Can I first of all thank Lynne Neagle for presenting the report and the committee for the work that they’ve done? It was clearly a very wide-ranging inquiry and the contributions here today, I think, setting out the work that’s been done have been quite exemplary, so thanks everybody for that. In many respects, I guess the whole thrust of the report is probably neatly summed up by the opening paragraph, which you alluded to, Lynne, when you talked about one of the comments from the contributors, talking about youth workers as life-savers. I think that’s probably worth just repeating, because it’s on that particular aspect that I wanted to primary focus my contribution this afternoon.

First of all, I’d like to comment on the challenges faced by our youth services, as that has a direct impact on the areas that I want to talk about. While I don’t want to rehearse again the arguments about the impact that Tory austerity policies have had on Wales and on our public services and our communities, the continual reduction in funding to the Welsh Assembly has inevitably had an impact on the way in which these services have been funded.

At this point, can I just take a moment to commend the finance and local government Secretary, Mark Drakeford, for the work that he has done in delivering a settlement for local government this year, which sees an increase in funding for the first time since 2013-14, despite the overall pressures on Welsh Government finances? However, you know, we cannot escape the fact that the overall cuts in funding to local authorities have left them with, not just difficult decisions, but actually sometimes nigh on impossible decisions.