• Cole-Hamilton: Youth work is key to tackling youth violence
• Cole-Hamilton to Swinney: Do the right thing and give Fornethy survivors access to Redress
• Wishart comments on energy report calling for delay to RTS switch off
• Cole-Hamilton calls for investment in concrete youth work after summit

Cole-Hamilton: Youth work is key to tackling youth violence

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and former youth worker Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today called for greater investment in youth work ahead of a summit on youth violence.

Later today, Alex will attend a cross-party summit hosted by the First Minister on tackling youth violence and knife crime.

It follows a recent spate of violent incidents involving young people across the country, including the murder of 16 year-old Kayden Moy on Irvine Beach.

Before entering politics, Alex was a youth worker. During that time, he worked with a range of vulnerable young people, including those who had grown up in the care system and children who had been trafficked to Scotland.

Commenting ahead of the summit, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

For the best part of twenty years, I was a youth worker, helping some of the most disengaged young people get their lives back on track.

That experience taught me that no child is inherently bad. Most of the time, they are just in need of some direction, a need that has only been fuelled by the isolating impact of lockdown.

That’s where youth work comes in: it provides young people with the direction they need and gives them a positive adult role model who is neither a teacher nor a parent.

It teaches teenagers to come out of their comfort zone, helps them rebuild their sense of self-worth and fosters a whole host of key life skills.

Since the pandemic, however, the SNP have presided over the quiet death of youth work. Budgets have been squeezed, services have struggled to survive, just when we need them the most.

While acts of violence require a strong response, punishing predominantly law-abiding young people cannot be our broader solution. We need youth work to pre-empt and prevent those acts of violence, to properly engage young people in society and lay the foundations for them to succeed in life.

Cole-Hamilton to Swinney: Do the right thing and give Fornethy survivors access to Redress

Ahead of a members’ business debate in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has urged John Swinney to do the right thing and grant the Fornethy House survivors access to the Redress compensation scheme.

The Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme pays out up to £100,000 and offers support to those abused in residential care.

More than 200 women have now come forward alleging that they were sexually, physically and mentally abused in the 1960s and 70s at Fornethy House- an all-girls residential school in Angus.

The Holyrood Petitions Committee has concluded that the women should be granted access to the scheme.

In 2023, John Swinney said that there is no “inherent impediment to applications to the redress scheme coming forward from people who spent time at Fornethy” and that “the nature of the environment in which individuals were spending time at Fornethy could be considered to fall within the ambit of the scheme.”

However, the Scottish Government has now told Fornethy survivors that they do not qualify for the Redress scheme because their visit to the school was only “short-term”.

Ahead of the members’ business debate, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The Scottish Government’s continued denial of Redress to the Fornethy House survivors is a palpable unfairness.

This scheme is specifically designed to support victims of abuse, so it is galling that the Fornethy women are excluded from it.

How can the length of time they spent at Fornethy possibly matter when they were abused while there and forced to bear the trauma of that abuse for the rest of their lives?

These women should not have to fight such an uphill struggle for the recognition and compensation they deserve.

The Scottish Government has sent mixed messages to survivors, with the First Minister having once indicated they could be successful under the scheme, only for his Deputy First Minister to subsequently reject that notion.

I am urging both he and the Deputy First Minister to look again at the Fornethy cases, do the right thing and grant these women access to Redress. It is the very least they deserve.

Wishart comments on energy report calling for delay to RTS switch off

Responding to a new report from the Scottish Government’s independent fuel poverty advisory panel calling for the RTS switch off to be delayed, Shetland MSP Beatrice Wishart has criticised the difficulties constituents have faced in securing metering appointments, poor communication around the switch off from energy companies and Ofgem and a lack of resources for those facing being left in the cold.

The Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), used by energy suppliers for some electricity meters, particularly in island and rural areas, to control heating and hot water systems, is set to end on 30 June 2025. At this point affected households face having their heating and hot water stuck either off or on.

According to Ofgem figures, provided by Energy Action Scotland to Ms Wishart, as of 18th April, across Scotland there were 124,864 meters still needing to be exchanged including 22,579 in Glasgow and 17,175 in Edinburgh. This is a decrease from 129,814 on 4th April and 134,829 on 21st March. This suggests that if the current trend continues the backlog of meters will not be completed for around a year.

Ms Wishart’s Shetland constituency is especially badly affected with 4,204 meters still to be replaced out of around 10,600 households.

The Liberal Democrats have called on the UK Government to require energy suppliers to compensate any households that request a replacement meter before the shutdown but never receive one.

Beatrice Wishart MSP said:

The Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel have identified many issues with the RTS switchover that will be familiar to those in rural and island areas, from reported difficulty securing metering appointments to poor communication around the switch off and a lack of resources.

Ofgem have been reported saying that RTS will be ended through a phased area-by-area shutdown starting on 30th June. There has been no official announcement of how this will work.

The RTS switch-off continues to be a source of anxiety for many customers, who are now facing added uncertainty. It is far from clear how a phased area-by-area shutdown will be implemented. There are so many houses still needing meters installed that unless the energy companies vastly increase the pace of installations, then a short extension of the deadline will only push the switch-off closer towards the winter months with a risk that customers will be left in the cold and without basic hot water. At the current rate it might be a year until all houses are reached.

Ofgem are telling people to still book RTS meter replacements after 30th June and I am hearing from constituents who have only been offered one after this date.

I am attending a roundtable with the UK Minister for Energy Consumers next week and will be seeking clarity on these points.

Cole-Hamilton calls for investment in concrete youth work after summit

Speaking after the cross-party summit on tackling youth violence and knife crime, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and former youth worker Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Today’s summit can only be a first step. What we need now is for the government to take action.

Many of the attendees emphasised the importance of youth work, which my party and I have repeatedly said is key to reengaging with young people at risk of violence and antisocial behaviour.

My experience as a youth worker taught me that no child is inherently bad. The tiny minority who go off the rails are often just in need of some direction.

That’s why the First Minister must listen and commit to a concrete investment in youth work in every part of the country. I and many others will be watching closely to see that his actions going forward match the warm words that we have heard today.

Supporting young people must be a priority for his government, not just one that crops up at times of public outcry.