white males from an affluent background, and there are, and I am quoting, less visible volunteering roles for women in sport than in non-sport roles, and women who want to progress in sport feeling, again I quote, isolated, disconnected and less valued as volunteers than men. That research relates to England, but I would be interested. I suspect there may be a similar picture here in Scotland, too. Certainly, when the Health and Sport Committee looked at barriers to volunteering in sport, we found that time and costs were real barriers to volunteering. We looked at many ways to make volunteering more accessible, and it is crucial that we provide good development opportunities for women in volunteering, because women volunteers are such an important role model to young women and girls. Given our reliance on volunteer coaches to deliver sport, I would like to see more women coaching, and not only at levels 1 and 2, although that is welcome. We want more women and young girls to stay involved. I think that more women coaches are key. Perhaps we should look at the success of Judy Murray's She Rallies initiative, which is all about empowering and enabling young women and girls to take part in tennis, but that is something that can be looked at more broadly. Chest, heart and stroke Scotland told us that we have to do more to understand and build on the motivation for people to volunteer in the first place. Are they looking to gain new skills or even qualifications? We have to find ways of making sure that volunteers can grow and adapt their roles within organisations, rather than expect them to carry out the same responsibility for a long time, because that can be a real barrier to retaining volunteers who have great experience. We have met people who volunteered in sport when their children began to take up a sport or compete, stay as volunteers until their children leave the sport and we lose real talent to people who have become invaluable to sports organisations. I think that with a bit more support and more recognition, we could hang on to volunteers for longer. If those people had more of a chance to represent the sports in their communities, in events and in the media, then organisations could hold on to that expertise for longer. I think that we should do all that we can as a society to encourage volunteering. Employers obviously have a key role here. I think that a basic income could help to deliver more volunteers, because clearly the financial costs of being a volunteer can be prohibitive for too many people. Not everyone has the same opportunities to get involved in volunteering. Many would love to, but they are simply restricted by long working hours, lack of assistance with core caring commitments and the hidden costs of volunteering in terms of travel and expenses. I will close now. I look forward to the cabinet secretary responding to those points when closing. Again, I thank all who volunteered in Scotland. Alex Cole-Hamilton, for up to six minutes, please. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am proud to speak in this debate, not just as a Liberal Democrat, but as I do for my position as convener of the cross party group on volunteering. I take this opportunity to thank the secretary, made up of John Paul and Margaret, who really helped that group to come alive. It is one of the most functional CPGs in the Parliament. It has been a delightful debate. We have heard a myriad of local examples, not just constituencies where work is happening, but MSPs engage at a very local level in the life of those organisations. What binds those groups is the idea of social cohesion, the cohesion that they foster, that from a million seemingly tiny acts of public service, of philanthropy and at times compassion, we can forge the backbone of our communities, and that is where those voluntary organisations come in. The cabinet secretary was quite right in her opening remarks to talk about the financial contribution of volunteering in Scotland. At £2 billion is a conservative estimate for the formal volunteering that takes place on any given day. 1.2 million adults, or 27 per cent of the population, will freely admit that they are involved in some level of formal volunteering. However, that is the tip of the iceberg. If you consider all the other quiet, selfless acts that take place every single day and every street and town around this country, then the picture is far, far bigger. We could not do without it. Without it, our societies and our communities would simply grind to a halt. I said in my intervention to the cabinet secretary that volunteering is not a given. It is not inevitable. We have an obligation, a duty of care to volunteering, both in this place and in the halls of government, that we need to foster an environment that recognises that it can be quite fragile. We are very lucky in Scotland that we have opportunities for volunteering from cradle to grave. It is right that the theme of this year's volunteering week should be volunteering for all. We foster active citizenships in our schools. We get young people out from nursery age to volunteering in litter pick-ups and the like. That goes through to colleges and universities as well. I was 19 years a youth worker in Scotland. One of the things that we should be concerned about is the decline in things such as community learning and development. About 10 years ago, the CLD department at Strathclyde University closed and has not really been replaced. We are not churning out trained youth workers who can lead volunteer armies of youth workers, but it is something that we need to turn our attention to. In the workplace, we talk about corporate social responsibility, but at times of economic shock, it is one of the first things that companies can roll back on. We need to move away from a model where organisations or companies will get members of staff to go out and paint rooms in a local care home badly when they can use their skillset to build resilience and capacity in very hard-to-reach groups and people. Finally, we talk about retirement a lot in this Parliament, as if it is some sort of bad thing. There is a strain attached to our increasing ageing population, but I see that as a resource. We know that many retirees or people who are older in age will engage in volunteering and do so in a way that makes our communities intergenerational, where they can impart their own skills and knowledge and forge relationships that they would never have otherwise undertaken. We rely on volunteering in this country. It backfills many of our state obligations. We lean on it in the delivery of many of the services that we instruct and that we fund from this place. I am an evangelist for volunteering because of that. It is scalable—incredibly scalable. You can be stuffing envelopes, you can be part of a mountain rescue team. It is utterly inclusive. We bend over backwards in the voluntary sector to make it accessible to people of all abilities and from all backgrounds. It creates a good will that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed coming into this job very much because I was struck by seeing the counterpoint of my own interest in volunteering in so many Parliamentarians from across the chamber. People often do politicians down and say that we are just interested in self-interest, but, from the examples that I have heard of people engaging in volunteering, it is more in the public service that I see many of my friends and colleagues from other parties. It is about expanding the lives of the communities around them and we seek it out still. I want to thank the Government for this debate and their continuing interest and support both in the CPG and volunteering across this country. The Golden Thread, which the cabinet secretary defined, is an issue that we should strip out party politics from. We talk a good game in this chamber about community, and we possess probably more knowledge about our communities than any generation previous. We have a forensic understanding of the social problems and the magnitude of growth and healing that we need to foster in our communities, and volunteering is absolutely key to that. Bobby Kennedy, who died and was killed 50 years ago on Sunday, said that it is not enough just to understand and see clearly the future will be shaped in the arena of human activity by those who are willing to commit their minds and bodies to that task. To finish, I want to join those thanks today for the legions of people of all ages and abilities in every part of Scotland who are quietly putting their shoulders to the wheel in pursuit of the service of the cause of the betterment of this nation. Thank you to all the opening speakers. That is us back on track, but it is still quite tight for time, so speeches have up to five minutes. David Torrance, followed by Maurice Corry. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to refer members to my register of interests and my long-standing membership of the Skeletal Association and also of several management committees within my constituency. I welcome this debate today to celebrate volunteer week from 1 to 7 June, and the opportunity to bring attention to the vital role that volunteers play across the whole of Scotland. The Scottish first sector is currently made up of over 1 million volunteers and over 40,000 voluntary organisations. Our volunteers dedicate hundreds of hours a year to provide invaluable services through charities, community organisations and voluntary groups. They provide support to care and tackle a range of causes that ultimately impact on individuals and communities on a massive scale. They offer fresh and innovative approaches on a national and international level and also tailor their services to local issues. Their selfless work and dedication cannot go unrecognised, and it is an honour to bring attention to the contribution of volunteers to our communities, economy, society and environment. It is a pleasure to be able to highlight some of the great volunteer work that goes on within my constituency with the impact that is striking across the country. Since the establishment, Clear Buckhaven has made an immense contribution by planting vegetables, wildflowers, growing and selling produce and offering horticultural open days. They offer services to our local authorities and are often constrained in their capacity to tackle such as litter clearing, recycling, landscaping and repairs, as well as organising activities for children. Cercodi YMCA is another fantastic voluntary organisation. We provide a wide range of programmes for children, young people and families and create opportunities for them that previously were not available. They work in partnership with other volunteer organisations, charities and international groups to maximise their impact on Cercodi and the surrounding area. Those are just two of the hundreds of voluntary groups in my constituency. I would like to thank them for all their invaluable and irreplaceable support that they give. There is an integral part of social fabric within my constituency. Without their invaluable efforts, my constituency will be a lot worse off. They bring our community closer together by creating trusted relationships and have opened their doors to community members of all ages. The economic impact that our volunteers make is often understated and difficult to measure. Volunteers often give up their paid working time to dedicate their time and efforts to volunteering. I suffered by Volunteer Scotland, estimated that Volunteers in Scotland contribute £2 billion to Scotland's economy in 2016. However, there are less quantifiable benefits, such as personal, social, community and environmental benefits in addition to our financial contribution. I would like to read to the chamber a poem posted by the Scout Association for Volunteers Week, highlighting the importance of volunteers. Here's to our volunteers, the extra milers, the dreamers and the doers. Here's to our programme planners and to make it up on the spotters, which I'm one of. Here's to our minibus drivers and trailer tours. Here's to give it a goers and here's to our skill for lifers and never give upers. Here's to our here when you need us and here's to our amazing leaders and here's to our volunteers. Of all the poem was to thank members of the Scout Association for its contributing, it applies to all of Scotland's 1.2 million volunteers. 