Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I thank Members for their comments on the report today. This report outlines the excellent work of the commissioner and her office, and raises important practical issues affecting children and young people. I listened very carefully to the contributions of Members here this afternoon.

I continue to work closely with the commissioner to ensure that all children receive the active offer of advocacy. This offer is a priority within the implementation plan for a national approach to advocacy, and I’m aware that Llyr and others raised that particular issue. Our programme of ‘Taking Wales Forward’ includes a range of commitments that will have a direct impact on delivering the objectives of our child poverty strategy. Dawn Bowden made strong references to the impact that in-work poverty particularly has on families and young people. It’s something that we are very conscious of, and working across Government with, particularly, Ken Skates, the lead Minister. Tackling poverty is something that we’re conscious of in terms of our manifesto commitments on jobs, growth and opportunity.

The commissioner has welcomed our commitment to providing children with equal protection. ‘Taking Wales Forward’ reaffirms our intention to take forward on a cross-party basis legislation that will remove the defence of reasonable punishment. We need to help parents with ways of being the very best they can for their children. Jenny did mention the issue of growing up healthy, and part of that programme is about encouraging parents to be good parents so that they can give their young children a good start in life.

I’d like to pick up on some of the points that Members have raised and have strong views on here today. I’ll try to respond to the majority of those points, if I may. On the first issue, Darren Millar mentioned home education registration, as well as Llyr, and they had slightly opposing views, but the principle I think behind both Members’ comments was about the protection of young people, and I think that’s what we’ve got to be mindful of. Kirsty Williams and myself are in discussions about what they may look like for the future, but, ultimately, the issue for us all should be around the safeguarding of an individual. I think that’s what has to drive our decision-making process but I do recognise that there is also lots of evidence from either side that is presented to both ourselves and Members in terms of making decisions longer term.

Can I pick up the issue of mental health and child and adolescent mental health services? Again, I think we’ve made great strides in terms of delivery. Darren Millar mentioned the unit that is within his constituency, a flagship unit, and I’m grateful to him for raising that issue here today, recognising the great work that goes on there. But I think what we also have to do is turn the telescope the other way round, actually, because treating mental health is a fact, and we have to do that, and continue to do that, but, actually, what we’ve got to do is stop young people suffering from mental health issues in the first place. The start of that journey is around the things that Jenny has talked about and Julie has talked about—the well-being of an individual, with a rounded approach to success, tackling the issues around adverse childhood experiences so we don’t fall into that trap of mental health services later on. We’re firefighting at that end. Actually, what we want to do is stop the feed, stop them coming into the system in the first place. That’s why the Government’s approach around health and well-being is around prevention and early intervention. I think that’s absolutely the right thing to do. We are conscious of the pressures in the CAMHS system, but we strive to deliver on that.

Darren Millar made reference to the independence of the commissioner and commissioners, and it would be wrong to say that the Assembly doesn’t have a role in this, because the scrutiny and call-in procedures of committees are current, and Members can call in the commissioner to independently scrutinise that process away from Government. So I don’t recognise the issue around compromising commissioners and their ability to be independent. The Assembly does have a strong role in that.