I, too, thank Liam McArthur for bringing this important debate to the chamber, and I also thank the pay student paramedics campaign for its assiduous and very effective campaigning.

As in other highly valued roles in health and social care, Scotland has a shortage of paramedics. As we have heard, the Scottish Government’s shortage occupation submission to the Migration Advisory Committee last year showed that paramedics have a high vacancy rate of 3 per cent and that around half of those unfilled posts went unfilled for three months or more.

Last year’s Unison report, “An emergency but no accident: A UNISON survey of Scottish Ambulance Service staff” revealed some of the reasons why that might be the case. It showed that 98 per cent of paramedics reported that their workloads had increased and that 67 per cent said that their teams were understaffed.

That is why it is crucial to do all that we can to make this the attractive career choice that it should be. That means supporting students to study. As the pay student paramedics campaign group tells us, there is still much to do to make that a reality.

The central request is for a £10,000 bursary for student paramedics. The Greens fully support that. The many unpaid shifts that are required, which mean that students have only two weeks of summer leave, make it difficult—impossible, really— for them to work over the summer to support themselves as many other students do. The number of hours required by those shifts is similar to those required of nursing and midwifery students, as colleagues have said, yet there is a gulf between the bursary support that is available to both groups. That is a bizarre anomaly that must be addressed.

The inequality does not end there. Single parents studying paramedical science could get up to £1,000 less than their peers in nursing and midwifery degrees. Also, as others have mentioned, they do not receive the up to £2,466 in childcare support that is on offer to those other students.

All told, £30,000 of funding is available to nursing and midwifery students. As should be the case, none of that is repayable. Meanwhile, paramedical science students get around £23,000, of which £17,000 must be repaid.

Scotland is falling behind. This year the UK Government announced £5,000 in non-repayable bursary funding for a range of healthcare occupations experiencing staffing shortages, including paramedics.

I want to reflect on how the situation has arisen. Paramedics are essential front-line staff: our NHS could not function without them. I have read the briefing for this debate, but it is still not clear why such a gap has opened up between the support available to student paramedics and that available to students training for other health professions. There is an important learning opportunity here, and I look forward to the Minister’s explanation of how we have reached this point.

The campaign’s report “Student Paramedics on the Poverty Line” makes even more concerning reading. A survey revealed that 82 per cent of students surveyed struggled to make ends meet between pay periods and that 68 per cent struggled to feed themselves and their dependants. The report also says that some students have to rely on food banks to feed themselves.

In 2017, the Scottish Ambulance Service had to pay £6.3 million in overtime due to shortages of paramedics. Basic maths tells us that the same amount of money would pay for 630 bursaries for student paramedics at £10,000 each: that would be a better way to spend the money.

Coronavirus has shown, more than ever, how important it is that we value all our health and social care staff. We must ensure that our paramedics are fully supported to do a difficult, stressful, rewarding and vital job. A good start to that would be to ensure that student paramedics do not have to put themselves into financial difficulty to do that job.