11,946 volunteers contribute to the Scouts in Scotland supporting the membership of 40,000 young people every week. The Scouts have enormous impact on our young people, while there's a medium for tackling social isolation, building relationships, developing skills or having fun and ventures and making friends. Our Scout groups very much depend on volunteers provided our services and we cannot function without them. We have an incredibly mutual beneficial relationship as volunteers reduce operating costs for charities and organisations like the Scouts, while offering us opportunities to develop life skills. Our volunteers also contribute to the quality of the services that Scouts provide, by contributing with their specialising to our skills and talents, whilst our volunteers are celebrated for their contribution to community and young people and we also recognise the contribution to charities or organisations that they serve. Volunteer for Scouts serves as a fantastic opportunity for adults to develop skills. According to a survey by the Scouts Association, over 90 per cent of Scout volunteers felt that skills, abilities and experiences that they acquired through volunteering for Scouts have been relevant to their working life and personal life. In fact, two firsts believe that they felt a direct correlation between their experiences volunteering with Scouts and gaining employment or developing and advancing career opportunities. Our researchers revealed that volunteers believe that they are more satisfied with life and have reported an improvement in self-esteem alongside reduced feelings of loneliness and stress. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate why we are celebrating our volunteers this week. Volunteers provide us with new and initiative insights and developing approaches to tackle problems of mental and physical health, education, social isolation and discrimination to name just a few. They give back to community and create intimate connections with local residents, particularly with young people who are bringing people together and celebrating diversity and inclusivity. I call Maurice Corry to be followed by Clare Adamson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate today, which is paying tribute to the contribution of thousands of volunteers across the country who play such a big role in making our communities the great places that we live in. Volunteers are the lifeblood of communities in Scotland and they organise groups for children so that they can learn new skills, like the Scouts and Girl Guides. Volunteers run events like garlands, fates and shows that bring together and bind our communities. They also run thousands of charities that exist in Scotland that do a great plethora of things to make Scotland a better country to live in. I note that the Government's motion gives us the quantitative value of the impact that volunteers have on Scotland. The volunteers contribute around 130 million hours of help and £2 billion to the economy, as I have already said. It is impressive and a testament to the impact, but I do not think that the full impact that volunteers have on Scotland can be measured solely by figures, such as the enormity of that impact. Just think of how much worse each of the places that we represent will be so much worse off if there are no volunteers. Nevertheless, hopefully the 34th Volunteers week will encourage more people to volunteer in Scotland. I have read recently that, for the past 10 years, volunteer numbers in Scotland have stayed at the same level. Also, according to the Scottish household survey conducted in 2016, 27 per cent of adults reported having provided volunteering help to organisations and groups in the previous 12 months. 18 per cent of adults that do volunteer do so several times a week, and a quarter of volunteers that provided unpaid help do so once a week. Three out of four adults that volunteer do so for up to 10 hours a month. What those statistics show is that, when people do volunteer, they recognise the benefits of it and they also enjoy it. That makes sense to me, because there are so many great things about volunteering. You get to meet new people, develop new skills and develop your own skills as they are, gain experience, make a difference in your community and, most importantly, have fun. I think that we must do more to shout about the benefits of volunteering and make it clear that volunteering is not just, as I think that some people view it, a one-way street, where you are giving your time for nothing in return because you get so many intangible benefits while at the same time supporting your community. While we are speaking about volunteering, I believe that it would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to pay tribute to some of the volunteers and voluntary groups that are running in the west Scotland region, which I represent. Behind them, and we must never forget this, are the families that we must never forget who give their support to those volunteers in their families and align them to do so. Those organisations in my region include the Centre 81 community youth centre in Gerlockhead, which I have to declare an interest as a member of the board, where the centre does great work in supporting young people in the area, providing opportunities and facilities for them to help with the help of volunteers making it possible to deliver Route 81. Another group in my west Scotland region is the Friends of Jillson House and Garden, a group formed to promote, protect and preserve the presence of Jillson Garden's house and estate in Cardros, bequeath to the community, to the benefit of the local community. They are all doing a great job as well. In addition, in the west Scotland, as I mentioned earlier by my colleague Michelle Ballantyne, we are lucky enough to have a large number cadet units. We have 18 army cadet units, nine air cadet squadrons and five sea cadet units, all run by volunteers. They provide children from all backgrounds with the opportunity to learn new skills and have the chance to take part in some unbelievable experiences, including the example of the air cadets, who can actually learn to fly a plane or a glider. Also, there are a number of Royal National Lifeboat Institute voluntary lifeboat stages by region, whose roles should save those who get themselves into trouble at sea, risking their own lives as volunteers to do so. Then, of course, we are lucky enough to have a great number of people volunteering to support local sports clubs and teams in the west Scotland region. That is the reason why we have been very successful over the recent years for sportsmen and women coming from the west Scotland. There are four examples of volunteering, all different from each other. Some are about sports, some are about providing new opportunities, protecting our culture and heritage and even looking after those in peril on the sea, but they also have one thing in common that is support and enhance our communities. On my final point, I want to move briefly to a different type of volunteer, and that is the political volunteer. If it was not for them, none of us would be here in this chamber today, right now. I am sure that all our colleagues in this chamber would agree how vital they are. I think that it is important to pay tribute to them as volunteers, whatever party or none. They are what we ensure that we have a vibrant and participative democracy in Scotland by doing their bit and fighting for their beliefs. Whatever they might be by delivering leaflets or stuffing envelopes or knocking on doors at election time, they give an invaluable service. Without them, we would not be able to do our job of taking our views and ideas to and hearing from the electorate. They help us to give voters a real choice at elections. I am delighted to take part in today's debate. When I was elected as a councillor in 2007, one of the tasks that I was given was to serve on the International Children's Games Board, which brought the children's games to Lanarkshire in 2011. It was my first experience of recruiting volunteers, and it was a really interesting process. To see the community step up and ensure that those games were a success and that the young people from all over the world that were coming to take part were looked after and entertained and everything went well, it was a joy to see. As Alison Johnstone mentioned how important volunteers are to sports, but whether it is the Commonwealth Games or the Homeless World Cup, all of those events could not take place without our volunteers that come together. I was a volunteer myself, although I did not even consider myself to be a volunteer, but as a Dale Dragon's den mum, I spent many a Saturday morning in the den cooking sausages for the junior rugby players and as my husband coached the team. Again, we never thought of ourselves as volunteers, we were just parents. I think that for a lot of people they are. They are just good citizens, good neighbours, parents, carers and guardians, and do not consider what they are doing and the benefit to our society. That is what today is all about, is recognising that. I congratulate the 15,000 people that volunteer for the SRU to ensure that grassroots rugby actually takes place. There is an awful lot of us. Clare Adamson I object, because rugby is a huge passion of mine, as people know. I was very lucky to attend the Dale festival of youth this year, which had teams from all over Scotland, from the borders, from Edinburgh and Glasgow coming together to take part on what was a spectacular day of rugby, with primary ones right through to senior secondary school teams taking part that day. I was lucky enough to give it some of the medals, so it was really good. The other reason why I am very interested in talking about rugby today is because I have recently been involved with a social inclusion chatty called The School of Hard Knocks. I hosted the event last year here. It is an organisation that goes out and runs courses, mentoring and looking after people, tackling some of the issues around long-term unemployment, self-esteem, employability and teaches life skills. Many of the people who do that for them now are people who have come through that programme and turned into