Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you for calling me to speak in this very important debate about the report from the Children, Young People and Education Committee into youth work.

I found it very concerning indeed to hear from people in the youth work field about how the provisions for young people have diminished so much. I personally believe, and I think it was the belief of all the committee, that youth work is absolutely vital because it does reach people outside the formal school setting. I think we all know that, particularly, the teenage years are very stressful and difficult times for young people.

I was reminded of that when we noted that this week is Children’s Mental Health Week. There have been figures from the NSPCC that show the growth of mental health problems amongst young people, which have been shown in the number of calls to Childline. It seems children and teenagers aged 12 to 15 make up a third of the calls that are received, and girls are almost seven times more likely to seek help than boys. I think we’ve all heard about the great concerns that many girls have about body image in particular. Those are just illustrative of the difficult issues that children and young people have to grapple with at this time.

So, it’s absolutely and vitally important that they have the opportunity to have contact with skilled professionals, really, because that’s what youth workers are, in an informal setting, where these issues can be raised in a non-threatening way. So, I think it’s absolutely essential that we put more impetus into the youth services.

In my own area, I can bear witness to the reduction in services. At one time, there was a full-scale, five-day-a-week youth club operating in the youth buildings in the grounds of Whitchurch High School. This has now been reduced to one evening a week, run by the YMCA in the Ararat church. I’m very grateful to the voluntary sector and to the Ararat church for providing this service, but it’s only one night a week and it’s hugely oversubscribed. There’s no doubt—you have to accept the fact that the service for our young people actually has diminished. When the proposals came to change the service, I had quite a number of meetings with the young people involved and they said they just wanted somewhere where they could go, somewhere where there was no pressure on them and somewhere where they could have fun. I am very concerned, as several Members have mentioned, about the diminishing services for open access, because I think it is the entitlement of every child and every young person to have the opportunity to go somewhere where they aren’t going because they have a particular issue or problem, but is open for everyone to go. Hopefully, in those circumstances, if they do have particular issues or problems, those can be helped to be addressed.

I wanted to mention in particular the Scouts and the Guides, because in the inquiry the Scouts and the Guides were mentioned as providing youth work. I’d like at this point, really, to use the opportunity to pay tribute to the Second Llandaff Scout group who are very strong operators in Cardiff North. They’ve been the occupants of a church hall in Llandaff North for many years. They’re actually under threat of losing their premises because the land is being sold. They’ve just had another three-month extension to try to raise the extra £100,000 to buy the premises. They’ve already—it’s a small group—raised a staggering £150,000 through the efforts of dedicated volunteers, which I think is absolutely amazing. So, I wanted to pay tribute to them during this debate today, but I can say that the work they do with the young people in the area, many of whom come from disadvantaged homes, is really absolutely tremendous.

I think it’s absolutely vital that the Welsh Government gives more direction to the youth service. Looking at the evidence that we received, I do feel that there is a danger that it is withering away in the way that we’ve always known it. I hope that the Minister, as a result of our report, will give a renewed impetus to this service. We certainly need that in this area. I think that the other very important issue is to give young people a voice in the service. Several speakers have already mentioned that. But I hope with the new shaping of the service, if that is what will happen, that young people will be consulted about how the service should turn out and that they should be a pivotal part of developing the service.

In conclusion, I think we all felt it was an absolutely vital service. We can’t let it wither away. We know that there are pressures on all the services within the local authority, but we have got a lot of goodwill in the voluntary sector and it’s absolutely essential that we get the voluntary sector and the statutory sector working together effectively.