Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate and to give an update to the Assembly about the discussions about creating a youth parliament for Wales. Members will be aware that the Commission has discussed this issue in the early days of this fifth Assembly as part of a broader consideration of our strategy for the next five years. One of our three strategic goals for the fifth Assembly is to engage with a wide variety of people and champion the Assembly’s achievements.

The Assembly, like Parliaments worldwide, faces a challenge across the board to increase levels of awareness and understanding of our politics processes. As we address those challenges, it’s important that we remind ourselves that the Assembly isn’t laden with ancient traditions and ways of working; we are one Europe’s youngest parliaments. That isn’t something to fear; we should maximise the opportunities our newness present, and forge a better way of doing politics. And we must take young people with us as we do this. The decisions we take here affect their future, and so their voice must be heard by us as an integral part of our discussions.

We have a proud record in this respect. The Assembly’s outreach and education teams are leading the way in parliamentary engagement, and we have a long-established relationship with the children and young people of Wales. During the last Assembly, the Commission took a conscious decision to focus on its youth engagement efforts, including young people directly into the formal business of the Assembly, providing them with opportunities to influence the work of Members and committees. Since then, we’ve established a youth work programme that has engaged with over 200 youth groups and a wide range of views in the Assembly’s work, including those so often without a voice: looked-after children, disabled children, and young carers. More than 20,000 children and young people visit Siambr Hywel or meet Members and officers on an annual basis.

Many of you Members have engaged with young people through your committee work. Increasingly, I see that their input forms a core and influential part of the evidence-gathering process, and not simply as an annex or reference at the end of a report. Earlier in this debate we referred to the work that some of us did on the health committee in the fourth Assembly, and as a member of that health committee I clearly remember the evidence that we received from young people leaving care as we discussed and drew up legislation on social care services.

Like many of you, I’m sure that I don’t accept that young people aren’t interested in politics. Despite the fact that they cannot vote in Assembly elections hitherto, they understand the importance of the decisions we take here. They can tell us when and how they are directly affected by our actions, and many of them work hard to influence our processes. However, good enough is not good enough.

As a nation that is committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we must do better. Children and young people have the right to participate as citizens now. So, we must increase meaningful opportunities to involve them in our work—input that, I’m sure, will inspire us to think differently about our nation’s future. We should also provide support for them to discuss issues that matter to them, finding ways for young people to drive our agenda, and, above all, we must listen. That’s why, since taking office in May, I’ve made clear my commitment to further increase the involvement of children and young people in the work of the Assembly.

I’m acutely aware of the gap in the provision of a national youth assembly for Wales since Funky Dragon ceased to exist in October 2014. Undoubtedly, Funky Dragon was a trailblazer, because it provided a means for young people in Wales to speak directly with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, for example. But today we are presented with an opportunity to think afresh about a national democratic space for young people in Wales—a space that reflects the separation between government and parliament. The Welsh Government has developed structures for its own purposes to enable young people to influence its policies and to enable the Government to comply with its duties under the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011.

So, I am delighted that we’re having this debate today, as it allows me to confirm my commitment to establishing a permanent youth parliament for Wales early in the fifth Assembly. The Assembly Commission has endorsed this ambition as part of the new strategy, and I know from conversations with colleagues since May, and from contributing to this debate, that there is enthusiasm across all parties for such a move. Assembly officials have been in close contact with the Campaign for the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales since they launched their consultation earlier this year, and that consultation encompasses input by experts in children’s rights, the opinions of young people as well as comparisons of various international parliamentary models. I’ve also discussed this issue with the children’s commissioner, Sally Holland, and found that we share common ground and the same ambitions on this issue. I wish to inform Members that I have written to the Campaign for the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales’s trustees in advance of their meeting on 23 October, signalling our commitment to taking this matter forward as a Commission. Of course, I will be respectful of their consultation and I look forward to receiving their final recommendations on a youth parliament before Christmas.

To conclude today, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the trustees of the Campaign for the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales, and the campaigners, for their dedication to their cause. For two years now they have campaigned tirelessly for the establishment of a youth assembly, building an outstanding body of research and evidence that will help us to drive our ambition forward. Thank you for reminding us that our duty is not only to today’s voters, but to all citizens with a stake in our democracy, present and future. If the Assembly votes in favour of this motion today, it will give the Commission a clear mandate to make progress on the details to establish, in the near future, the first youth parliament for Wales.