volunteers themselves, because it has been such a good experience for them. It is life skills disguised as rugby, which brings me on to one of my favourite charities, Real Time Music, in my area. They describe themselves as youth work disguised as rock and roll, which I think is quite cool. I was very lucky to be here for the fifth or sixth year with Real Time Music in Motherwell Town Centre when they were participating in the Sounds Minds mental health charity event just a few weeks ago. They had not only the live music but taster sessions in music and skills for young people in the town centre that day. Real Time is a very important community because it is one of those groups that you see everywhere and involved in every initiative that is happening there. I should declare an interest because my son volunteers with him at the moment. I will just talk very briefly. I know that today is a day of celebration, but we have had a very tragic experience in my constituency recently. We have had the deaths through suicide of a number of very young people, some of them are school children in the area. It has been devastating. People are looking for answers, they are looking for help. I just wanted to talk about some of the charity organisations that volunteers have to come together to support my community through this process. Real Time Music is one of them. We have an organisation called Getting Better Together, which is based in Shorts, and it works into the Wishaw locality. We have come together with families against murder suicide, Chris's house, the suicide prevention charity in Wishaw, full-on mental health charity. All who have come together and had community meetings to try and support the community through this process. On 16 June, we are all coming together at Crate Newke Mountain Bike Pump Track, and the volunteers from Wishaw Mountain Bike Club will be there to support young people. Alongside those fun activities on that day, they will be looking to recruit people to take part in safe talk training and assist training and working to support our community through what is an absolutely devastating time. That is what volunteers bring to our communities. It is such an important part of that community, and it is about us all being safer and happier in Scotland. I thank them very much. I also draw attention to my registered interest as a member of Unite the Union. National Volunteers Week gives us all an opportunity to reflect on the positive contribution that volunteering makes to the lives of our own families and communities across Scotland. We have already heard some excellent examples, and I know that we will hear more throughout the debate, and I particularly recognise the remarks of Claire Adamson as a rugby mum myself and my husband, who is also a past coach at Wayshiders Drump earlier in Coatbridge. It is hard to select from the thousands of volunteer activity in my own area, but I would like to begin by commending the work done through the Lancashire Breastfeeding initiative. As the author of the Breastfeeding Excerters Scotland Act and as I fed my own son, Van, I have a particular interest in breastfeeding support. When Van was born, I was living hundreds of miles away from my family, and I was very dependent on the breastfeeding mothers group and the volunteers who were running it in conjunction with the NHS. Having worked with local groups and joined up my breastfeeding legislation, and keeping in touch ever since, I know that volunteers, health workers and families all work together to promote the benefits of breastfeeding and the health of breastfeeding mothers. Through improving the care support facilities that are available for breastfeeding mums, the health of mums and their babies is vastly improved with breastfeeding also being supported and sustained. There are about 500 premises in Lancashire who are now part of the breastfeeding welcome scheme, and the community mum's network is going from strength to strength, and I am sure that the Parliament will want to recognise and congratulate those involved in that. I do not want to sound one general note of caution, which is that volunteers should enhance public services, they should not replace them, and it is also important to note that volunteers themselves require good support into training, and I have some direct experience of that, because I worked as a volunteer manager a number of years ago in a GP practice, and I am aware that schemes such as the LBI will be most effective when they are delivered in collaboration with the core services. The expanding role of food banks in many of our communities has highlighted the willingness of people to come forward as volunteers to provide those services, and there is no doubt that the public response to rising food poverty has been overwhelming. I commend that volunteer effort across Scotland, often provided through churches. However, as I highlighted so powerfully in Ken Loach's film, I, Daniel Blake, some of the causes of increased dependence on food banks lie in the inhumane treatment of people through a punitive social security system, and that, combined with rising inward poverty, means that there is unacceptable pressure on many households today. We have to recognise that the increase in food banks and the consequent growth in volunteer numbers in those food banks is symptomatic of political choices and public spending decisions that need to be challenged and changed. As such, Scottish Labour is ensuring that we poverty-proof our policies because no one should be poor, cold and hungry in 21st century Scotland. While today's debate is about celebrating the massive contribution made by volunteers in so many ways, it must also be about addressing those problems that are sometimes highlighted through an increase in the need for volunteers. In this instance, surely we do not wish to build a society for the future, which depends on food banks as a solution to hunger. The theme of this year's Volunteers Week is volunteering for all, celebrating the huge range of people who have given their time in so many ways, and drawing to a conclusion, I want to draw attention to an area in which volunteering often seems to go unnoticed. In workplaces up and down the country, lay members of trade unions give freely of their time to assist and support other colleagues driving to create safe and healthy working environments for all. I am very well aware of that, having spent nearly a decade as analgo then unison branch secretary in the Highlands. Effective campaigns for a living wage, for equal pay, for dignity and respect at work, against discrimination and injustice, all of those depend on union volunteers. Agreement on facility time and some statutory work release times around health and safety legislation do provide for recognised trade union reps to do some of the work associated with their role, and they must be protected and strengthened and certainly not cut. However, very many hours of volunteer time go into ensuring effective trade union and employee voice within workplaces and companies. Always at the end of a phone, ready to offer a helping hand to another colleague in an emergency, keeping up with changes in legislation, undergoing training in their own time on mental health awareness, sign posting for other services and advice, and sadly, sometimes supporting families through the consequences of accidents or fatalities at work, trade unioners should be recognised and celebrated for the voluntary role that they play in our society. Volunteering takes many forms—people will give their time in so many ways—and I pay tribute today to all those who are making a difference through their actions across all of our communities. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. On Friday last week, I, along with my colleague Patrick Rady MP, had the privilege of opening the Maryhill Drinkwise Age Well Support Hub. The hub in Maryhill Barrahall strives to help older adults to reduce their alcohol consumption, but it is the potential to cause harm. The Maryhill facility demonstrates that people who have come through recovery often emerge with a passion to help others and their experience of the impact of drinking on their lives makes them uniquely qualified to support their peers. Drinkwise Age Well specifically opened the hub on 1 June, a deliberate decision as it fired the starting gun for volunteer week. That is because the Maryhill hub will be staffed predominantly by such volunteers. They are not just giving their time and passion and drive free of charge, but they are bringing significant amount of skill and experience and credibility—something that we should quite rightly celebrate during volunteer week. That credibility of volunteers is something that I want to explore further. Also based on my constituency of the fantastic home start north west, and I have spoken to him several times in this chamber, volunteers from home start often visit vulnerable or struggling families in their homes that offer support, friendship and practical assistance. They encourage the parents to gain strength and emotional wellbeing for the ultimate benefit of their children and many other great worthwhile things to do, but they also have a credibility due to their own life experience, as well as the fact that, I have made this point before, they are not a statutory service. They get buy-in and they get trust, and that is vital with many volunteers also. The work of home start Glasgow north west also allows me to make another important point during volunteer week, and that is that their volunteers are well trained. A day a week, seven weeks course, but a dozen different course themes that they can go and run through the list because of the time constraints, but they are well trained. They have capacity, but they also get professional training, and that is vital. They also get peer support of each other. They have a volunteer peer support group so that they can talk and interact with each other to further support them in their volunteering, and that is vitally important to support volunteers more generally. Volunteers have a drive that can cut through red tape and activity to achieve results. That is another point that I would like to make during this debate, and in that regard I would like to talk about Friends of Springburn Park. On Saturday I attended the opening of Springburn Park's community village, and on Saturday I attended the two wonderful days of events. The organisation was created in summer 2016. It was constituted in October 2016, and in summer 2017 it saved the former deposite in Springburn Park, Glasgow City Council, so we are going to demolish. It has now been turned into a community village. It will see a men's shed. It will see the Berlornock Uniform Banking base there. It has a community auditorium for performing space. It has a boat house that is hoping to turn into a community cafe. Ultimately, and there was the opening of an outdoor classroom. A new structure was suggested by a local school girl and funds one through participatory budgeting, funded by the Scottish Government and supported by NGHomes, which also have big plans going forward. Had Springburn Park simply been agency led by Glasgow City Council, there would not be a community village in the park the place where they would have been demolished. That is another