Morven-May MacCallum
Scottish Liberal Democrats · Scotland
“I declare that I am a councillor on Highland Council. In the Highlands and Islands, poverty goes far beyond the material. When a child grows up watching future opportunities being curtailed and seeing their siblings and friends move away for a more prosperous life in the city, the quiet lesson that they learn is that success means moving…”
“Shirley-Anne Somerville: Morven-May MacCallum raises an important point about ensuring that when the Government, councils and other bodies look at the challenge of poverty, our solutions meet needs in all parts of Scotland. The needs in a central belt city centre will be very different to those in the Highlands and Islands.”
“I would be delighted to continue that discussion with her after today—as will, I am sure, other ministers—because she raises an important point about ensuring, as we move forward with our review, that we apply a rural and island lens to those challenges. I thank her for raising that point today.”
“I move S7M-00356.3, to insert at end: “; understands that the third sector employs over 130,000 paid staff in Scotland, providing employment opportunities for those who find it harder to gain work, including disabled people, and often offering flexible working conditions, which has resulted in women making up 64% of the workforce; notes t…”
“I declare that I am a councillor for Highland Council and a volunteer for Lyme Disease UK and the Lyme Resource Centre. It is no secret that the third sector is very close to my heart. As many members know, I have a long-term illness.”
“They include organisations such as New Start Highland, which provides employability training and housing support to those in crisis, and the community- owned distillery in Dingwall, which is using green energy to bring back distilling to the area for the first time in more than 100 years.”
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“I would be delighted to continue that discussion with her after today—as will, I am sure, other ministers—because she raises an important point about ensuring, as we move forward with our review, that we apply a rural and island lens to those challenges. I thank her for raising that point today.”
“Shirley-Anne Somerville: Morven-May MacCallum raises an important point about ensuring that when the Government, councils and other bodies look at the challenge of poverty, our solutions meet needs in all parts of Scotland. The needs in a central belt city centre will be very different to those in the Highlands and Islands. That is exceptionally important. The member will be aware of the work that the Government has undertaken and continues to undertake on tackling depopulation, by supporting population into the Highlands and Islands and encouraging those in the Highlands and Islands to stay.”
“I declare that I am a councillor on Highland Council. In the Highlands and Islands, poverty goes far beyond the material. When a child grows up watching future opportunities being curtailed and seeing their siblings and friends move away for a more prosperous life in the city, the quiet lesson that they learn is that success means moving away from the area that they love. That evokes a poverty of opportunity, which is one of the many reasons why one in five children in my region are in poverty. Depopulation hollows out communities and narrows the horizons of young people. Can the cabinet secretary expand on what the Scottish Government is doing to improve opportunities for ambitious young people in rural communities?”
“I move S7M-00356.3, to insert at end: “; understands that the third sector employs over 130,000 paid staff in Scotland, providing employment opportunities for those who find it harder to gain work, including disabled people, and often offering flexible working conditions, which has resulted in women making up 64% of the workforce; notes that Scotland's charitable and voluntary sector contributes significantly to the delivery of government policy objectives, yet relies heavily on public donations and fundraising; believes that the sustainability of many charities depends on multi-year funding and appropriate government support; considers that any diversification of funding should assist smaller charities that can find it difficult to participate in public funding rounds, and believes that any charity in receipt of public funding must retain the absolute licence to criticise, as well as to shape, public policy and the actions of government.””
“Yes, the fairer funding scheme is a great step forward, but it falls short of what the sector is asking for. Third sector organisations need a funding model that provides them with true sustainability, proper flexibility and more autonomy in what they can do with their money. That is why I have lodged the amendment, and I thank the Government and other parties for their support.”
“There is nothing in the Government’s motion with which we disagree, which is why the Liberal Democrat amendment seeks to add to the motion by calling for proper long-term multiyear funding that lasts for more than two years and a grant system that provides smaller charities with equal access to Government cash. Importantly, charities need the right and the confidence to be able to criticise the Government publicly without worrying about losing funding or facing repercussions. Without all that, we simply cannot provide the security and the certainty that those charities need. A quarter of charity staff are on fixed-term contracts, and many have no idea whether they will have a job in the next 12 months. Surely we can do better than that.”
“They include organisations such as New Start Highland, which provides employability training and housing support to those in crisis, and the community- owned distillery in Dingwall, which is using green energy to bring back distilling to the area for the first time in more than 100 years. In fact, there are more than 1,200 social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands alone, supporting more than 7,000 jobs and generating hundreds of millions of pounds for the economy and the community. In a region such as mine, which suffers from depopulation and rural poverty, those figures are not to be overlooked. The reality is that the money that we invest in the third sector comes back to us and to our community many times over, so we should not be afraid of throwing the full weight of the Scottish Government behind those organisations.”
