Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:57 pm on 13 December 2016.
I thank the Member for her contribution, and, yes, she has raised the issue of the rights of the child and public bodies, particularly local authorities. I'll give that some further thought again, actually. I have had a conversation with the children's commissioner in the past around this, and I will give that some further exploration about what that may or may not mean.
I think the issue of advocacy is a really important one about people engaging and the ability to be able to listen to people's real experiences. Part of my policy agenda now is making sure that we have real-life experiences coming back, feeding back, into the system. So, we've got people that are sitting on the domestic violence advisory group—I've got survivors within there. I'm looking at the looked-after children element of this and making sure that we've got looked-after children actually on the advisory board as well. I think I’ve said to Members in the past that we wouldn't think twice about financing a commission of £20,000, £30,000, for an external body to do a review for us on a particular issue, but we never seem to think about actually getting some real-life experience in there and paying them about their experiences and bringing them to the forefront. So, I’m giving that serious consideration.
Can I say the Welsh language issue the Member raises is an important one? And Alun Davies is the lead Minister on this, and he doesn't let me forget that, or any other Ministers. Because of its absence, it doesn't mean that we don't consider this, but I'd also say that some of our poorer communities, people living in poverty, have many challenges in their lives. The Welsh language may be one of them, but, actually, when we look at the ones that have a long-term massive effect around the ACE profile of an individual, Welsh language may be supportive in that process, but we've got to fix all of these pieces as well. I think the Member is right to raise this issue, but, please, my apologies that it doesn't sit in the statement, but it's not one that's been forgotten either.