Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:30 pm on 1 February 2017.
I know you have a long-standing interest in terms of looked-after children. I thought that that would come up, so I brought down some of the figures for that, and just looking through them, we intend to scrutinise the overall cost and the value for money of the range of services aimed at improving outcomes for looked-after children. But this is such a huge area that, over, I would say years, not even months, but over that period, we’re going to return to this. We’re going to look at all aspects of this, from the value for money aspect to corporate parenting. As a former county councillor, I know very well the important role that county councillors across Wales have played, and will play, in the role of corporate parenting.
But, always, all of this, we are not—. I must stress, we are not a subject committee; we are always looking at this from a value for money for the taxpayer viewpoint. That doesn’t mean that we do not have an interest in the policies that are being employed, because sometimes it is very difficult to separate the policy aspect from the value for money aspect. So, all that comes into it, but we are, first and foremost, looking at are we getting value for money. And is the system transparent? Are people getting what they deserve? Are looked-after children in Wales really getting the sort of service that they deserve?
The evidence to date—. I think the auditor general looked at this in early 2015, I think it was—the evidence then was that a lot of progress had been made, but, as is often the case, more could be done, and particularly in the area of mental health issues for looked-after children. And more than 8 per cent of looked-after children were diagnosed as having a mental health problem, nearly 6 per cent of looked-after children had substance misuse problems, nearly 13 per cent of LACs had a disability. Now, of course, there are proportions of people in the general population who have that, but they don’t often reach those figures across the board so consistently. So, there is a lot of work to be done here, and I look forward to working with my members on the committee to ensure that we do that as speedily and as efficiently as a committee as possible. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what we’re all about.