“It is an essential part of how our country is run and it is about time that we treated it as such. That point about employment is important. As I said, the third sector employs around 5 per cent of Scotland’s workforce, but it goes much deeper than that. The third sector is far more likely to employ those who find it difficult to get into work in the first place. Recent estimates are that 27 per cent of those who are employed in the third sector are disabled, compared with just 21 per cent in the public sector, and even less in private companies. With a turnover of almost £10 billion, the third sector contributes massively to the Scottish economy. To explore one aspect of how the third sector impacts my local area, the Highlands and Islands region has the highest density of social enterprises in Scotland.”
“I declare that I am a councillor for Highland Council and a volunteer for Lyme Disease UK and the Lyme Resource Centre. It is no secret that the third sector is very close to my heart. As many members know, I have a long-term illness. When the national health service could not provide the support that I needed, it was the Lyme disease charities that picked up the pieces and signposted me to the help that I needed to get me to where I am today, in this chamber. Sadly, many of those charities no longer exist. I tell this story because the third sector is not some abstract line in a budget. It is about people. It is about the volunteers who pick up the phone when no one else will. It is about the organisations that catch people who have slipped through the net. The third sector employs around 5 per cent of Scotland’s entire workforce.”
“I agree with him that, in the previous session, one of the greatest concerns was that the Government decided not to take forward the learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill. His former colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy did some good work on a transitions bill for young people. Those bills could complement each other, and I hope that the Government will make their introduction an urgent priority. As we start this new session of the Parliament, I hope that the cabinet secretary is genuinely ready to work with and reach out to all parties to develop a new plan to improve our NHS not just for this session of the Parliament, but for the future of our NHS.”
“David Green made a point about rural proofing, which we need to focus on—I say that as an Edinburgh and Lothians East MSP. We need to look at how often our NHS creates more problems by not thinking about rural communities first. Lloyd Melville made important points about the elimination by 2030 of HIV transmission. I also highlight the need for us to refocus and return to hepatitis C testing and treatment strategies. For many years, we were world leading in that area, but we are now slipping behind. The strategies that we have outlined and where they are being delivered—sometimes on a board-by-board basis instead of with a once-for-Scotland approach— need to be revisited. Joe Long is another great new addition to the Parliament, and I also worked with him when he was at Scottish Autism.”
“We managed to get a constituent—who wanted to return to her roots to die in the Western Isles—back home to have her wishes fulfilled. Another constituent wanted to die at home in Edinburgh, but a crisis meant they were blue-lighted into hospital and died there, which was not the wish of that individual or their family—that should never have happened. We need to consider how our systems can and must change. I congratulate David Green and welcome him to the Parliament. I have known David for many years, and he will be a great new addition to the Parliament. I met his dad at the kirking of the Parliament, but David has trained his family so well that, when I tried to get any gossip or dirt that I could out of his father, he was not for telling me.”
“We have heard from several members in this debate about poor health spend in our health service, such as when police officers take people who experience mental health trauma to A and E just to sit with them all day and then take them home. I hope that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice will genuinely work together to end that practice. Stuart McMillan highlighted ambulances being tied up at A and E units across our country, and Bob Doris outlined well the cost to our health service of not urgently delivering a better hospice and community palliative care system—it is more than £1 billion. I have two recent stories on that issue from working as an MSP in Edinburgh.”
“Life expectancy figures in Scotland remain shocking: between the 20 per cent most deprived and the 20 per cent least deprived communities, there is a gap in life expectancy of eight years for women and 11 years for men. Helen McDade spoke about the need for action, which I agree with. Too often, our NHS is good at delivering a process to referral but not an actual outcome. We need a change from having Government strategy after Government strategy to having strategies that actually deliver outcomes. That said, I will highlight two of the strategies that ministers should return to, which are realistic medicine and the “What matters to you?” approach. If we are going to consider where and how patients want to be treated, we need to understand that the NHS often overtreats Scots, and have a reset on that in this session.”
“I therefore hope that the cabinet secretary, as a fellow Lothian MSP, will agree to meet a cross-party group of MSPs to discuss how we can put in place a population-based funding mechanism to address the issue. I am kind of asking the cabinet secretary to meet herself as a Lothian MSP, but I hope that she will take that forward. In 1999, I remember sitting in my modern studies class and being excited about the election of this new Scottish Parliament and what it could mean for our country. We used to talk about Scottish solutions to Scottish problems. However, 27 years later, I must ask myself whether this Parliament has been focused on delivering new thinking and fresh ideas for our NHS. I do not think that we can say that it has, and I hope that we can all acknowledge that.”
“I pay tribute to Morven-May MacCallum and look forward to seeing what she will do to campaign on the issue and to make a difference over the course of this session of Parliament. I return to the contribution of my friend and colleague Paul McLennan. At the start of this new session of Parliament, and as a Lothian MSP, I must again raise concerns, as Paul McLennan has, about the growing gap in health funding on a population basis that we are seeing across our country. That is no more acute than it is here in Edinburgh and in NHS Lothian. I have raised the issue consistently in my time as an MSP, but we are seeing a shift in our country’s population, and the Government and the Parliament must start to acknowledge that. If the issue goes unaddressed, it will be one of the biggest problems that our health service will face in the future.”