aspect to make up the volunteers. That is their drive, and they sometimes see the bigger picture in the way that some agencies quite simply cannot. I actually scrubbed another part of my speech, because, as I was preparing for my speech today, I thought of Eleanor Brown, who passed away at the age of 69 on 1 May this year. Eleanor Brown was a Rutkill resident in my constituency. She was integral to the housing stock transfer. There are some appalling houses, quite frankly, in 1994. The Barnes Road Action Group is now part of Maryhill Housing Association, and she kickstarted regeneration of Rutkill. If it was not for Eleanor Brown, that simply would not have happened. She would not become the chair of Rutkill Community Council, doing an amazing job there. She set up a Rutkill furniture project, not just helping people who could not afford to furnish their own home, but reskilling people to bring furniture back up to standard always. She was on the board of north-end communities, a hugely popular and successful community group in the local area, working with young kids. She was much loved by those youngsters and is deeply missed. To her contemporaries, our admiration—she is not my contemporary, quite frankly—is far more experienced and enabled than I have been so far in my constituency. However, I have to say that she will be badly missed. It is people like that. We should not just celebrate current volunteers, but volunteers of years gone by who have transformed their communities. I call Gordon Lindhurst to be followed by Ruth Maguire. Deputy Presiding Officer, as a member of the cross-party group on volunteering and of volunteer myself, I am delighted to take part in this afternoon's debate, especially during Volunteers Week, where we take the time to thank everyone who gives up their valuable time to make a positive difference in the lives of others. As MSPs, it is a privilege to be able to experience and appreciate the variety and volume of different volunteers and charities throughout Scotland. Although the rate of formal volunteering has remained stagnant over a decade, it is very encouraging to note the rise in youth volunteering to over 50 per cent in 2016. That can give us optimism for the future. After all, volunteering is valuable, not just for those who benefit from it but for the volunteers themselves and their families. It is, of course, more blessed to give than to receive. Take the example of Scouting and the report into it a decade ago. 91 per cent of volunteers and 88 per cent of youth members stated that Scouting helped them to develop key skills, often setting them apart from some of their peers. It is easy to see how volunteering contributes to our economy as well. Great volunteering work is done by the third sector, helping to rehabilitate prisoners, for example. By readying them for release and a future outside prison, they can be helped to contribute positively to society and the economy. However, is the modern economy, within a globalised world, appropriate where longer hours at paid work are simply expected? The Modern Families Index, published by the charity Working Families, found in a recent report that 40 per cent of part-time and full-time workers were working extra hours regularly, and almost a third were, in effect, working an additional day per week. As competition for people's time increases, we also need to recognise that sacrifices are made in order to volunteer. Again, I congratulate and thank all those who do so in spite of their busy, busy working lives. What else can be done to encourage volunteering, particularly among those who would not normally think about doing so? Some have had the benefit of a role model to encourage them—in my case, my mother. What can be done for those who may not have had that good fortune to have a positive role model in their lives? Last week, I visited Big Hearts Community Trust, the official charity of Hearts Football Club in Edinburgh. They provide a number of excellent programmes, including kinship care and projects for lonely older people. Rather than duplicating good work, they also send their volunteers to other existing programmes to help to run by charities such as Fresh Start or Care and Repair Edinburgh. Some of those hearts volunteers might not normally volunteer for those charities. Indeed, some of them might not come from a background where volunteering is a traditional way of spending spare time. The difference can be that, in this way, they are encouraged and brought into volunteering, wearing a T-shirt with the football crest on it that shows that they are representing their club in the work that they do. It gives them a sense of pride and can make all the difference. I know that other club charities can appeal to similar people who might not normally be reached for volunteering. That is just one example of a pragmatic way of encouraging volunteering. Another useful tool would be the volunteer indicator, which indicates to people how cohesive and connected their community is. Painting a picture of volunteering in a particular locality can empower people to think about what they can do. A decision was taken by the Scottish Government not to include that as an indicator in the national performance framework. The CPG in volunteering disagreed and hoped that it would be looked at again, and so do I. Scotland is a proud volunteering nation, however, we still have a long way to go in boosting numbers and ensuring that we continue to be a volunteering nation. Proving the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive and that voluntary unpaid work can be equally beneficial to both society, the economy and the life of our nation as a whole. Thank you very much. I have just called Ruth Maguire to be followed by Johann Lamont. Volunteers week provides an opportunity to celebrate the important contribution that volunteers make to Scotland. This is the 34th annual Volunteers week, and a good chance for us all to say thank you to all those who give their time, energy, skills and commitment to our communities. This weekend, things got off to a great start in my part of Ayrshire, with not one but two fantastic events—shaping north Ayrshire participatory budgeting and fee in the park. The participatory budgeting event took place in the volunteer rooms in Irvine. There were 32 local groups providing a really wide and worthwhile range of activities and services for our community, Irvine community art group, the Golden Girls, the Ayrshire community trust, Irvine and Trun Cancer Care, Coastwatch, Burtree and Broomlands, Tenants and Residents Association, Irvine Meadow Community Club, Scottish Maritime Museum Men's Shed, Castle Park Sewing Group, Rainbow of Hope bereavement group, Suicide Scotland, Irvine Neighbourhood Youth Forum, Irvine Beat FM, Police Scotland Youth Volunteers, Irvine Takeda Karate, Irvine Cair and Share, Showtime Youth Theatre, Scottish Karate Alliance, Redburn Youth Management Committee, Irvine Seniors, Fullerton Community Association, Irvine and Dreghorn Brass Band, Kenshin Sukokai Karate Club, Irvine Community Council Centre Stage, Lotharn Parent Council, Irvine Special Events Forum, The New Beginnings Group, Springside Summer Club, North Ayrshire's Young Persons Epilepsy Support Group, Irvine Lassies Burns Club, St Mark's Parent Council and last but by no means least the wonderful fifth Dreghorn Brownies, who I was delighted to learn will be doing there at Citizen Girl badge after the summer. I list all of those wonderful groups who were there on Saturday, not just because as the MSP I couldn't possibly pick favourites or leave anyone out, but also because the folk in the hall in Irvine on Saturday fit so well with the theme of this year's Volunteers Week, volunteering for all. There really was something for everyone. All ages catered for many, many different things to participate in. Over 500 local people attended and cast their votes on a sunny Saturday morning, a reflection, I think, of the reach and impact that those groups and those volunteers have. I applaud the volunteers and thank them again for all that they are doing for our community. Of course, volunteering is beneficial to the individuals as well. It can help to gain confidence, giving them a chance to try something new and building a real sense of achievement. Volunteering is about making a difference, having a positive impact on people and your community. It is a great way to meet people, be part of something, learn new skills or take on a challenge, and, importantly, as we have heard, to have fun. Volunteers have a great time. I want to finish by quoting one of our wonderful local volunteers that we have in Irvine, Billy Lamb from Coastwatch. I will quote directly from a post that he made this week. This is Volunteers Week. As with many charities and voluntary organisations, Coastwatch Scotland Irvine volunteers give their time to the community. Volunteers all see their roles differently. Some are retired or semi-retired and want to continue to carry on working. Some feel they have time to give to the community. Some see volunteering as a root to employment. Some see volunteering as an interest away from normal working life. It does not matter how you see volunteering or what you think a volunteer should be. Volunteers are welcome and respected in the community. You give as much of your time as you wish. You meet new friends. You can become skilled in new fields. You can feel great satisfaction in carrying out your voluntary roles successfully. Think about it. For a few hours a month, you can become a volunteer.  I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in a debate celebrating the work of volunteers. An appreciation of and respect for volunteering has been a significant thread in the thinking of this Parliament since its establishment in 1999. I congratulate and thank volunteers wherever they are. What sport could survive without volunteers, out at all times of the day and in all the weather, to support those who want to participate in sport and often with no public funding at all? I think of all those like the St Andrew's First Aid volunteers and the wonderful young thistles who were in the Parliament so recently, teaching life skills, saving lives and often allowing community events to take place. I think of all those like the volunteer ambassadors from Down syndrome Scotland who will be supporting the wonderful world down syndrome congress, which will happen in Glasgow this summer with their help. Our gratitude to volunteers is immense, but we need to be more than grateful. Volunteers are not just helping with stuff. Volunteers and voluntary organisations have often been created out of an understanding of need and the development of the solutions that will meet that need. In my lifetime, there are many examples of whether in housing, tackling violence against women, supporting people with learning disabilities, creating community transport and so many more, where volunteers have created policies and practices that have transformed people's lives. That relationship and mutual respect is fundamental. I reflected in the past that there were local voluntary sector compacts and a Scottish level there was a Scottish compact with a voluntary sector. I would ask the cabinet secretary and her summing up to comment on whether she would consider reviving those for the allowed us as they did a more equal relationship, even when voluntary organisations were in the seat of Scottish Government funding. It would, of course, be to the detriment of us all if the voices of volunteers were managed and silenced and the compacts were a way of bringing those voices together. It would be remiss of me if I did not take the opportunity to make the case for proper, secure and stable funding for the structures in which volunteers and volunteering can flourish, an issue that many volunteers have highlighted to me. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit again Glasgow South West Food Bank, an inspiring place where fantastic volunteers quietly offer much-needed support with dignity, compassion and professionalism. I was told at between 12 o'clock yesterday alone that they issued 100 food packs, and that means a powerful illustration of the scale of the need that they are meeting. People are referred by charities and other groups working in our communities, but critically, they are also now being referred by statutory organisations such as social work. I was told that there have been instances in which staff managing the Scottish welfare fund are redirecting people to their food bank. Worryingly, there is evidence that staff are calculating the estimated value of a food parcel and deducting that cost from the crisis loans that people are receiving. I would welcome a commitment from the cabinet secretary and summing up to explore what seems to be a worrying approach and to establish how widespread practice it is. The point about the role of food banks is that, although no-one wants a long-term future for food banks, they are now in many communities in effect an emergency service to which people are being directed. We support prevention, of course we do, but it is essential that we support that emergency help too. We see volunteers here on the front line of social security, providing a much-needed safety net. Volunteers in south west Glasgow food bank say that they need the core funding to support a full-time member of staff to ensure the training, vetting and supporting of volunteers, doing the outreach work with agencies, generating donations and interests in their work, and a key role in adding to the understanding of why people may be hungry and going without the basics of everyday life. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary would agree to a meeting with myself and those from Glasgow south west food bank to look at how they can be supported in the work that they are doing, whether it is the Scottish Government or local government, so that they can ensure that their volunteers are properly supported to do the things that they really, really want to do. In valuing volunteers, we need to listen to them too, the desire mutual respect, certainty in funding and a space to plan and grow. We all hold volunteers in all. We should ensure that we are doing all that we can to liberate those very best instincts of humanity to make a difference across our communities. I look forward to the cabinet secretary's response to the specifics, but I welcome very much the opportunity to play my small part in celebrating those who do so much for others. Thank you, Ms Lamont. I call Emma Harper to be followed by Brian Whittle. Ms Harper, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Martin Luther King Jr made a quote, Life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? We all have busy lives and it's hard to juggle work, home, family and other things in our thrang and busy schedules to find time to volunteer, but the benefits of volunteering is enormous for the volunteers, the families and our communities. Volunteering can help promote health and wellbeing, it can be a way to find friends, connect with people, reach out to the community, learn new skills and volunteering can benefit career progression, and of course it can be fun and bring huge fulfilment to the lives of the volunteers. I would like to add my thanks also to all of the volunteers of all ages across Scotland in this week's volunteering for all theme. This week, June 1 through 7, provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the exceptional contribution that volunteers make across society and to many people's lives. I remind chamber that I am a registered nurse and, as such, I am required to keep my registration active. One way I am seeking to do this is by becoming a volunteer at the new Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. This has been difficult for me so far because I have managed all the application process, but I need to go through the prerequisite induction programme. Members of the public are welcome to volunteer in a range of hospital departments and services at the acute care hospital just outside Dumfries in South Scotland, which is part of the region that I represent. As this year is the broad year of young persons, young persons are encouraged to participate in the hospital volunteer programme too. There are many options across Galloway that could provide volunteering opportunities from the men's shed, which Bob Doris has already mentioned, such as the one in Dalbyty, where Sir Billy Connolly visited last week for his upcoming telly show. There are many Robert Burns associations and clubs that are run by volunteers with an appetite to champion the life, loves and works of Urbard and Urgid Scots language. The D&G integration joint board team led by Penny Halliday has been instrumental in the transforming Wigtonshire health and social care integration programme. Its goal is to focus on the future sustainability of health and social care in the south-west of the region. The programme's goal is to bring together community councillors, health and social care professionals and develop opportunities for sustainability and to increase the number of volunteers in both the hospitals and in the community. They had workshops last week that were a good platform to start the transforming Wigtonshire process. When I spoke to Julie Currie, one of the enthusiastic co-ordinators in the team, she told me that the project is open for young persons to get involved and that the team has already involved members of the Scottish Youth Parliament. In fact, one of the MYSPs has already put in over 500 hours of volunteering. We can all find a few hours to volunteer, helping to keep your Scotland bony with beach cleans, nerddle clean-ups and other litter pick-ups. Recently, I joined a beach clean group at Monreath and another family-orientated litter pickup at Glen Trw. That was a park in Dumfries with the Lyft folks. That's Loxside is Families Together. They are an organisation of volunteers led by volunteers and Lyft brings the people of Loxside together in a strong show of community pride. This week, the third sector of Dumfries and Galloway is holding their volunteer Oscars ceremony called the V Oscars on Thursday evening in Dumfries. One of the young men from Stranraer, Ines Currie, has been nominated as a young volunteer of the year. Ines has been very active and will be working with Camp America in the USA this summer. When Sir Harry Burns gave us evidence at the Health and Sport Committee, he spoke about the people of Scotland flourishing. Flourishing is such a positive, objective word to grow or develop in a vigorous way. Achieving a flourishing population demands not just that we improve physical health but also that all individuals and communities feel supported to grow in our communities in an emotional, psychological and social wellbeing way. If Scotland and our people are going to flourish, I would suggest that we candidate without us all supporting our volunteers and becoming volunteers ourselves. Thank you very much. Mr Stewart, no sooner did you come in than you're in trouble. Deputy Presiding Officer, I'm already heckled by a member of my own party. I refer the chamber to my register of interest and I'm a board member of NSPCC and also still an active coach. Deputy Presiding Officer, a volunteer has come in many forms from those giving an hour or two of their time to pick up litter on the local beach to those who are prepared to be on call 24-7, such as the RNLI, the area of people living in local communities, who give up their free time to learn how to save lives, then train every week, as well as carrying that instantly recognisable pager, which can summon them at any time to any number of issues from a boat in distress to a missing person to someone threatening to harm themselves. Where would we be without the important organisations such as Childline or the Samaritans and how many countless thousands of young people have they helped in their time? The cabinet secretary will recognise with her many athletics prowesses that she has done that the importance of the volunteer sector in things like the park run and in marathons. Every local park run relies on volunteers to organise and marshal runners. There are the big organisations such as the Red Cross and the National Trust, and the Charity Shops such as the British Heart Foundation, Canter Research and the Ayrshire Hospice. There are the smaller local community groups who do everything from taking care of a piece of woodland to coaching as sports teams. There are groups who work on the regeneration of their local communities. There are groups such as the New Mills Regeneration Association, which was formed in 2014 and has been awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service 2018, which is the highest award for recognising excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community. I recently visited Whiteley's retreat, which local volunteers stepped in after the closure of Malcolm Sgt. House and Presswick and have now bought a farm outside of Allaway. They have raised the funds to transform it into a home away from home for young people who are dealing with cancer or other serious medical issues. Not only are the people behind the project volunteers, but they work to repurpose and improve the buildings and landscapes that rely totally on volunteers. Local members of the public are donating their time and effort, local tradesmen putting their skills to good use, giving up weekends and evenings to do so in the more specialised jobs. Projects such as this changing lives are not just for the people who the project was created to help but also for the lives of the volunteers themselves. As Mahat McGandy said, the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Involuntary can have a real physical and crucially a mental health benefit. It can be a gateway into employment for people who have been out of work or have never worked before and don't have the confidence perhaps in their own abilities. It can be an escape. From the day's work, I know that my time spent coaching after a week in Parliament is good for my head. Just the sense of self-worth and satisfaction that comes from helping others is invaluable. I have mentioned many times before in the chamber the work of Sam Mullen at the Dune Valley Boxing Club. The way that he has managed to change the whole environment, the whole community environment, is quite incredible. