Diolch yn fawr, Presiding Officer. Can I thank you and the Business Committee for selecting this topic for discussion as an individual Member’s debate? I think, from the range of interest it’s sparked and the number of Assembly Members that signed the motion for debate, the interest of this subject is something that marks us deeply in the Assembly.

I’d like to start, really, with ‘Lost in Care’, this report that changed the way, I think, we viewed the care system and had an impact all across the UK. It was published nearly 17 years ago, and I’ve actually brought my copy. It’s quite a tome, as you can see. For me, it’s really marked the history of the Assembly because it was one of the very first subjects that commanded our attention from the word ‘go’ and has remained with us, really. The implications, the recommendations that are in this report and the issues to be addressed are still ongoing. There have been advances, but many of the challenges still remain. For me, it’s something of a personal disappointment that perhaps we’ve not made more progress. I will talk about some of the issues in particular where I think we need to do much more, but of course the welfare of looked-after children is something that we should always consider. It’s hardly a box we can tick and then just move on.

Ronald Waterhouse’s report actually looked specifically at care in Gwynedd and Clwyd in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s but many of the issues that were identified, as I said, were found across the UK once the services were properly examined. At least we can say that, from the publication of this report, in the public eye, the welfare of looked-after children has been emphasised and has attracted great public attention. I suppose that attention has primarily focused on safeguarding rather than outputs and improving outcomes for looked-after children directly. But, of course, when the report was published, it was the horrific examples and instances of abuse that commanded the media and public attention. I can say that, in the first Assembly, in the Health and Social Services Committee, it absolutely dominated the work that we did, and it had a real impact, emotionally as well as politically, on the Members. I suppose if we don’t get things right for looked-after children there’s always the danger in future that we’ll actually regress, and we’ll find that outcomes will once again be very, very poor indeed, even on issues like safeguarding.

I want to turn, then, to outcomes. I should say, in terms of safeguarding, there is no room for complacency, but things in general, just because of the inspection regimes and the interest that politicians take in these issues, both in councils and here in the Assembly, and at a Government level—safeguarding issues are something that perhaps we don’t focus on as much as we did then. It is appropriate that we actually move and look at outcomes, and I suppose that when we look at outcomes, the effective joint working of the various agencies is key, because we’re looking at health, we’re looking at education, we’re looking at housing, we’re looking at skills—all these things inter-relate, either directly, for looked-after children, or when they leave care, for care leavers. But it’s also a matter of great importance to work jointly within Government, and here the better co-ordination of different departments, I think, is something that would allow for the more effective co-ordinated delivery amongst various public agencies as well. We should mirror that type of co-ordination in Government itself, because this isn’t just an area of concern for one particular department.

In this respect, I turn to the Prison Reform Trust’s report, which, whilst looking at the experience of looked-after children in the criminal justice process, did call for the formation of a Cabinet sub-committee to provide national leadership, and, indeed, the Westminster Government did respond and has established a sub-committee. When the First Minister announced the formation of the current Government, in congratulating him and wishing him well for the work of the current Government in the fifth Assembly, I did ask whether you would look at this, and whether a Cabinet committee could be established in the Welsh Government, and I believe that is something that is now being looked at. The Prison Reform Trust did call for more effective joint working, proper regulation and policy development across the Welsh Government, so that’s the direct reason we have the motion in front of us today.

At the heart of our approach to the care of looked-after children is the concept of corporate parenting. Now, this rests principally with local authorities, but I think it’s very important indeed that we realise that we’re part of that responsibility to deliver effective corporate parenting as well, and that’s why we are discussing this very particular proposal in terms of how the Government should improve its co-ordination.

The number of looked-after children has increased substantially since the publication of the ‘Lost in Care’ report, so again this redoubles the need for us to be vigilant in this area and to be ambitious for better outcomes. In 1999 there were 3,657 children in care; now that number has risen by nearly 2,000 to 5,617. Abuse or neglect remain the main reasons for children entering care, and obviously many of them have had very, very challenging and difficult experiences. So, the work of professionals is to be greatly valued in this area, because to achieve outcomes requires application, ambition and great persistence, but we need to be part of that ambition here in the Assembly.

Most looked-after children are now in foster placements. In the last generation or so, this has been quite a big change: from residential homes to foster carers. But these placements are not always stable. In 2015, just last year, 9 per cent of looked-after children had three or more foster care placements in one year, and 20 per cent of them experienced two or more changes. So, in the last year for which we have figures, nearly a third of looked-after children experienced a change in their care package.

I want to just say a few words about educational attainment. I think this is an important area, because it is probably the best proxy we have for the general standard of care that we give to looked-after children. It’s not the only thing: I was reminded earlier today in a meeting that the emotional well-being of looked-after children is crucial and, indeed, their whole educational experience; it’s not just about educational attainment. You would say that too of the general population, but it is a measure we can come back to and it does give us hard data. It has, I think it’s fair to say, been a focus in the Assembly, really, for the last 15, 16, 17 years. Things have improved, but not by as much as we would like. Only 18 per cent of looked-after children achieve five GCSEs at A to C, including English and maths—18 per cent. For the general population, it’s 58 per cent. So, that’s 40 per cent more. Only 7 per cent of care leavers aged 19 were in higher education. So, that’s 24 students at the moment. And, obviously, compared to the general population, it’s much, much lower.

I do want to commend some of the work that’s gone on, and the Welsh Government has not been backward in trying to address these problems, and there have been many, many policy developments. For instance, under the provisions of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the Welsh Government is producing a national approach to looked-after children to improve collaborative working. That’s important. In January, a strategy was published by the Welsh Government to raise educational attainment, and it included a call for greater ambition, which I really, really welcome. So, there is work going on and we need to follow that through and ensure that it reaches the standards we need.

I think, generally, to conclude, we should aim in Wales for outstanding best practice. By that, I don’t mean copying current best practice, I mean taking it further. We could be a world leader. We have done it before. For example, the learning disabilities strategy, started in the mid-1980s, transformed that public policy area and led to changes worldwide. You had people wanting to work in Wales from across the world because we were developing that area of policy so effectively. I would also urge Members to read the recommendations that a group of charities in the field of looked-after children made when we conducted the election for this fifth Assembly. There, some very concrete things were emphasised, like the focus on outcomes, with emphasis on the responsibility of corporate parents—including us, not just local authorities, the recognition of emotional well-being as a priority, improving the permanence and stability of care and educational placements, listening to the voices of looked-after children, a key area, and appropriate and stable accommodation for care leavers. And can I just say, I think the participation of looked-after children is really, really important in all of what we do, including the training and the inspection of facilities? In all these things, we could involve looked-after children much more effectively. Finally, can I just say we need to really value the care system, because when it works it can deliver outstanding care and opportunities to looked-after children?