As human beings, we have basic needs: food, water, warmth and rest, security and comfort. These very basic needs have to be met before we can even start to aim to fulfil our potential. My children are lucky enough to come home every night to a familiar place—a place that they know, a place that they call home. It’s a place where they feel safe, where they feel that they belong. It’s where they have their favourite belongings: a cuddly toy, their books, their toys, their beds. It’s a place that is their own.

I’m astounded to find that, last Christmas, over 1,100 children were homeless here in Wales. No home means no roots. It means children have anxiety, stress and worries that no child should expect in twenty-first century Britain. This figure includes children who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation. It does not include 16 to 17-year-old independent children who have left home or care through choice or not.

One thousand one hundred children—that cannot be right. This represents twice the headcount of St Joseph’s in Wrexham. What chance have those children got to get back onto any sort of level playing field, considering the experiences that they must have had while spiralling into homelessness and the experiences they may have while striving to get out of it?

We really need to focus on the root causes of the ills that plague our society. It’s tragic that the very basic and fundamental needs of Welsh children are not being met. They deserve better.