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Mullen Coach Humair, whom I met when I was 11 years old when I joined Trun Torthys. He coached me all the way to the end of my career at 32. Not counting me, he coached over 50 Scottish and Scottish school merliths. I said before that he could have inspired me to get into coaching and I coached him one night before coming through to Parliament. Then again, I leave here and head straight to the track and at weekends, if time permits. There is definitely a therapeutic element to delivering a training session that leaves last elites lying on the track. It is the way that I destress, Deputy Presiding Officer. I also now work with four 9-10-year-olds, including my youngest daughter, who is my third time around here, who is not so much coaching as herding cats. I am not quite so convinced in the therapeutic nature of dealing with them, but all the same is good fun. There is that coaching network that I am plugged into as a member of the European Coaching Association. That interaction is very removed from what we do in here, and what I would say for one of a better expression is very real. Volunteering opens up opportunities and giving time to help others, mentoring both in the sense of helping people to develop life skills in businesses, volunteering time and resources to give young people the experience of the workplace and to let them develop skills that can serve them in future careers. I want to quickly mention South Asia Tigers, which is a power chair football team that I am raising sponsorship for by running around the town. I am hoping that some of you will volunteer to sponsor me. The volunteer coaches that they do and the support for the carers, which is above and beyond their normal role, we have a team that played against the Scottish team, and in 10 minutes we were 6-0 down. Alexander Stewart spawned his nickname of Davros and his ability in there. If I could close with a quote, the best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something, do not wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, and you will fill yourself with hope as well. I do not know if Bailey is free advertising as part of your role in sponsorship, but we will let that pass. Mark McDonald will be followed by Clare Hockey. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Like other members in the chamber, I have a number of extremely valuable voluntary organisations in my constituency and the challenge that I have faced as many others have is which of those to give mention to today. I will try to rattle through some of them. One of the challenges that exist in relation to volunteering is often how to ensure that new volunteers can be attracted. For many, their volunteering can be transient, particularly if it is a parent volunteering while their child is involved with a particular youth organisation. Their volunteering tends to last for the period that their child is involved before they then move on, and the organisation then has to seek to attract new volunteers from a new cohort of parents. There are some exceptions to that rule. Scouting has been mentioned by a number of members, including David Torrance, whose long-standing commitment and involvement with scouting is well recorded. I want to make mention of my constituent Moira Milligan, who is the cub leader in the community of Dyson. When I was a cub, Moira was the cub leader. To this day, she remains the cub leader in Dyson. She is now cub leader to a generation of children whose parents she was the cub leader to as well. I am sure that there are possibly others involved in the scouting movement across Scotland who can lay testament to similar claims. Michelle Ballantyne and Monica Lennon highlighted the challenges that are faced in low-income communities and encouraging volunteering in those areas. With that in mind, I wanted to put on record the appreciation that I have for the work that the station house media unit, or SHMU, does in my constituency. I know that the cabinet secretary will be familiar with it. She has visited it in the past. It offers significant volunteering opportunities, whether it is presenting radio shows or producing community-focused magazines that are made by people in regeneration communities for people in regeneration communities and are about celebrating the diversity within those communities and shouting about the positive things that happen, which very often do not see the light of day unless those communities themselves are the ones making the noise about it. Brian Whittle mentioned parkrun, a free-timed 5K, which runs every Saturday morning in communities length and breadth of Scotland. He has highlighted its run by volunteers. There is often a core group of volunteers, but they try to attract others who take part on a Saturday morning to volunteer occasionally. I have volunteered a number of times at my local parkrun. It is very rewarding to see hundreds of people turning up to run 5K, some of whom are seasoned athletes who can run 5K in about 16 or 17 minutes, others who take the time to walk the course simply to get the five kilometres of activity in the week that they might not otherwise get were that opportunity not provided for them. I want to take the opportunity to give a shout-out to my constituent Katie Gregg, who established the junior parkrun in Aberdeen, which is running the Duthey park. It is a two-kilometre run and is aimed at four to 14-year-olds. At the last junior parkrun that was held, it had 152 participants. That is a fantastic opportunity being provided to young people to get active and get involved. Who knows in future we may read of them following in Brian Whittle's footsteps at the Commonwealth Games as a result of their early introduction to running at parkrun. Recently, at the end of April, the churches in Aberdeen organised an event to invite politicians along to see the work that faith groups were doing within the communities of the city. I want to highlight two projects from my constituency. The first is the Living Well project, which began as a charity that was established in the parish of New Hills in my constituency to operate a befriending service in the north of the city to tackle social isolation. From there it has expanded and there are now four dementia cafes being run in churches across the city. Three of those are in my constituency at New Hills, Old Macaron and Hilton and provide opportunities for people to come into a social setting to reminisce and to tackle the isolation that can sometimes be felt by those who are elderly, vulnerable and who have dementia. I also want to highlight the Fine Peace cafe, which is run in Sheddoxley Baptist Church in my constituency. Not only does it offer opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities to be part of the work of the cafe but, at the end of every year, it distributes its profits to other voluntary organisations and charities within the city of Aberdeen, giving back to the community. Finally, I want to highlight the triple A's in my constituency, a social support group for those on the autistic spectrum, which is primarily targeted at teenagers and young adults. All their staff and volunteers are on the autistic spectrum and they are currently working as part of a group of organisations to re-establish a one-stop shop in the city having previously lost the service that was being provided. There is so much that I could go on and say but I know that time is short but it is true that volunteers are the heart of our communities and it is truly correct that we should celebrate them both in Volunteers Week and all year round. Thank you Mr MacDonald and I now call the last speaker in the open debate. Across the length and breadth of Scotland every single day there are thousands of selfless people who willingly give up their own time in the service of their communities and for other people. Quite simply, volunteers make an incredible contribution to Scottish society and I am very grateful for the opportunity to thank them in today's debate as well as to be able to draw attention to a few of the great voluntary groups from my constituency. I am delighted that, in Rutherglen constituency, is the home of thousands of dedicated volunteers working across a range of different sectors and it is because of their tireless work and commitment that our communities are better places to live and work. According to the Scottish household survey in South Lanarkshire, an estimated 25 per cent of the population volunteer in a number of activities, including youth work in the Scouts and Guides, to helping out at the Rutherglen and Cambus Lang food bank and from those giving up their time at Revolve Recycle on Main Street Rutherglen to the coaches at Blantair Soccer Academy at the other end of my constituency. Volunteers are our community's most important resource and they are our biggest assets. Those are people from my constituency volunteering in my constituency, however we owe a debt of gratitude to those who volunteer nationally. For example, those who do incredible work manning the telephones at charities like Samaritans and Childline. There is a particular group of volunteers who operate throughout the whole of Scotland that I wish to speak about today. I want to put on record my thanks and appreciation for them, for which is often an unrecognised contribution to local democracy, our community councils. Created 45 years ago through the local government Scotland Act 1973, our voluntary community councillors have been a main state in our local communities ever since. According to the Scottish Government's website, there are over 1,200 community councils currently in existence and five of them, Rutherglen, Burnside, Cambus Lang, Halfway and Blantair, proudly serve in my constituency. They act as a vital link between our communities and local authorities and they play a crucial role in ensuring that public bodies are aware of the opinions and needs of the communities that they serve and they are arguably the foundation of our democracy. Only last week I attended the Cambus Lang Futures Forum meeting, which is organised by Cambus Lang Community Council, and it is looking at the regeneration of the town centre. It is an incredibly exciting project and it is one of which the new SNP administration at South Lanarkshire Council is supporting through various initiatives too. Another example of the great work done by community councils, which I raised three months ago in this chamber, was the campaigning by Blantair and Halfway Community Councils against the proposed incinerator in Hamilton. Both community councils undertook a major campaign in opposition to the Whitehill incinerator, and over a couple of months both had knocked on the door of almost every single house from within their council wards, and in doing so they amassed over 4,000 objections to the proposal. Whether it is working to regenerate town centres, or campaign against planning applications, or even arranging community clear-ups or hosting galadies, community councillors devote incredible time and effort to our communities. Today's debate has allowed us to celebrate Scotland's volunteers, but it should also act as a call to get more people involved too. Although levels of volunteering have remained stable over the past few years and with the growth in young people volunteering, many community councils across Scotland are either shutting down or getting smaller in terms of membership, and are therefore strongly encouraged by anyone with either an