“Across Scotland today, there are people whose stories are still being written, and we have the power to change them. I ask members to come together to ensure that no one in Scotland has to fight harder to be believed than they do to get well. I ask the cabinet secretary to pay tribute to that in her closing speech, and to say whether she is open to having further discussions with me on the topic. Mòran taing. 16:12 Miles Briggs: I start by congratulating Morven- May MacCallum on a really excellent first speech in the Parliament. My father contracted Lyme disease when he was working in forests in Perthshire. He spent months in Perth royal infirmary, and I remember going to visit him as a kid. Listening to Morven-May MacCallum’s speech reminded me of that period. Many people are not believed until they are extremely unwell.”
“People with chronic illness should not have to sell their homes, spend their pensions or take out huge loans to pay for treatments that should be provided on the NHS. Behind every misdiagnosis and waiting list statistic is a human being whose life has been torn apart. I remain proud of our NHS and grateful to the staff who work tirelessly in it, but supporting our NHS also means being honest about where it is failing. We need better diagnostics for all chronic illnesses, specialist expertise and greater awareness among healthcare professionals and the public. We need to ensure that patients are listened to when they tell us that they are ill, because my story should never have been my story, and Scott’s story should never have been his.”
“Across Scotland, people with ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and many other chronic conditions face similar struggles to get diagnosed and to access support and treatment. Although the conditions might be different, their experiences are often remarkably similar to the experiences of those who suffer from Lyme disease. Perhaps the most damaging experience of all is not simply the illness itself—it is not being believed. People with chronic illness are often told, “It is probably just anxiety” or “You don’t look sick—it is all in your head.” Those are statements that patients should never have to hear.”
“The issue with Lyme disease is widespread, from people being infected while walking up Arthur’s Seat, to gardens in the Highlands and Islands being so overrun by ticks that people are scared to let their children play in them. In fact, in a 2024 survey by Lyme Resource Centre, 80 per cent of the respondents reported having been infected with Lyme disease in the Highlands and Islands, yet public awareness remains painfully low. In the same survey, 82 per cent of respondents said that they, a family member, a friend or colleague suspected Lyme disease long before a medical practitioner did. Patients should not have to diagnose themselves but, sadly, many people who live with chronic illness will recognise the experience of having to self-diagnose.”
“Lyme disease is caused by an extraordinarily complex bacteria—but complexity should never be an excuse for neglect. More worryingly still, those failures are not only harming people’s lives; they are costing them. Scott Beattie was a gamekeeper from Ross- shire who died at Raigmore hospital at the age of just 43 after being misdiagnosed and mistreated. What happened to Scott should never have happened, and we owe it to him, his partner and their two children to do better. We owe it to all those people who were left with so little hope—by the very system that was built to support them— that they felt that they had no choice left but to take their own lives.”
“It was only through the determination of my family and the financial sacrifices that they made that I am here today. Even now, I live with a lifelong illness that affects every aspect of my day. However, my story should never have been my story, and nor should it become anybody else’s. Yet, all these years on, I constantly hear from people whose experience mirrors my own. The tragedy is that, for many people, a few weeks of the correct antibiotics can prevent a lifetime of ill health and disability. Despite the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence—NICE— guidelines on Lyme disease coming out in 2018, people are still being refused treatment, prescribed inappropriate antibiotics and diagnosed too late. The main reason for that is that we still do not have an accurate blood test for Lyme disease.”
“There are many issues that I could speak about when it comes to healthcare in the Highlands and Islands, but, today, I would like to speak about something that remains largely hidden from view— chronic illness—and I will do so through my own experience. As a teenager, I was bitten by a tick that infected me with Lyme disease. What should have been a few weeks of treatment became years of medical uncertainty. I was repeatedly misdiagnosed, repeatedly denied treatment and, ultimately, left to fend for myself as my health condition deteriorated. I spent more than eight years of my life largely housebound and bedbound because of that. While my friends were studying, travelling and building their futures, I was fighting simply to survive each day.”
“Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and congratulations on your appointment. Before I progress with my maiden speech, I declare that I am a councillor for Highland Council and a volunteer with Lyme Disease UK and Lyme Resource Centre. I thank my predecessors for all their service, and I thank the people of the Highlands and Islands for placing their trust in me and sending me to this Parliament. It is an immense privilege to stand here today, not only because I have the honour of representing the incredible people of the Highlands and Islands, where I was born and raised, but because there was once a time when my family and I feared that I would not be alive today.”
“I, Morven-May MacCallum, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, his heirs and successors, according to law.”