Thank you. I know there are some Members who attended the launch of the ‘State of Child Health Report 2017’ that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health organised, who have seen that video, but I did think that it was definitely worth giving it wider viewing. I’d like to thank Naomi Lea and the Fixers organisation for allowing us to show that film today, which is called ‘Spot the Signs’, and, in a very simple but effective way, it encourages us all to ask ourselves the question: would we know the signs if we saw them?

So, I welcome the opportunity today to talk about a subject that I feel very passionately about and one that is vitally important for all of us, as parents, carers and educators—how we develop emotional resilience in our children and young people. And I’m very pleased to give a minute of my time to Angela Burns today.

Mental health problems affect about one in 10 children and young people, with nearly half of all mental health problems beginning by the age of 14. I’ll just repeat that: nearly half of all mental health problems begin by the age of 14. That is a statistic that should concern every one of us. Twenty-four hour social networking, increasing exam stress, and a body-obsessed culture are just a few examples of how modern society can negatively affect the mental health and well-being of our children and young people, and demonstrates the pressing need to address this.

Many of us will, at some point throughout our lives, have to deal with and mange problems of poor mental well-being. For some, coping may come naturally, but for others, they may need to learn or be taught how to build emotional resilience. It is therefore incredibly important that young people are taught how to develop positive coping strategies and that they learn how to take charge of their own emotional health.

We as elected representatives are, unfortunately, too familiar with young constituents who’ve been referred to specialist child and adult mental health services, some of whom still wait far too long for assessment and treatment. The previous health Minister said that children’s mental health is everyone’s business, and in that, he is absolutely right. He told the previous children’s committee, when discussing the long wait for CAMHS services that the CAMHS end of the service is the clinical end of the service; it is not intended, nor was it ever intended to be the whole answer to young people who are experiencing difficulties as they are growing up, and whose mental well-being needs to be attended to. He said that he was always anxious that drawing a young person into specialist mental health services labels them in a way that lives with them for a very long time during their lives and that we are by no means at a point where such a label does not have costs with it in terms of stigma and other impacts on people’s lives. So, we should always be attending to that borderline to make sure that those people who need a CAMHS service get it and those young people whose needs can be better attended to by the more universal and general services get the help that they need there. So, the support that young people can access before specialist CAMHS is absolutely crucial.

The commitments and priority that the Welsh Government has placed on tackling and developing more effective mental health provision for children and young people, through the Together for Children and Young People programme, is to be welcomed. I know that I, along with other AMs, will continue to closely monitor the progress of the programme to ensure that it delivers that crucial timely access to all specialist CAMHS.

But the programme also includes very welcome work streams to promote universal resilience and well-being and to promote early intervention and support for vulnerable children and young people. But I would argue that this work needs to be taken forward with much greater urgency in a genuinely cross-cutting way across Welsh Government. There needs to be a recognition that, for many of our young people, a referral to specialist CAMHS means that we have already failed to support them when they need it most.

The introduction and embodiment of emotional resilience early in a child’s life, through school, youth work settings, and out-of-school clubs, is vital to preventing future problems for our young people. We need to make that early intervention a reality in Wales. Emotional health programmes in schools, an embedded public health approach, and mandatory inclusion of emotional health and well-being within the curriculum, could all help reduce the burden placed on our already stretched CAMHS services. Indeed, the title of the 2001 Welsh Government’s CAMHS strategy, ‘Everybody’s Business’ sums up the importance of this issue and that it cannot just be seen as an NHS matter. In fact, the 2001 strategy had a whole chapter on schools, demonstrating their important role. It’s something that’s been recognised for many years, but it is also clear that we have much more progress to make on this.

In Wales, we have a great opportunity, through the Donaldson review of the curriculum, to drive forward and embed a resilient approach that could introduce a new culture of change and tackle the stigma attached to mental health earlier on. Although the recommendations by Donaldson include an approach to health and well-being, without the right support for teachers to deliver it on the ground, it simply will not happen.

Currently, initial teacher training providers have flexibility in the way they design and deliver their programmes, with no input from the Welsh Government on the content of the courses, nor is there information available in the public domain on the extent to which initial teacher education providers in Wales are including mental health issues as part of qualified teacher status. As a result of the recommendations in the Furlong report, we have an opportunity to improve the quality of initial teacher training courses and ensure that they are aware and trained from the outset. Indeed, prior to the last election, the Welsh Government showed every sign of having grasped the opportunity presented to us, by taking Furlong and Donaldson together and creating a new career path for teachers as guidance teachers. A new type of teaching professional, trained in counselling and familiar with the workings of other agencies, like social services, they were to act as advocates for children with emotional issues and as a go-to person for pupils and fellow professionals as a first response before things developed into a crisis or became intractable. Critically, these guidance teachers were also to become trained specialists in delivering better, more consistent, personal, social and health education in our schools. So, I do ask the question today: what has become of this policy?

If the Welsh Government is serious about meeting its commitment to preventing children and young people entering CAMHS in the first place then these preventative measures must absolutely be a priority, driven forward across Welsh Government. Samaritans Cymru firmly believe that emotional health provision should be made mandatory within the new curriculum. They want to see emotional health programmes delivered in schools as a form of promotion, prevention and early intervention, and believe that referrals to CAMHS will continue to rise unless these preventative measures are embedded in educational settings.

There is already some fantastic practice out there. Samaritans Cymru offer the DEAL project—developing emotional awareness and listening—with free, web-based teaching resources. Through their Aberdare and Cardiff DEAL pilot schemes, eight schools are implementing the programme into their curriculum for this academic year. Samaritans Cymru have said that teachers who’ve had the DEAL training are more happy and confident to deliver emotional health awareness to their pupils.

Save the Children also deliver programmes in schools. Their Journey of Hope programme, in partnership with Place2Be, is currently being delivered to 10 schools in Cardiff. The programme, which has been added to the early intervention foundations directory of evidence-based practice, offers children positive strategies to cope with traumatic events, helps build their natural resilience, and strengthens their social support networks.

In my own constituency, Penygarn primary school are using their pupil deprivation grant money to employ a play therapist and have created a special nurture classroom for children who need extra support to deal with emotional problems. St Alban’s Roman Catholic school, working in partnership with the ‘South Wales Argus’ and Coleg Gwent’s construction and plumbing students, have renovated their old caretaker’s house and are turning it into a sanctuary building for young people. Similarly, staff from Garnteg primary school will soon undertake a training course to enable them to teach mindfulness in schools.

But, of course, the onus isn’t just on schools to deliver this approach; our youth services across Wales, as we’ve heard today, provide key support to children and young people on a range of issues and are an important preventative service when it comes to promoting young people’s mental health. The Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services insists that it’s absolutely critical that their open-access model of youth provision is maintained, supported and developed so that all young people can have access to services that enhance their resilience and respond to their needs. I fully agree with this view.

So, in conclusion, there is lots of good practice in building resilience in our children and young people out there, but there is not a coherent and consistent whole operating in Wales. Unless we deliver a step change in early intervention, we will continue to see the CAMHS service picking up the pieces for our children and young people. Crucially, we need to critically revise our expectations of schools on this agenda and equip the system with specialist guidance for all teachers, so that they have the confidence to deliver in this area and ensure that our children and young people receive all the help and support they deserve. Thank you.