Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’d like to thank Members for tabling a debate on this important and wide-ranging topic. I’m happy to confirm the Government supports all of the amendments.

We launched the Healthy Child Wales programme in October last year, for all children and their families, to improve health, social and educational development and long-term physical, mental and social outcomes. The programme will safeguard the health of children through screening and surveillance services from birth to seven years of age. The programme promotes resilience and is aimed to empower families to make informed choices to provide safe and nurturing environments.

I just want to deal gently with one of the points that Angela Burns made at the start, and that was the percentage spend within health services on women and children. I don’t think that’s actually a helpful approach, simply because I think we’re trying to have a whole-service approach to see that whole person in their context. There are actually many other areas of spend and activities that won’t be captured in the figures you represent that are of course hugely important to what health and care services can do as their contribution in partnership with others too. Much of the rest of your contribution recognised and reflected on the fact that we need to see children in that whole context and where they have those interactions and what those could and should do to improve.

I welcome the tone of contributions in the debate, including the way that Angela Burns set off. I’m happy to continue to discuss what we could and should do from a Welsh Government perspective to improve outcomes for children and their families. But, we should not try to get away from the unavoidable reality of what else is happening outside this place too.

For example, support for families renting houses is not devolved. Since 2011, in this area and others, there have been continual cuts from the UK Government to that support. That is a deliberate choice and it means less support for families in need, the majority of whom are actually in work. It’s only one example of the choices the UK Government have made that have had a very real impact upon outcomes and prospects for children. Sadly, it is going to get worse.

Poverty is the biggest limiting factor for the health, well-being and future prospects of our children. The Institute for Fiscal Studies forecasts that the number of children across the UK who will grow up in poverty will expand by more than 1 million so that over 5 million children in the UK will live in poverty. They will be driven into poverty by the direct and deliberate choices of the UK Government. That will affect all that we can do and what we are able to achieve with and for children and their families.

Here in Wales, I’m pleased to say we take a different approach. We invest over £124 million annually in the Supporting People programme to support vulnerable families and help prevent problems early. Local authority homelessness services have a statutory duty to refer households with children to social services where they’re at risk of becoming intentionally homeless.

And of course, in education, we recognise that development sets the basis for a child’s health development. That’s why the Donaldson review of the curriculum in Wales, ‘Successful Futures’, recognises that children and young people need to experience social, emotional and physical well-being to engage successfully with their education—seeing that child in their whole context. As Members will know, Welsh Ministers have accepted all of the recommendations set out in that report for education across the six areas of learning and experience. One of those areas is, of course, health and well-being, to draw in themes including mental, physical and emotional well-being. We’ll continue to work with pioneer schools to develop the health and well-being guidance to support the curriculum framework.

The Welsh Government is also transforming the additional learning needs system. It is vital that all children and young people in Wales are able to access education that meets their needs and enables them to participate in the learning experience. The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill will drive us towards this and provide a fair and equitable system for all learners with additional learning needs. I’m happy to confirm again that the health needs that are not learning needs will be subject to statutory guidance that the Minister will publish before the end of this month.

I recognise the importance of providing a long-term vision for child health. One of the points that Angela Burns made was certainly in the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s recent report, and that’s why I’m happy to confirm today that this Government will develop a new children’s health plan to directly respond to that central recommendation.

I’ve listened to stakeholders, and I recognise the need to describe the national priority areas that health services should be addressing to improve outcomes for children and young people. I also recognise the role of improved data collection in the understanding of child health in Wales—in general terms, but also to support this plan.

In respect of the direct points made about the cancer delivery plan, we have a further renewed focus on delivering person-centred care. The most recent cancer patient experience survey showed how well services are delivered to the adult population. We recognise the need to develop patient-reported experience measures for children affected by cancer to ensure that we are meeting their needs. We will consider extending the age range for those taking part in this survey in future commissioning.

For the first time, in 2016, the Welsh Government published data on local authority counselling services that operate in secondary schools and year six of primary schools. Over 5 per cent of children who went to the school counselling service in 2014-15 did so for reasons that relate to bullying. Evidence shows that a counselling service within an overall schools strategy can be highly effective in preventing the escalation of mental health problems. We expect schools to make it clear that peer bullying will not be tolerated and that the anti-bullying message is put into practice.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education is currently reviewing anti-bullying policy to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. We’re determined to have clear and consistent support for people being bullied, and we want to reinforce our aim to create space for people to report and be supported through bullying.

In 2015-16, I announced over £1.5 million for new recurrent funding to develop community-based perinatal mental health services to improve outcomes for women with perinatal illness. The NHS reports that more than 1,500 women have been referred to community perinatal services since April 2016. I, of course, recently announced an increase in spending on mental health generally by a further £20 million within the Welsh Government’s budget that this place has passed. We continue to spend more on mental health services than on any other part of NHS Wales. We will, of course, monitor the effectiveness and impact of this new perinatal mental health support to ensure consistency across Wales for vulnerable families.

Through our network of Welsh healthy schools schemes, we’re supporting schools to create an environment to help tackle obesity. Over 99 per cent of maintained schools in Wales are actively involved in these schemes.

Of course, I recognise the points made in the motion and the amendments about sport. We don’t want to forget the importance of physical education within the curriculum, but of course PE is much more than simply sport. We do, of course, want schools to offer excellent sporting facilities. That’s why our twenty-first century schools and education programme will see an additional £1.4 billion of investment in schools and colleges to provide learners with the state-of-the-art facilities that will inspire them to fulfil their potential. I’m happy to briefly confirm, in response to Darren Millar, that the school nursing framework is being developed with and by the workforce itself, and it will be launched in the near future.

In finishing, Deputy Presiding Officer, I’m happy to confirm that I look forward to working with people across different parties in this Chamber and outside this place. I look forward to doing that to help to deliver the very best possible outcomes for children and their families here in Wales.