10. 9. Short Debate: Developing Emotional Resilience in our Children and Young People

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:31 pm on 8 February 2017.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 6:31, 8 February 2017

The Member’s absolutely right. I was going to come onto that, in terms of the biggest influence in the early years of a child’s life being the parenting, and the process around what we can do to support a quality environment to support parents. We want to do that. We’re supporting that through our ‘Parenting. Give it time.’ programme, but there’s more we can do in that space. We are committed, on a cross-party basis in many cases, to legislating to remove the defence of reasonable punishment—another aspect of quality parenting—and giving people the tools to support young people as they grow up.

Co-ordinating this crucial piece of work is going to be important. The parenting framework is something that we provide as a strategic, joined-up approach. I don’t like strategies because they generally turn into dusty documents on a shelf. It’s really important that we see delivery. So, my challenge to the sectors, to Government, is asking, ‘With this strategy, are we now delivering?’ Let’s test the system. It’s not a case of, ‘Yes, we tick the boxes here.’ What are the real outcomes? What are the real outcomes for our young people? We know that CAMHS is frustrated by the challenges that they face in terms of numbers.

Actually, I agree with you. When we get to the CAMHS stage, we’re at the end of that process. We should be much earlier on. The things that we do today will have an effect tomorrow. So, moving from the day job of managing a system to intervention is something that I am absolutely passionate about and I know my colleagues are too. I’ll continue the discussion with Kirsty Williams with regard to the very specific suggestions you talk about around Donaldson and the Samaritans outcomes there.

On the broader issue, like I said about the jigsaw pieces coming together, what we’ve got to do now is bring those jigsaw pieces together and put a picture on there, so that we understand what our vision for the future is. My commitment around resilient communities is a two-pronged approach, and I’ll have said this in the Chamber before about economic regeneration and giving families and young people jobs, skills and opportunities to move into a capital programme where they feel resilient and strong, but also building on the emotional aspect of ACEs and well-being in the community and individuals too. The two together, I think, will have a dramatic effect on well-being, but also the effects of our communities on poverty and development too.

So, I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’ve done several short debates and this has been one that has been very effective in terms of making me think about the job that I do, and hopefully the jobs that we all do. The responsibility of managing and supporting young people is one for us all. I will continue to work in that guise and I look forward to working cross party, particularly with you as Chair of the committee, to make sure that we can continue to, hopefully, tackle the issues that are affecting our young people in the future. Diolch.