I support this motion as well. Children and young people who want to help a parent shouldn’t be denied the right to do so if they freely choose, and they should receive support in that. But I think the question we all need to ask ourselves is: how do we ensure that children and young people do not feel excluded from their parent’s life whilst at the same time preserving their childhood and teenage years that we’d all want them to have?

Since 2006, the number of young carers in Wales has nearly doubled. Children and young people who are also carers are much more likely to miss school frequently, as has been commented just now, and according to Barnardo’s, they’re afraid to ask for help for fear of letting the family down or being taken into care. So, I do support your proposals on this, but what concerns me is that if a child knows that if they don’t help, no-one else will, they will of course provide the help that’s needed. So, what you end up with is children sacrificing their childhood to make good the gaps in care provided to the people they look after. Clearly, we have to do everything we can to help these young carers and essentially, basically, that means doing everything we can to provide the full care that their loved one needs.

The idea of a prescription card is only a useful one because the family have not been provided the correct level of clinical support that sees the adult having the medication delivered. In effect, it’s falling to children and young people to solve a problem that’s been caused by the Government. Besides burdening the young carer with yet another task, it’s reinforcing to the child that they’re not really a child any more: they’re part child and part carer. I’m sure that some young carers have said that such a card would be useful, but that’s only because they’re being faced with problems getting their loved ones medication. The question should not be whether children and young people should have a prescription card, it should be how to ensure that the adult receives their medication, instead of a child or young person feeling that it lies upon them to collect it. There’s a temptation for young people to welcome additional responsibility. It’s part of life that young people want to be older while older people want to be younger, but it’s our role to protect young people from decisions that may not be in their own best interests. If we have rules about the age of someone able to collect medication, it’s for good reason. The risk of harm isn’t reduced simply because we want it to be.

The thing I really don’t like about your motion, Bethan, is that I don’t like the wording in point 2(a) that refers to young people’s care responsibilities. They don’t have the responsibility for care; we do and the state does. The existence of one young carer signals a failure. However, whatever the young carer does day to day for their loved one should remain a choice and never be normalised as a responsibility.

I am also concerned by the perception that guidance is required when it comes to schools. Surely, schools are already providing guidance: young carers are not a new phenomenon. If schools are not providing the support, could it be that they don’t have the resources to properly flag up and support those who need help? If that’s the case, then guidance is not going to make any difference. This Government is the overseer of schools, local authorities and the NHS, and if there are failures, they are on their head. So, I’ll support the motion, but I would like to see a commitment from Welsh Government to at least look at ways of reducing the tasks and care that young carers have to undertake, not just at ways of making it easier for them to provide that care. Thank you.