I welcome the opportunity to speak in this afternoon’s debate and to take on board some of the very many points that have been brought forward. I very much hope that the Cabinet Secretary, in addressing the debate, will talk about the streams that the Government are pulling together, because, as Angela Burns, in her opening remarks, made quite clear, most of this actually transcends the health portfolio and goes into many portfolios across the whole of Government. Very often, there can be examples of excellent practice going on, but, very often, they’re done in isolation, and, actually, if we are going to see an overall improvement in the health of young people and children here in Wales, it does need a co-ordinated approach and some clear targets about where we want to be in five and 10 years’ time.

I can appreciate that targets, very often, can be very prescriptive and limit some of the more imaginative thinking that might need to be developed, especially in some of our rural areas, where delivery of service can be more challenging, but, ultimately, if the Government has a strategy and a goal, at least the whole muscle of Government, and the supporting bodies underneath that, can work in that direction and that common goal that we all want to see, which is an overall lifting of the chances of young people here in Wales.

I recently undertook a visit to ACT, the training provider just down in Cardiff South and Penarth, which I’m sure the Cabinet Secretary is aware of; it’s in his constituency. Darren Millar, my education spokesman, came along with me there, and they were highlighting that the safe space initiative that they’ve created there for young people who found problems in their school life and haven’t settled into the normal school day—through that safe space culture, through that safe space initiative, they have offered those young people the opportunity to really regain their confidence, regain the appetite for education, and, ultimately, gain a purpose. I’d commend that initiative to the Cabinet Secretary. I appreciate it sits in the education field, but surely, also, if you have children who feel fulfilled and feel content, that has a direct impact on their health as well, then, it does. I see the Cabinet Secretary acknowledging that he’s familiar with it. It’s not just here in Cardiff we need to see that ability, it’s across Wales, and I do commend ACT for developing a satellite hub in Caerphilly to offer the same sort of initiatives and opportunities.

I’d also like to develop the theme about air pollution that has been brought forward by Caroline Jones, and I raised it in First Minister’s questions yesterday. Again, this is an area that the Government can make significant progress on. They do have the levers, via the planning system, via the transport system, via the public health system that is here in Wales, to make significant improvements and gains in this area. It cannot be right that we tolerate 2,000 people dying prematurely here in Wales—five people a day—and actually we are not making the progress that we should be in these areas when we have the solutions at our disposal. I accept you will never get to zero, but we can make some real, deep-seated changes to the way people work, the way people go about their everyday lives, that would have a huge impact. I would suggest that any other field that would be seeing 2,000 people a year dying prematurely would be commanding greater attention from the Government in using some of the levers they have. Again, I do hope that the Minister, maybe, will be able to engage in what measures he has set specifically to Public Health Wales to make improvements in this particular area.

Another area I’d also like to touch on in particular is the event that Angela hosted at lunchtime, where many women who have suffered the tragedy of abuse—physical and mental abuse—in their lives have managed to rebuild, and get the confidence back to actually bring up their families and actually put themselves on the road to being valuable members of our community after being so demoralised—and humiliated, I think, was the examples that were given to us, and their self-confidence so destroyed by the abuse that they’d gone through. There were many good examples there, again, of where good practice could be brought forward, and my colleague Angela Burns did bring forward that in earlier questioning about some of the experiences in Germany. Why should the victim be the person who is hounded out of the community that they have lived and been brought up in, when the perpetrator very often stays within that community? Again, we can look around and find good examples of good practice that the Government can use, with the resources they have, to develop the process of supporting people in the community to rebuild their lives, rebuild their confidence, and become valuable members of our society again and not feel alienated and pushed to the margins. To see the work that that group has done is admirable to say the least.

In closing, I would just like to touch on the additional learning needs Bill that is currently going through the Assembly. I’ve taken some representations, in particular from Diabetes Cymru, that have touched on health needs that, at the moment, in the way the Bill is drafted, don’t sit within the Bill—they sit within the regulations, I understand. I can see the Deputy Minister indicating that—the Minister indicating that. I’ll give him sudden promotion again. But, again, I’d like to see if the health Minister does support the calls for health needs, and the underlying health needs of young people, to be included in the Bill, because, obviously, that is an important category that that legislation does need to capture, and, again, it would have a massive impact on improving life chances for young people here in Wales.

So, with those couple of comments, I look forward to hearing the Cabinet Secretary’s responses, because, working joined up and collectively, we can make a big difference to the outlook of young people here in Wales.