interest in politics or a desire to do more in their community to join their local community council. Presiding Officer, now is probably the best time to volunteer in community councils too. In addition to the Community Empowerment Act, which is giving people an even greater involvement in local decisions, the Scottish Government has also set councils a target of having at least 1 per cent of their budget subject to participatory budgeting. Although not exclusive to community councils, they are able to benefit through that, as Campus Land Community Council will attest after being the recipients of over £60,000 last year for their greening campus land campaign. Community councils now have the opportunity to have a much more direct and substantive say in our local community, so please get involved. Presiding Officer, I would like to thank not only my constituents who volunteer in community councils, but everyone else who devotes their time to other causes across the country. Our society is so much better because of what you do, and I thank you. Before I move to closing speeches, I am very disappointed by Mr Lindhurst, who is not gracing us with his presence for the summing up, so I expect a note from him to explain why he is not going to listen to the closing speeches. I now call Iain Gray, Mr Gray, a generous six minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I think that there have been three themes to our debate this afternoon on celebrating volunteering. The volume of volunteering, the breadth of it and the depth of volunteering, too. The volume is important because volunteering is one of those things that often you do not know is there unless for some reason you become involved in it. I became aware of that when my wife and myself became guide dog puppy walkers and immediately discovered an extensive community of guide dog puppy walkers all around us who had been there all the time volunteering in that line of work, which most people do not really notice. Similarly, I am disappointed that Mr Lindhurst is here because he had the cheek to mention the Big Hearts Foundation, so I feel obliged to mention the Heberian Community Foundation, which, as my register of interest, shows I chair. When I took that role on, it was a first dabble, in my part, into the world of community football and community football teams. I remain astonished at the thousands and thousands of people who give their time generously and freely, so that those community football clubs and courses can operate, and children and young people in particular can get that kind of sporting opportunity. In any week in this Parliament, all of us have revealed to us enormous efforts of volunteering that we probably knew nothing about prior to that event. The volume is enormous, and the breadth and variety is, too. We have heard a lot about that. More about sport, for example, from Alison Johnstone and then from Brian Whittle. Indeed, the Scottish Sports Association tells us that each year, 23 million hours of volunteering are devoted to volunteering in sport. Incredible. A completely different kind of volunteering described to us passionately by Johann Lamont and Elaine Smith in the food banks, which are so necessary, unfortunately, in the communities that are the length and breadth of this country. Through to the uniformed organisations, including the Scouts that Mr Torrance spoke to us about. I wanted to mention from my constituency a group of volunteers who came together and solved a problem that I had never even thought about existing. It was beach wheelchairs North Berwick, who have worked hard to create the opportunity for wheelchair users to enjoy the beach with their friends and families. It is so successful that that has now spread up the coast to Port Seaton and to Portobello. Elaine Smith also mentioned those volunteers who do work in their trade unions to try to improve the lives and working conditions of their fellow workers. I am perhaps disappointed that we have all been too embarrassed to talk about the many political party volunteers on the backs of whom we find ourselves here fulfilling this role as MSPs. We should not be embarrassed about that, because whatever party they are working for, they are working on, given their time freely, in order to make Scotland a better place. Although we might disagree about how we should do that, I think that all of us appreciate the importance of that level of engagement. However, volunteering is also deep and profound. Bob Dorris, in what I thought was one of the most thoughtful speeches of the afternoon, talked about Home Start, a tremendous organisation that is also very active in my constituency in East Lothian. He has been putting out on social media this week experiences and testimonies from his volunteers. One of them is from Elizabeth Butler, who volunteers in East Lothian for Home Start. I just wanted to read a little bit of what she says. She says, Just turning up and being there every week, it was just little, but it made a massive impact. It is inspiring to see how much people can grow and change and become what they want to be with just that wee tiny bit of hope. We are just coming in as human beings, and that is where the difference is made. That is a powerful testimony to the profound influence that the volunteering of someone like Elizabeth through Home Start can have on a family. When I used to work for Oxfam, and I was privileged to visit all sorts of work that Oxfam did, landmine clearance in Cambodia, community dam building in Zimbabwe, the victims of conflict in far too many countries, I was always struck at the incredible power of an enterprise that could put together the voluntary work of so many volunteers in Oxfam shops in every high street in Scotland and make a genuine difference to those who were struggling with those massive geopolitical issues. The truth is, and many have said this in different ways, that volunteering is not an extra. It is fundamental to our society. Michelle Ballantyne listed all the ways in which one community is supported by volunteering. Monica Lennon made very clear how, when Joe Cox talked about more uniting us than dividing us, volunteering is exactly one of those fundamental ties that bind us together in such an important way. They make people feel valued, part of something, they give us a sense of belonging to something that is worth belonging to. The truth is, volunteering for all does not just mean that everybody should volunteer, it means that we all benefit. However, I want to close on the point that Joanne Lamont made, because it is not enough to celebrate and appreciate volunteering. We must go from this debate today, resolved to respect it and to support it properly. The debate has been a very positive way of marking a volunteering week, highlighting the commitment of volunteers from Scotland's cities to our most remote and rural communities. Many members have spoken about their own experiences of volunteering in their constituencies and regions, and it has shown just some of the breadth of activities that volunteer activity can cover. In some cases, we have heard about professionals with adapted skills and training taking on long-term commitments and others about people drawn together by circumstances to fix a problem or to provide something in their communities, as Ian Gray mentioned, with the group helping beach wheelchair access. What unites volunteers in these circumstances is a mindset, whether it is called altruism, civic mindedness or something else. When I was a new candidate at the 2005 general election, my organising secretary had a poster on the wall of our office in Elgin. It read, nothing is stronger than the heart of a volunteer, and it is a message that has resonated with me over the years. I know that the motion mentions a figure of £2 billion, but I think that it is hard to put a true economic value on volunteering. Assessments always seem to fall short, because, as Clare Adamson mentioned, in many cases the most committed volunteers do not even consider what they are doing as volunteer work. To them, it is nothing more than pitching in or playing their part. Volunteering covers so many sectors. In health organisations such as the Royal Voluntary Service, which began its life as the Women's Voluntary Service in 1938, is one of Britain's largest volunteering charities, and it is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Many will be familiar with the RVS from its network of hospital shops and cafes, but its work is so much broader, supporting older people to live independently, supporting emergency services during major incidents, organising local community transport are just some of those examples. Or to those staff who help charity shops, raising money for vital medical research or support, which can change, in many cases, save lives. Of course, those who look after family and friends or who keep an eye on a neighbour or someone in their community providing crucial care support. As has been mentioned before in politics, Clare Hocky mentioned community councils and absolute right to. Even those who campaign for political parties or other campaigns are extremely important—people who break bad weather, bad tempers and the prospects of a Saturday leafleting—not for reward but because they believe in a candidate or a cause. In sports, you will be delighted to know that I am not going to try and tap anybody up for half-marathon sponsorship anytime soon, but Brian Whittle talked about the experience of the more elite end of sports coaching. My experience is a little lower down the ladder, perhaps, but the charity rugby club that I helped found and run in 1998, Godfather's Rugby, has for the last 20 years raised thousands for click sergeant counter charity, and every one of the committee members and the players is a volunteer, someone who gives up their time to support our work. That is happening across Scotland, where thousands of people are turning out to help to make sure that other people can be involved in sports or other activities such as riding for the disabled—activities that they would not be able to do otherwise. It is often forgotten that there is volunteering in our emergency services too—special constables and voluntary and auxiliary firefighters to name some of them. Of course, in the Highlands and Islands, the mountain rescue, many of them are volunteers and provide a crucial role. Of course, no one from an island community like mine in Orkney can ignore the vital role of the volunteers of the RNLI—volunteers who give up their time and, in the most tragic cases, their lives to help those in distress. However, it is not just here in the UK that volunteers make a difference. For many years, the UK has had a very proud tradition of helping people abroad too. One of the foremost organisations in this regard has been VSO, which, in addition to its funding from the Department for International Development, received some support from the Scottish Government's Climate Justice Fund as well. It is celebrating a major milestone this year as well, marking 60 years since it was founded. Since then, its influence has been global, not only in the work that it does but in inspiring similar organisations in other countries. I would like to see more being done to provide opportunities for a wider group of people from a more diverse