Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 29 June 2016.
Indeed. The Member raises a very valid point, and I have no doubt—. I would be very happy to come back in 12 months, or before if I think there are some issues. I am absolutely committed to making sure that we can do something about this. I’m grateful for the Member’s suggestion.
As the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, my priority is to improve the well-being and economic prosperity of individuals and communities, and I am clear that the roots of well-being and economic prosperity lie in childhood. We must invest in our children so that they can have the best possible outcomes to contribute effectively to society for the future. We know that the outcomes of looked-after children do not compare favourably with other children. Many have been quoted today. They are less likely to achieve good educational qualifications, have greater health and housing needs, and these young people are more likely to become involved in substance misuse and to come into contact with the criminal justice system, and this is not acceptable.
I did listen very carefully to some of the arguments about the five GCSEs and attainment level at certain ages, and what I would like Members to consider in that proposal is that we need a much more holistic approach to what we must tackle because educational attainment is not everything; it’s about the roundness of the individual as well. I’ve seen a study recently, where—. It was a study about NEETs, where five GCSEs weren’t attained by individuals trying to going into employment. But the study of the local area also looked at people who were employed and, actually, the people who were employed outweighed the number of non-NEETs with people who had no qualifications in work. The problem I have with that is about—well, what is it that looked-after children or people with fewer than five GCSEs—. What is the roundness of them growing up? I’ve been doing a little bit of work with Public Health Wales and I’ve sent David a link during this debate about what Members should perhaps have a think about—the adverse childhood experiences that Public Health Wales have been working on. I would suggest that many of the children found in the care system have had more than five adverse childhood experiences. One of the Members—Suzy—mentioned incarceration. I know that young people who have five hits on adverse childhood experiences are 20 per cent more likely to find themselves incarcerated later in life. We must do something about the prevention end, about making sure we look after children early on as well as in the system currently. It’s a twin-track approach that my department and my team will be working to achieve.