background to volunteer abroad. A gap year of volunteering should not just be for those who can afford it. In my own region, today is the last day of the 18th Shetland classic motor show, another event that is founded by volunteers Maurice Mully, Graham Johnston and others who provide a major boost to the local economy. Only last week, the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service was given to Moravia Centre in Murray, Fockeba's heritage, Murray handy person services and, step by step in Murray, recognising their fantastic work. The men's shed organisation movement across the whole of Scotland goes from strengths to sense, particularly in Orkney. I commend the work of Morgan Harkus and others who recently built a shed for the local blue door charity, which is a recipient of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Services in 2017 and whose founder Rita Jamieson was awarded the British Empire Medal earlier this year for services to the community in Orkney. As Maurice Corry said, volunteering isn't just one way, it's not just about volunteers giving up their valuable time for the good of their community. The volunteer can benefit hugely too. I think a quote from the Orkney men's shed website says it rather nicely. If you become a member of the shed, you run the very real risk of becoming more interested in life and your surroundings, more healthy both physically and mentally, and will almost certainly miss many televised repeats of strictly cum baking on ice. Across the Parliament, many of my colleagues have had very interesting things to say. Michelle Ballantyne talked about her own experiences in her area and also the barriers to volunteering, as did Monica Lennon. Alex Cole-Hamilton rightly said that volunteering is fragile and must be supported. Clare Adamson highlighted the importance of volunteering in mental health in her community. Elaine Smith talked about areas such as breastfeeding and other areas that were important, but not often thought about. Brian Whittle mentioned volunteering as a gateway into work, which I thought was another very interesting and absolutely correct statement. Bob Doris talked about the importance of training, and I think that this is something that we could probably all agree on. Gordon Lindhurst spoke about the increase in volunteering in the younger people against the relative stagnation of adult volunteering and some of the barriers to volunteering too. I think that Maurice Corry spoke a lot about the benefits and also mentioned the cadets, which came up a couple of times. These voluntary organisations, many of them long-standing institutions in our public life, deserve our thanks and our commendation. It is one of the duties of us as parliamentarians to look at how we can support them with Government, where we can be a force to help to enable communities and individuals. Those individuals, for all the work that they do, for week-in, week-out, volunteering in communities or wider, in every single part of Scotland are very big thank yous. I call Angela Constance, cabinet secretary, to 5 o'clock. It is very clear that each and every one of us in this chamber today recognises the value of volunteering. I want to start by thanking members for their contributions. I will even thank Brian Whittle, although I would like to issue him with a challenge that perhaps he could coach Mr Halcro Johnston for his very first half marathon. Importantly, listening to the contributions from colleagues, I have learned a lot about colleagues from across the chamber in terms of their passions and interests, even colleagues that I have known for many years. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my thanks again to all those volunteers who are giving so much to so many, to all those people across Scotland who are making absolutely vital contributions every day to their communities and to society as a whole, doing what they believe and without fanfare or reward because they share a belief in a fairer society. Michelle Ballantyne and others spoke very personally about what volunteering meant to Tareem in their own lives and in their own backgrounds. I want to say to Michelle that we recognise the full scale of volunteering and that is why, for the first time this year, we will put questions about informal volunteering into the Scottish household surgery. In essence, that is about capturing that entire range of social action. It is that entire range of social action that Claire Adamson encapsulated so beautifully when she very poignantly recognised that many volunteers do not consider themselves volunteers. They may be parents, grannies, carers, sports enthusiasts, who essentially are just getting on to it. The other point that she made is that we very often see the very best in volunteers and the very best of volunteering often at the very worst of times and at a time when a community can be in crisis. That is why investment and support of volunteers is absolutely crucial because it is that gold dust that builds resilience in communities and enables communities to be stronger, to be cohesive in the bad times as well as the good. Monica Lennon spoke about the power of intergenerational work, which is something that I am enthusiastic about. I will watch the space because, as a Government, we are continuing to look more closely at the value of intergenerational work and how that can be brought to life. It is also a feature of our draft social isolation and loneliness strategy. Monica Lennon and her colleague Iain Gray were right to pay tribute to the work of the late Joe Cox in reducing social isolation and how that is work that will continue for many years to come, no doubt. Iain Smith made a very important point that volunteers complement and do not replace paid staff. I agree with her fully on that. Alison Johnstone spoke about the gender divide in volunteers in sport. Of course, the 2019 Solheim cup will be an important opportunity to recruit volunteers. My understanding is that that particular tournament is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers, so I would have hoped that there would have been opportunities in and around that event to increase the number of women volunteers in sport in particular. Of course, it feels absolutely right that we have the opportunity to debate and celebrate volunteering here in the chamber. It is vital that volunteering stays high on the political gender. As many people have reiterated, volunteering is not that nice to do. It is fundamental to creating a fairer, more participative and more prosperous nation, and that has certainly been recognised here today. I want to specifically mention two points. One is about breaking down barriers. Many members asked about how we are going to break down those barriers to volunteering. I want to give one example. That is an example that is contained in the Scottish Government's disability action plan, which commits to making funding available to enable more disabled people to volunteer. The volunteer and support fund is making over £3 million available over the next three years to support more people into volunteering, including those with a disability. Through our funding to Volunteer Scotland, there has been a partnership established with Glasgow Disability Alliance, and that is very much aimed at raising the participation rates for disabled people. Johann Lamont spoke again very powerfully about how volunteering is doing more than helping, and she spoke about how volunteers and voluntary organisations have been created through an understanding of need, of where new policy and new practice has been developed, to transform communities and to transform the country. If I could say to Johann Lamont that our Fairer Scotland action plan very much recognises that we need to eradicate poverty in all its forms and to prevent poverty in all its forms, and that also applies to food banks. It is only at the end of last year that this Parliament united around the need for a child poverty act to reintroduce statutory income targets that are at the very heart of our endeavours to end child poverty in this country. In terms of food poverty, which Johann Lamont spoke about, our commitment is to end the need for food banks, but it is also to create a community movement that is focused on food justice and not food charity. Johann Lamont said that, however, the point that has been made by the Glasgow South West Food Bank is that need is there now. While we work on prevention, we have to meet that need too. I urge you to consider meeting with them to hear their direct concerns about how it is inhibiting their ability to volunteer with the way in which they are currently funded. I am absolutely more than happy to meet with Ms Lamont and to outline the funding that we already provide for community food projects, but also to food banks and how we are taking forward the actions around a piece of work that was done by volunteers and people who lead the voluntary sector in challenging food poverty in this country. However, I am happy to have a more fuller discussion with the member. I am absolutely happy to do that. The point has been made by a number of speakers on the importance of consistency of support and consistency of funding. I am pleased to remind members that we have introduced three-year funding for things like the equality budget for the volunteer support fund. We have also remained committed to our third sector funding, which supports third sector interfaces and the Empowering Community Fund, which does so much to support grass-roots organisations. I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to everybody who serves in the cross-party group for volunteering. It is chaired by Alex Cole-Hamilton, and I really appreciate the contribution that this cross-party working group is making to raise the profile of volunteering and how it is helping to drive forward the agenda. Our partnership with the cross-party working group will be particularly important as we move forward with the outcomes framework for volunteering, which will indeed be co-produced. I thank members for their contributions here today. We have heard many great tributes to the fantastic work of our volunteers. We know that the biggest gift that we can give anyone is that of our time. I look forward to continuing to work with members. If I can end by saying once again many thanks to the many thousands of volunteers who are working very hard to make Scotland a better place for today and tomorrow. That concludes our debate on celebrating Scotland's volunteers. The next item of business is consideration of a legislative consent motion, and I ask Hamza Yousaf to move motion 1256 on parking code of practice bill UK legislation. I'm glad you're supposed to do this, no? Thank you. There are two questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that motion 12561, in the name of Angela Constance, on celebrating Scotland's volunteers, be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. The next question is that motion 1256 on the parking code of practice bill UK legislation be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. That concludes decision time. We'll move to members' business in the name of Daniel Johnson on the portrayal of ADHD treatment, and we'll just take a few moments before then to change for members to change seats.